The Creative Assembly suffers layoffs and Hyenas gets cancelled

This certainly is not The Creative Assembly’s finest hour. Their all new multiplayer shooter (And the subject of one of my first written articles here on SegaBits) Hyenas has been unceremoniously cancelled in a brief recent SegaSammy financial report. Citing “lower profitability in the European region”, the decision was made from on high to axe Hyenas, along with several unannounced titles being developed there. As if to throw salt on the wound, Hyenas’s UK-based developer The Creative Assembly, known for Alien Isolation and the Total War series, is also suffering layoffs. All this comes according to a report from Eurogamer, which you can read here. The above message was also taken from the official Hyenas Twitter page.

This comes as a shock as Hyenas was just demoed at Gamescom only last month and in a recent closed PC beta just this month, along with a few all new trailers getting released. The developers even seemed rather enthusiastic about the game’s reception, in spite of any challenges with development, as referenced in an interview Eurogamer did with representatives of Creative Assembly at that very same Gamescom event. It truly goes to show that you can never be too certain what will happen behind closed doors in the world of game development. I can only hope the staff being let go have little trouble finding new jobs and supporting themselves and their families.

Are you sad to see Hyenas canned? I know I am, especially cause I never even got to participate in any of the betas. Maybe any of you who did can tell us about your experiences in the comments below? I’d especially appreciate it.

SEGA Sammy third quarter review for fiscal year ending 2020

It’s that time again! Okay, so financial reports may seem boring to some, but if you are a SEGA fan, reading these things is vitally important. Knowing how well (or how poorly) certain divisions did dictates how SEGA Sammy moves forward as a company. After the break to find out how the company’s latest set of financials turned out as they released the third quarter results for the fiscal year 2020.

SEGA Sammy third quarter review for fiscal year ending 2017

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The ship seems to be sailing just fine at Sega with their recent report showing off good results in all their sectors, but there might still be some trouble brewing. Though with big hitters like Yakuza 6 and Football Manager 2017 making a charge in the gaming division, Sega Sammy might have enough firepower to hold back any trouble that approaches them. After the break to find out how the company’s latest set of financials turned out as they released the third quarter results for the fiscal year 2017.

SEGA in the Charts: Media Create Feb 08 – Feb 14, 2016

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This week saw two major releases from SEGA hitting the Japanese charts in the form of Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei IV: Final and Valkyria Chronicles Remastered. With no major competition this week and with Yakuza: Kiwami still fresh in the charts, SEGA had a real chance of being the top publisher in the top 20 this week with the closet rival being Square and their Dragon Quest Builders title. Hit the jump after to read how the sequel to Shin Megami Tensei IV did and if SEGA managed to take the top spot in publisher marketshare.

SEGA posts sales profits despite having fewer sales

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SEGA-Sammy has posted their detailed financial report for the last six months, spanning from April to September 2015. If you guys didn’t know, April 1st is when SEGA’s massive restructure happen and around June is when SEGA of America did their big move. Not only that but the company hasn’t been releasing as much software as they used to, but they still manage to make profit even with a decrease in sales.

SEGA-Sammy reports 1.2 billion in net sales, which happens to be a decrease of 2.5% over the same six month period in 2014, where they reported over 1.3 billion. Yet SEGA-Sammy posted a profit of $7.9 million, compared to losing $23 million in 2014.

SEGA-Sammy said that digital games just happen to be one of the big money makers for the company which happen to them get out of the red. What games did good? Lets look.

SEGA in the Charts: MediaCreate charts for Mar 9 – Mar 15 2015

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SEGA’s hotly anticipated Yakuza 0 released last week in Japan amidst the current blow out of Playstation 4 titles bonanza that started off with Dragon Quest Heroes a couple of weeks back. With the previous spinoff title Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin being able to move only 400,000 or so units, in line for spinoffs, it was always interesting to see how Yakuza 0 was going to perform. Would it fall in line with a spinoff, after all the gameplay system and technically story haven’t moved forward, or would this defy the odds and perform closer to a true mainline Yakuza game? Hit the break to find out how SEGA’s latest installment in the Yakuza series performed.

SEGA Sammy Q3 2015: Time for change

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SEGA Sammy posted their earnings for Q3 2015 but also came up with the new developments in the corporate structure. Read on to find how the consumer division did and what changes are in store for the company.

SEGA’s consumer division saw good sales on the current generation of consoles. In fact the sales on the Playstation 4 was so good that full year expectations was raised no doubt to stronger than expected sales of Alien: Isolation. Catalogue sales continue to a major boost for SEGA too, another area that saw expectations revised upwards no doubt helped by the likes of Valkyria Chronicles for PC, which also saw steady sales. It wasn’t so great for the other platforms though with the last generation HD twins suffering heavily and both the Wii U and Vita seeing similar reductions in sales forecast. The big drop however, surprisingly perhaps, was the Nintendo 3DS which saw SEGA lower sales by over 1 million units.

SEGA of America going through another huge restructure, main office is relocating

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Here we go again.

First it was Europe, now SEGA of America is getting hit with some major restructuring. In a statement released earlier today, SegaSammy Holdings announced an “Implementation of structure reform” for SEGA of America. Included in this are some potential layoffs in the forms of “voluntary Retirement” and the San Francisco office moving to a new location in Southern California. Also, there will be a more narrow focus on the “amusement business” division.

However, it’s not all bad news. There will be a reinforcement in the “Sonic and merchandising businesses” and the PC and Mobile divisions will be getting a stronger push possibly due to strong current sales in those markets. The full statement can be found here.

I hope that not too many people are affected by the downsizing and those that do find themselves out of a job, that they find a new one quickly. I guess we shall see how this goes for SEGA.

SEGA-Sammy’s Q1 2015 financial report detailed and explained

SEGA-Sammy recently announced it’s first half results for the fiscal year and it came with mixed results. Some divisions have beaten expectations so far but the gloomy outlook for the rest of the year has effected the final net income expected by the group. During this period SEGA only released one major title but another up and coming title looks set to outdo their expectations, hit the link to find out what SEGA Sammy have been doing well and what the future holds for the group.

SEGA Sammy Q1 results for Fiscal Year March 2015

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Sega Sammy has released their financial results for what was a fairly quiet Q1 for the company. Japanese tax increases and advertising costs took a toll on their bottom line, while their games divisions, including arcade, console, and mobile, all struggled due mainly due to a lack of new content. In short, Sega Sammy has certainly seen better days, though some big titles coming up should help them regain at least some of their traction.

SEGA Sammy announces full year results for fiscal year 2014

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SEGA Sammy today announced their full year results with good news all round with the exception of one division. The strong results come after a hectic 2013 for the group in which SEGA was restructuring it’s core business, purchase of two high profile developers, the development of major resort complexes and expansion of some of their core development teams. The group also saw year on year growth for net income, hit the break to find out how the company did as a whole!