Sega to Close Offices in Europe, Australia

[Hevva]

Sega to Close Offices in Europe, Australia

Sega's restructuring plan gets heavy with the cuts.

Having announced its intention to massively restructure [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116581-Sega-to-Drop-Games-and-Employees-During-Extreme-Restructuring] its business earlier this year, Sega has now revealed that the first step of its $83 million transformation will be the closure of several offices in France, Germany, Spain, the Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg area, and Australia. Offices in the United Kingdom will remain untouched, with The Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive destined to continue work on Total War and Football Manager respectively.

With these offices closing, third party groups have been brought in to deal with distribution across Europe and Australia. Sega reports that Koch Media will handle business in Germany, Switzerland, France, and Spain, while Level03 will take care of things in the Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg region. 5 Star Games will take over in Australia.

The closures form a big step step in Sega's plan to streamline its business by focussing on its "core" IPs in addition to its digital releases. Jurgen Post, COO of Sega Europe, explained that, "Sega is entering a new and exciting phase that will position the company as a content-led organization maximizing sales with strong and balanced IP such as Sonic The Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise."

"At the moment for us those are the four IPs we are talking about, they are our AAA IP," said Jurgen. "At the moment we are looking into options of course, but it's not like we are already developing some other titles in addition to that, no."

Jurgen concluded, "It's still a fantastic business, because if you combine everything it's massive and it's growing. But we had to make the changes we are making right now, in order to be better prepared for the future."

Sega is yet to release details on the number of job losses these closures will incur, and Jurgen was unable to pinpoint dates beyond saying that the company is looking to have the offices shut down "towards the end of the year."


Source: Edge [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-28-sega-closing-european-offices]







Permalink

 

[RaNDM G]

Jurgen Post, COO of Sega Europe, explained that, "Sega is entering a new and exciting phase that will position the company as a content-led organization maximizing sales with strong and balanced IP such as Sonic The Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise."

One would hardly consider a soccer management simulator to be a strong and balanced IP.

Then again, I'm American. What do I know?

 

[Nooners]

I say you bring back Phantasy Star as a single player RPG. If you don't want to make it on a big blockbuster budget, make it an indie-style game with a big focus on depth and gameplay over graphics. I'd buy that.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Jurgen Post, COO of Sega Europe, explained that, "Sega is entering a new and exciting phase that will position the company as a content-led organization maximizing sales with strong and balanced IP such as Sonic The Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise."

One would hardly consider a soccer management simulator to be a strong and balanced IP.

Then again, I'm American. What do I know?

Football Manager is an extremely popular game. It's still sitting strong in the top three on Steam Stats.

 

[Bobic]

Jurgen Post, COO of Sega Europe, explained that, "Sega is entering a new and exciting phase that will position the company as a content-led organization maximizing sales with strong and balanced IP such as Sonic The Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise."

One would hardly consider a soccer management simulator to be a strong and balanced IP.

Then again, I'm American. What do I know?

It's the fourth most played game currently on steam, I'd say that's pretty strong.

And I'm not sure what a balanced IP is, my best guess is that he means they're all balanced together, a 3D platformer, a turn based strategy/real time tactics game, a management sim and a sci fi shooter are pretty varied afterall.

 

[Quiotu]

On one hand, I always hate this kind of thing because it's eliminating jobs on the market, and that's the last thing the world needs right now. My heart goes out to those that will lose their jobs.

On the other hand, Sega's been making some rather military-grade stupid mistakes lately, and created or published games that were terrible or unfinished. Sega needs to see that their silly practices have consequences, so that hopefully later on they can get their head out of their collective asses and make good decisions again.

Happy and sad about the news.

 

[weirdee]

I think for the moment that going back to basics might give it the time it needs to pull itself back together.

 

[gyroscopeboy]

Oh man, i hope Sega World [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_World_Sydney] doesn't close!

 

[kevinsux909]

I just hope Yakuza 5 makes it into the west.

Please, please, pretty please?

 

[Veldel]

I just hope Yakuza 5 makes it into the west.

Please, please, pretty please?

With a cherry and whipcream on top please sega D:


OT:I hope there are not to many job losses and this lets Sega produce better games