SEGA to cut 240 jobs across Sega Europe, Creative Assembly & SEGA HARDlight. Relic Entertainment (Company of Heroes) will become independent (Sold).

[Gamernyc78]

Sega sells Relic and will cut 240 jobs across UK studios

Sega has sold Relic Entertainment, and will cut 240 roles across Sega Europe, Creative Assembly and Sega HARDlightRelic…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Sega has sold Relic Entertainment, and will cut 240 roles across Sega Europe, Creative Assembly and Sega HARDlight

Relic is best known for the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War games, and recently developed the new Age of Empires for Microsoft. Relic will transition to an independent studio and will no-longer be part of the Sega group of studios.

The majority of the 240 job cuts are across Creative Assembly and Sega Europe, while there will be a ‘small number’ cut from Sega HARDLight. There was no mention of other Sega UK studios, including Two Point Studios and Sports Interactive.

Creative Assembly had already suffered a range of redundancies following the cancellation of its Hyenas project last year.

“Sega is working closely with Relic on this shift, and we wish them the best for the future,” wrote Jurgen Post, who is the newly appointed head of Sega Europe.

“I want to sincerely apologise for the worry and understandable distress this news will cause, particularly for those directly affected. These decisions have been incredibly tough to make, and they follow meticulous consideration and deliberation with leadership teams across the business. Change is necessary to secure the future of our games business, and to ensure that we are well placed to deliver the best possible experiences to our players going forward.

“We need to streamline, focus on what we are good at, and position ourselves as best we can for the road ahead. In order to do that, we need to respond to the changing economic landscape and the challenges we’re facing in the way we develop our products and bring them to market.”

Post apologised to staff if they should hear about this news via social media or the trade press, which is due to Sega’s legal obligation to notify the Tokyo Stock Exchange first.

Sega’s cuts is the latest in a long run of layoffs that has impacted the games industry over the last 12 months, with almost every major games company reducing its headcount due to sluggish growth and rising costs.

 

[Gamernyc78]

A shame.

 

[Gamernyc78]

We were just talking about layoffs yesterday and like clock work Boom!!!

 

[Vertigo]

Bullshit attempt to earn pr goodwill with the unionization of non-dev jobs in the americas yesterday.


And then following up with this …

 

[Gamernyc78]

Bullshit attempt to earn pr goodwill with the unionization of non-dev jobs in the americas yesterday.


And then following up with this …

They was trying to lighten tht blow! These companies don't care about shit.

 

[Vertigo]

They was trying to lighten tht blow! These companies don't care about shit.

I think it’s worse optics. Protect non-dev jobs for Sega of America, who historically does like jack shit, and cut those that actually make your products.

I mean whatever…. Sega has to do know what it has to do to survive, adapt and move forward and they should but… makes yesterday’s news kinda worthless. I also have no opinion on if they’re the right moves or not etc… indifferent. Just ridiculous

 

[Nhomnhom]

Turns out you need to actually sell your games and not just put them on gamepass.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Turns out you need to actually sell your games and not just put them on gamepass.

Tht GP is a big double edged sword.

 

[Gamernyc78]

You know Sega was my preferred hardware company up and they got out of hardware. Crazy to see how far they've fallen but they are still in the game at least.

 

[Yurinka]

Sad news. If I was Sega I'd focus the cuts on their resorts business instead and would be more realistic with their estimates:

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Not surprised after they followed Xbox and put all their games on Gamepass Day 1. They killed the future profitability of all their studios because no one is buying anymore.

Second bankruptcy for Sega coming soon

 

[Gamernyc78]

Not surprised after they followed Xbox and put all their games on Gamepass Day 1. They killed the future profitability of all their studios because no one is buying anymore.

Second bankruptcy for Sega coming soon

Tht was one of the stupidest moves ever. I wonder how much they got from Xbox to put shut day one, either way not worth it.

 

[Zzero]

We were just talking about layoffs yesterday and like clock work Boom!!!

I'm annoyed that I didn't call the Gearbox sale by the end of this month (which is what the leaks had been implying) instead of the end of next month but with only three days left I didn't think it would happen that fast.

 

[Gamernyc78]

I'm annoyed that I didn't call the Gearbox sale by the end of this month (which is what the leaks had been implying) instead of the end of next month but with only three days left I didn't think it would happen that fast.

Yeah those leaks were in point. I had brought tht thread back from the grave bcus it did say March.

 

[Evilnemesis8]

Not surprised after they followed Xbox and put all their games on Gamepass Day 1. They killed the future profitability of all their studios because no one is buying anymore.

None of the European branch studios affected by the cuts this year(and last year too) care about consoles.
They are just all underperforming massively.

Hardlight is mostly a mobile dev and with the acquisition of Rovio, probably a tad bit redundant.
Creative Assembly's Hyenas was shelved, Total Warhammer III has been received much more negatively than its predecessor and Total War Pharaoh was a flop even for a small spin off game.
Relic Entertainment did okay with Ages of Empires 4 but their most recent game Company of Heroes 3 was a flop.

It's really bad for Relic and CA to have angry customers because a lot of their strategy games rely on the DLC/Expansion monetization system. So if everyone just ditches their most recent game, they don't have the MTX funds to support themselves until the next game.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Tht was one of the stupidest moves ever. I wonder how much they got from Xbox to put shut day one, either way not worth it.

Seems like whatever it is that they got, it wasn't enough.

Gamepass, specially the day 1 stuff has been extremely value destructive for the gaming industry.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Seems like whatever it is that they got, it wasn't enough.

Gamepass, specially the day 1 stuff has been extremely value destructive for the gaming industry.

We all saw it coming but we were all being called "haters"

 

[kirby64]

Look gamepass isn't good but that really has nothing to do with the European side of Sega given that's basically all PC based. Relic hasn't made a good game in like a decade and Creative Assembly has basically shot itself in the face repeatedly, and we know that Sega has been very hands off with their European devs. Like HYENAS was largely Creative Assembly's decision - Sega only took the hammer to that 200 million dollars and basically nothing to show for it later.

The parts of Sega that are actually doing well (read: Football Manager and their Japanese devs) have been more than happy to go to gamepass and are more console focused but have been performing better than the shitshow that's their European strategy section right now. Relic is actually fucked if they don't get their heads out of their asses and Sega has needed to bash Creative Assembly's face against a rock for years now.

 

[Cool hand luke]

Not surprised after they followed Xbox and put all their games on Gamepass Day 1. They killed the future profitability of all their studios because no one is buying anymore.

Second bankruptcy for Sega coming soon

Completely deserved. They made their bed with dogs.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Completely deserved. They made their bed with dogs.

My poor Sega.