• Sega Cutting Jobs, Moves to Focus on PC and Mobile Gaming
    83 replies, posted
[quote]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 announced overnight. 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.[/quote] Source: [url=http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/01/sega-cuts-hundreds-of-jobs-in-pcmobile-focused-restructuring/]arstechnica[/url] Short little article. Here's the [url=https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pdf/release/20150130_segareform_e_final.pdf]PDF file of the official announcement[/url]
I wonder if Sonic Team got affected.
[QUOTE=usaokay;47051129]They should make more Sonic games to get their profit margin back up.[/QUOTE] More sonic games that don't SUCK. *cough cough* Sonic Boom.
Bound to happen, their recent slate of shit quality titles and the complete clusterfucking of the Marvel and Aliens license are all you need to know, and the fact their best selling title for the last two years is a steam release of a super old game probably isn't helping. If it wasn't for Creative Assembly, they'd be seriously fucked right now. Fun Fact: When the first model workups for 2010 arrived at Sega, one of the producers asked why the Colonial Marines had "tiny feet" and didn't look like "those badass dudes from Gears of War" and didn't have any "neon tech things" on their armor.
they will make a sEquel to AI because that is the only game that sold well.
Looks like console sonic ended with a boom
Backlog. PC. Thanks.
Port Vanquish to the PC please.
It appears the blue armed bandit took his toll on poor Sega.
remember they bought relic, i hope that doesn't end up fucking relic.
hope for a JSRF pc port?
it really isn't that hard to make a good fucking sonic game, everyone but sega has been making them for years. seriously the money is there though i will say that sonic, as the fans describe it, was never all about speed. going fast was never the primary objective, which is why i get pissed when people hate sonic adventure's gameplay. it's actually basically almost the same thing just in 3d i honestly hope things get better for them though, i haven't played AI yet but it looks really good from what i've seen and heard
They should have just made more levels for generations as dlc. People would have eaten that up. Instead all they made was that one casino night minigame.
Man, from hardware, to software, to download-only software. It's been a sad ride.
Phantasy Star fucking Online 2 Jesus christ how hard is it. I can confidently say that it is probably one of the best and most under appreciated mmos out there and sega is literally fucking up by not releasing this game to the rest of the world. [editline]1st February 2015[/editline] Also Sonic better not go down and go to Nintendo. Because that literally means no more console and PC sonic.
I can see the sensationalist headline already; Street Fighter Free to Play coming for Android / iPhone this summer. God damn it..
[QUOTE=redBadger;47051462]Phantasy Star fucking Online 2 Jesus christ how hard is it. I can confidently say that it is probably one of the best and most under appreciated mmos out there and sega is literally fucking up by not releasing this game to the rest of the world. [editline]1st February 2015[/editline] Also Sonic better not go down and go to Nintendo. Because that literally means no more console and PC sonic.[/QUOTE] As much as SEGA's a bunch of fools for not bringing PSO2 over, you can also partly blame the western communities that flocked to it, bought things on it, fan-translated it completely and otherwise. The fans did all the work for them to the point that a lot of people are playing it already instead of waiting for localization. Although Sega of Japan are stingy fuckers, would probably ruin Sega of America's efforts to run it like they did Phantasy Star Universe, and ban anyone who speaks in english publicly on PSO2 if they're reported on it or such.
Probably means F2P garbage for pc and the usual shitty mobile games to be honest We won't get anything cool like a vanquish port
[QUOTE=Tools;47051522]I can see the sensationalist headline already; Street Fighter Free to Play coming for Android / iPhone this summer. God damn it..[/QUOTE] Unless I missed something, isn't Street Fighter a purely Capcom thing?
Maybe remake Sonic '06 into the game it was supposed to be. [sp]I can dream leave me alone[/sp]
[QUOTE=Starlight 456;47051543]Unless I missed something, isn't Street Fighter a purely Capcom thing?[/QUOTE] I think what he meant to say was Virtua Fighter
Sega is the new Atari, just a procession of constant fuck-up
[QUOTE=redBadger;47051462]Phantasy Star fucking Online 2 Jesus christ how hard is it. I can confidently say that it is probably one of the best and most under appreciated mmos out there and sega is literally fucking up by not releasing this game to the rest of the world. [editline]1st February 2015[/editline] Also Sonic better not go down and go to Nintendo. Because that literally means no more console and PC sonic.[/QUOTE] Honestly, if Sonic went to Nintendo, I would very much rest easy knowing that he would get treated well as a character. Say what you will about Mario games, Nintendo always kept Mario as fucking MARIO. They didn't rip up his clothes and give him bandages to be edgy.
[QUOTE=redBadger;47051462]Phantasy Star fucking Online 2 Jesus christ how hard is it. I can confidently say that it is probably one of the best and most under appreciated mmos out there and sega is literally fucking up by not releasing this game to the rest of the world. [editline]1st February 2015[/editline] Also Sonic better not go down and go to Nintendo. Because that literally means no more console and PC sonic.[/QUOTE] At least Nintendo would treat Sonic with more respect than sega would. Maybe I could actually hope for a non-shitty entry in the franchise if Nintendo gets their hands on Sonic. Part of the problem with Sonic is that sega can't take ONE good idea they have and build upon it. They need to reinvent the fucking wheel with every release. I'm not saying innovation is a bad thing, but sega never BUILDS upon something that could be considered successful. I'm pretty sure everyone agreed that sonic generations kicked ass, why not have more games in that kind of vein?
[QUOTE=Swiket;47051251]Port Vanquish to the PC please.[/QUOTE] Oh my God, please yes.
Clearly the solution to Sega's problems is to reboot Flicky.
They have always been really shitty at sticking to 1 decision if they had stuck to making consoles they'd be fine. And when I say that, I mean not dropping something that works out or making a bajillion other things as well. the dreamcast could have been so much more. And I wish there were more options for consoles. PS, Xbox, Nintendo... that's it. That's the three you can pick from and nothing else. Don't like any of them? too bad.
[QUOTE=RichyZ;47052215]really just goes to show that hardware doesn't mean shit in the console "war", though the dreamcast having 1 analog stick was the worst shit[/QUOTE] even still, it did have a lot going for it it was the first with internet, and did a lot of things better
[QUOTE=Saxon;47051535]Probably means F2P garbage for pc and the usual shitty mobile games to be honest We won't get anything cool like a vanquish port[/QUOTE] Yeah, I instantly connected "PC and mobile gaming" to F2P and micro-transactions. It really shouldn't be this way.
[QUOTE=redBadger;47051462]Also Sonic better not go down and go to Nintendo. Because that literally means no more console and PC sonic.[/QUOTE] I already quoted you before but whatever, I also think this is kind of a moot point. Sure, modding is fucking great for Generations, but it's the [i]only[/i] modern Sonic game to make it to the PC after Heroes, content ported from other games aside. I like PC ports as much as the next guy, especially for things like Adventure 2, but a lot of the 3D games in the series were console-exclusive for years, and with Unleashed, Colors and Lost World, they still are, so it wouldn't really be much of a change overall. [editline]1st February 2015[/editline] [url=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=149810255&postcount=391]A post from NeoGAF breaks it all down.[/url] [QUOTE=NeoGAF post] Quick Breakdown: -Sega is continuing their refocus to digital games. -As part of this, they're downsizing their Western publishing business (but not their Western development studios), and staff in their arcade game department in Japan. They're also transferring the staff they can to mobile/PC Online in particular. -So far 120 layoffs have been announced at Sega West, primarily in Sega of America and some in Sega of Europe (this is the publishing business, not the studios). -Sega intends 300 layoffs total, with a notable portion of that presumably coming from the arcade business in Japan. -They're plausibly also changing what some of their staff work on - and we've certainly seen that over time from Sega - but that's not directly related to the layoffs we're talking about today. The layoffs are focused on business components that can't easily be transferred to digital, which are primarily retail publishing resources and physical devices like arcade machines.[/QUOTE] They're not fully going to PC and mobile, but it's mostly a bitchslap to the western branch and the arcade branch in Japan.
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