SEGA of America’s official statement regarding changes


There have been a ton of questions flying around, people asking what went wrong. There is quite a bit that sadly went wrong, who is to blame? Probably not the people that got fired, but that isn’t the issue right now. The issue is what SEGA is going to be like in the future. The community has had lots of rumors flowing around. Some are saying SEGA is shutting down SEGA America, which isn’t true.

Now there are questions like, who gave the order? If you guess SEGA-Sammy, you are correct. Check out SEGA of America’s official statement after the jump.

Due to the challenging economic climate and significant changes within the interactive gaming industry, SEGA has made the decision to consolidate its publishing business in order to focus on developing digital content and driving its existing IP such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise. This realignment of the business around existing and digital IP is a necessity to ensure that SEGA continues to invest and enhance its digital business offering, whilst reducing its reliance on traditional packaged goods. 

As a result of the SEGA Sammy Board decision to consolidate the business, many of our internal functions will be re-structured and this could result in a number of redundancies within the publishing business across the Western organisation. The company will be entering into a re-structure phase to reflect the unprecedented change in our industry and to move the company forward appropriately.

The changes will position SEGA as a content led organisation, maximising sales with a strong and balanced IP portfolio across both packaged and digital distribution. The management team are confident that the proposed restructure will benefit the company and make it fit for purpose within the changing nature of the industry over the coming years.

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15 responses to “SEGA of America’s official statement regarding changes

  1. IrishNinja says:

    Best of luck to those who sadly lost their jobs today, here’s to hoping for a more stable industry next gen…somehow.
    ~BLUE SKIES FOREVER~

    PS Yakuza 5 localization…i gotta go what? I GOTTA BELIEVE

  2. BigBoss says:

    SEGA will never be as great as they were when they actually produced their own home consoles, just imagine if they never left the Dreamcast and Dreamarena/Sega-Net was like what Xbox Live is today, Sega would have a much bigger user base and would have no limits to advertising their own products on the service, it would instantly get recognition.

    • IrishNinja says:

      …they’d also be dead years ago, man. I’m glad they did what they did, this gen has been their best output since that point, like 10 years back.

    • BigBoss says:

      Yes, and the Sega that once was died along with it 10 years ago, which is my point, they were never as good as they were when they were a major player in the video game industry, as for being the best in this gen? pfft, they struggle to even be as successful as Capcom or Namco which is the least we expected Sega to be like in their 3rd party guise after their announcement in Jan 31 2001.

    • samsonite says:

      They may not have been at the pinnacle of their creativity during the third partie years, but at times over the past ten or so years we still saw the SEGA we all loved, in games like Vakyria chronicles, Bayonetta, Outrun 2 to name a few. For that I think SEGA holding on and not going completely bust was worth it.

    • IrishNinja says:

      Exactly – output = quality, not sales-age. if we used that metric, Activision and EA would be top-tier, and they’re clearly not.

    • BigBoss says:

      Yes agreed, there have been a few times where there has been a re-emergence of that real Sega shine with Valkyria Chronicles, Outrun 2, Byonetta and the Yakuza/Ryu Ga Gotoku series too (lets not mention Sonic as it comes with the territory, where there is Sega there is always Sonic and the Sonic franchise has slipped bit by bit since Dreamcast and only just started to get back some of it’s true quality with Sonic Generations), the thing is though, how well have these games done? Not as good as they should any way, Sega, as a current third party, should at the very least be more like Capcom or Namco, at least be with the same tier, Capcom and Namco – they hardly have any issues like this and still do relatively well in most markets.
      This gen really started late 2005/early 2006, which was Sega’s last great come back where they had strong earnings for the first time in ages and started buying up other studios to build it’s western portfolio, which gave them a good start this gen, but they’ve now seemingly slipped back to the troubles bit by bit again like 1996-2001.
      I hope this is really just Sega’s way of saying that they are focussing less on Westernised IP and more on their traditional IP and a backtrack of their 2005 arrangements for the Western markets.

  3. Scot/Pict/CaledonianSP says:

    I believe Sega’s chances with Shenmue have very suddenly become limited due to their latest announcement now.

  4. samsonite says:

    The last few remnants of the SEGA that we still had and could hold onto is now gone. I was not expecting this news to get this bad. I don’t think its fair for company as great as this to be going through such a struggle.

    • Scot/Pict/CaledonianSP says:

      Sega’s original goal after their 2001 re-structure was to own at least 25% of the Video game Market, which would be a dream come true, any one know what their market share is now?

    • samsonite says:

      In Japan their market share most definitely around the 25%, being one of the top 4 publishers, nintendo, namco, capcom etc.. However worldwide I think SEGA barely manage to get in the top ten. Not very good considering SEGA used to be equal to or even better nintendo and has probably the most revered ip catalogues out all publishers. I just will never understand how things have gone so wrong here… 🙁

  5. SkyBlue says:

    Sad to hear this news but it doesn’t help that this news came out a day before April Fools Day.

    I hope Ex-SOA Staff get a job soon though.

  6. Robert says:

    Hey, has anyone heard of SEGA’s latest announcement of a completely new exclusive digital SEGA platform? It will be called
    ‘Sega Dreamload’, I hope it’s not an April fools joke, I caught the news on the Sega Addicts website today and based on the official quote from Sega’s western arms, it seems a bit sketchy saying that the digital platform client will launch tomorrow (April 2nd) and early subscribers get an HD remake of Sonic labyringth. But I see other sites are starting to put the news up too, so it’s either result of Sega’s recent restructure and concentration of stronger digital releases, or a cruel April fools joke from Sega, but if it’s true, this could be Sega’s opportunity to get back into the hardware home console market again if it takes off and gives Sega’s way back in through the back door to the market. Ah what it is to dream…

  7. Len says:

    Yea, I seen it as well, the logo looks cool as anything and as soon as I seen it the Dreamload, I just fell in love with it straight away, with a feeling not had since the Dreamcast’s announcement.

  8. Adam says:

    Hey, don’t know if this is post worthy but thought you’d be interested nevertheless.

    http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20120404p2g00m0bu065000c.html

    According to this news-byte, last week sega splurged 400 million yen on a resort in southwest Japan, and is talking about building a casino there.

    So, it seems they’re freeing up money through redundancies, layoffs, and cancellations in their publishing business to expand in their resort/casino casino business.

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