You know what R&D even means
Yes thanks I do...
not to mention a source of your claims
Its from SEGA themself's when they went public a few years back
Sega hasn't responded swiftly enough to turbulent business conditions, says the company, so they're reducing "fixed cost" and axing upwards of 560 jobs.
Ouch.
Company revenues were reportedly down across the board, resulting in a revised fiscal forecast and losses of over $235 million when things wrap next month.
Before Sega gets to what it's calling "voluntary redundancies across [their] workforce," they plan to close 110 of their least profitable amusement facilities, aka "arcades." After that, they'll dip heavily into their 3,000-plus employee pool and slash nearly 20 percent.
Voluntary reductions? Probably severance packages, though in this climate, that's no doubt cold comfort to the one-fifth soon to be unemployed.
Commensurate with those cuts, Sega's shrinking R&D by 20 points and consolidating its titles in development.
No word on which titles those cuts could affect, but games currently in development include:
Sega’s Japanese main branch said Tuesday that it will close 110 arcades, cancel some games in development and seek to lay off 18 percent of its staff. In a series of press releases, the game publisher said that these cost-cutting moves come in anticipation of its recording an annual loss of 25 billion yen (about $238 million) during the fiscal year that will end March 31.
Arcades: Sega owns and operates 450 videogame arcades in Japan, and said it would close 110 of them that show "poor future potential and profitability." This move "may" make the company’s arcades profitable even if the that segment of the business gets tighter in the coming fiscal year, Sega said.
Software development: Sega says it will chop 20 percent off its research-and-development budget for arcade and consumer games. The company plans to do this by "consolidating titles to be developed" and "enhancing the self-manufacture ratio."
Running this through my Japanese-to-English translator, these phrases mean that Sega will cancel some games in development and develop more games internally, rather than outsourcing them to outside developers. (I’ve asked Sega for clarification.) That’s a lot of games.
Layoffs: Finally, Sega said it would "solicit the voluntary retirement" of approximately 560 of its 3,127 employees. I wrote in 2007 about the culture of Japanese layoffs: It’s simply not done. Laying people off is like disowning children — it’s a long process that may take weeks of consultation with employees to convince them to resign.
While I have no insider information about the inner workings of Sega’s Japanese branch, this would seem to be precisely what’s going on. In its official statement, Sega seems to leave no doubt that the "voluntary retirement" will take place as envisioned:
