It is now official, SEGA Studios San Francisco is closing down today. Formerly known as Secret Level, they have brought us such timeless masterpieces such as Golden Axe: Beast Rider and Iron Man.
“SEGA of America is sad to announce the closure of SEGA Studios San Francisco. It is an immensely talented studio and we wish all the best to all of the staff in all their future endeavors. Moving forward, SEGA will continue to pursue external development opportunities all over the world and will continue to grow the renowned SEGA brand.”
They were working on Iron Man 2 and claiming it was going to be a ton better than the first game, but seeing all this drama; like being fired, I doubt it will be good at all.
[Source: IGN]
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Oh damn…what a loss…no more Beast Rider…
Sega should've never bought Secret Level in the first place. They could've kept Racing Studio open.
Now they killed two teams. Talented teams or not, Sega is slowly becoming Electronic Arts.
Great news it's a shame Simon Jeffery was stupid enough to waste money on these talented hacks.
@Orta, It isnt anything like EA to close down a studio you made in the first place and one thats complete shit.
EA buys talented studios and then sacks them all and steals the IP… Sega just wastes money.
Oh, well, it sucks that those guys are out of a job now.
It remains to be seen if Secret Level will end their streak of medicre titles or go out with a wimper in an ever more subpar game.
"SEGA will continue to pursue external development opportunities all over the world and will continue to grow the renowned SEGA brand"
These words make me worry, SEGA seems to reduce more and more the internal development!THAT'S not good at all.
I hate to say they were a waste or that they could not program their way out of a shoebox, but it is never good to hear of people losing their jobs. Maybe separated, they have a better chance to make something really great.
<blockquote cite="comment-484">
Orta: Sega should’ve never bought Secret Level in the first place. They could’ve kept Racing Studio open.Now they killed two teams. Talented teams or not, Sega is slowly becoming Electronic Arts. <a class=comment_quote_link onmousedown="quote('484', 'Orta', 'comment','div-comment-484', false, false); try { addComment.moveForm('div-comment-484', '484', 'respond', '851'); } catch(e) {}; return false;" title="Click here or select text to quote comment" href="javascript:void(null)" rel="nofollow">(Quote)
It's nothing like Electronic Arts… Firstly SEGA Racing Studio was sold with it's site and full team to CodeMaster, so that team is NOT dead, just with a different publisher, they even had a new game coming out soon with mostly the same team, same director too.
Secondly, Secret Level had three games to prove their worth, and there was not even the slightest possibility that as they were, they would be a good team to have around, the whole reason they were bought was overlooked the second they decided to make them make Beast Rider. With Disney owning Marvel and SEGA not having many licenses in the near future, what could they even use Secret Level for?
The fact is, some teams live, some teams die, even SEGA of Japan was guilty of this, not just when they were a publisher, but during the Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast days.