SEGA Cutting Jobs and Restructuring to Focus on Producing Mobile/PC Games

SEGA Cutting Jobs and Restructuring to Focus on Producing Mobile/PC Games Keywords: sonic the hedgehog, sega, job cuts, restructuring, shifting, focus, mobile, games, pc, consoles		Submitted by Uncle-Chairman over a year ago

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7 comments

I remember visiting this website once...

It was called Sega cuts hundreds of jobs in PC/mobile-focused restructuring | Ars Technica

Here's some stuff I remembered seeing:

Sega will be reducing its workforce significantly as it goes through a "group structure reform" to refocus on digital PC and mobile games, the Japanese publisher

As part of the plan, Sega will offer an early retirement package to "around 300" employees and seek to "rightsize" an undeclared number of other employees to reduce labor costs and streamline its packaged games business overseas. The company had about 2,200 employees as of the 2013 fiscal year.

Sega of America will also shut its San Francisco headquarters and move to southern California in a move to reduce fixed corporate expenses. A Sega representative tells Eurogamer that the restructuring will only affect "a limited number of staff" in Europe.

The staff reductions are part of a major pivot away from console games and toward "digital games, centered around smartphone and PC online gaming, as a growth area," as Sega put it. Sega has adapted a number of its popular franchises for mobile platforms in recent months, including

Super Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, and a pair of Sonic titles.

After experiencing some significant losses, Sega has announced that it will be …

Once a major player in the console hardware market, Sega has struggled to maintain its brand since becoming a third-party publisher in 2001. After being acquired by pachinko manufacturer Sammy in 2004, the company cut 400 jobs after an extremely weak fiscal performance in 2008.

While Sega\'s recent release of Creative Assembly\'s Alien: Isolation sold over a million copies, Wii U and 3DS exclusive Sonic Boom was savaged by critics and seems to have suffered on store shelves. Sega\'s Football Manager series remains a popular force in Europe, though, with annual releases still regularly appearing near the top of sales charts on the continent.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.

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7 comments

	Uncle-Chairman said: Apparently, SEGA is going to restructure itself to focus on those simple mobile mini-game type titles like Sonic Jump. If they will do something bigger on PC, I'm not sure. However, what this ultimately means for us is that if SEGA follows through on this, it may be a long time before we see another major Sonic game on consoles, if we ever do at all. If this comes to fruition, Sonic may be well and truly dead for many of us. posted over a year ago.

	alphawhitewolf said: They're also going to be more cautious with Sonic for now on. Also Sonic is not dead neither is SEGA, but if fans are still afraid of this situation, then I would recommend watching this video. link It's the same news, but it explains it much clearer. posted over a year ago.

	Uncle-Chairman said: I didn't mean to sound unnecessarily pessimistic about this. What concerned me was the "shift in focus" from consoles to PC and mobile gaming. This struck me as saying that SEGA will produce less console games on a lower standard, if they produce any at all, and instead focus on mainly producing simple mini-games for passing time in waiting lobbies in the spirit of Angry Birds, or worse, "freemium" games where money is required to unlock the game's features and get full enjoyment, essentially pay-to-win. Meanwhile, any big-budget Sonic titles will be produced for PC only, potentially locking Sonic away from long-time console game fans who have enjoyed his games throughout the years (such as myself), and giving him over to condescending "PC Master Race" gamers at our expense. I suppose you could say I am being overly pessimistic about this, but I have no interest in buying a mobile device, nor much interest or knowledge in PC games, and from what I saw from Sonic's previous flirtations with mobile gaming (Sonic Jump, Sonic Dash, etc.), I am none too optimistic about this direction. posted over a year ago.

	sonic_rareware8 said: Sega is such a great Japanese video game company next to Nintendo, and they should keep working on console video games. posted over a year ago.

	sonic_rareware8 said: SOMEBODY, START A PETITION FOR SEGA TO GO BACK TO WORKING ON CONSOLE VIDEO GAMES AND TURN IT'S BACK ON FOCUSING ON MOBILE AND PC GAMING, PLEASE, PLEASE DO IT IN ORDER TO #SAVESEGA , SPREAD THE WORD!!!!! :( posted over a year ago.

	alphawhitewolf said: I don't think that's going to help. posted over a year ago.

	sonic_rareware8 said: link posted over a year ago.

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