The hard times are getting harder for games companies, and Sega is the latest to fall to the pressure…
It's not exactly the best time to be involved in the gaming industry. We all know about Game's recent troubles, and THQ has recently been hit with job cuts, and now Sega is feeling the heat.
It's been announced today that Sega Sammy is going to enter a restructuring period where it will put in place measures to make up for the end of year loss of 7.1 billion yen.
"in order to actualize earnings recovery of the Consumer Business in the following period and after and return to a growth path, it is essential to streamline organizations in the field of home video game software in the U.S. and European markets, while shifting to a structure that corresponds to change in environment, including strengthening development in the field of digital content" says the official release.
The measures to be taken include streamlining in Europe and the U.S. to create a smaller, more profitable company and an attempt to "narrow down sales titles from the following period", which basically means cancelling upcoming games.
The cancelled games haven't been confirmed yet, but Sega makes it clear that it's going to focus on the stronger releases, such as Sonic, Football Manager, Total War and Aliens. Whether this means the recently announced reboots of Jet Set Radio and possibly Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia are in danger, we'll have to see.
It would certainly seem that no company is safe these days, and although not the giant it once was, Sega is still a big name in the industry (if not always for the right reasons), so it's sad to see it hit such hard times.
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