SEGA shuts down SEGA Studios/Secret Level

[cube_b3]

Though Iron Man 2 won't even arrive in stores for another month, the fate of its developer has already been sealed. Sega has confirmed to Gamasutra the closure of its Sega Studios San Francisco outfit, previously known as Secret Level.

Sega is pulling the plug on the developers of Iron Man 2.
Secret Level was founded in 1999, when it began work on the critically acclaimed Dreamcast port of Unreal Tournament. The studio was acquired by Sega in 2006 as part of an increased emphasis on Western development.

Since that time, the studio has launched two titles for the publisher. The first was the 2008 movie tie-in Iron Man, which left reviewers cold but sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. Secret Level's encore later that year didn't fare as well, as Golden Axe: Beast Rider was a flop, drawing negative reviews and selling fewer than 42,000 copies in its first three months on US retail shelves. It didn't help matters that the game was launched the same day as heavily hyped hits like Dead Space and Saints Row 2.

It's unclear how many employees were laid off as a result of the studio closure. Sega had already downsized its US operations in early 2009, with reports at the time suggesting as many as 30 employees had been laid off at Secret Level.

[youtube:3ppdw68n]nVK4gEr3c3E[/youtube:3ppdw68n]

From a business stand point I am completely confused as the studio was not down sized it was absorbed in Sega, largely retooled and controlled directly by the parent company. I am confused if you had to pull the plug on the studio it should've been done when they submitted the final build for Beast Rider.

The only safe inductive reasoning I can come up with is Iron Man 2 was still awful despite the restructuring and Mike Hayes wants Critically successful games in order to be commercially successful but this theory is unlikely and I am not understanding the logic.

[George]

I'm pretty sure they were slacking behind Iron Man 2, product was not what they wanted. I'm sure they will pull the plug and have an external studio finish it up.

[cube_b3]

Iron Man 2 was finished in April as planned and the YouTube clip that I showed you states that the game was in testing which is the quality assuarance part of development.

[Aki-at]

Nothing strange about it, developer that has already been downsized and reconstructed over the course of Mike Hayes tenure and still lacking the target he/SoA has set for himself pretty much indicates outside of license quality game, which should be coming to an end soon since Marvel is now part of Disney and Disney have their own development studios, they would be practically useless.

That and the main reason they were purchased in the first place is probably a moot point now, Simon Jeffrey changed them from a tech team to a full on game development team.

[George]

Eh, also Secret Level was dying anyway, SEGA mismanaged them and TBH they were just alive due to the sales of Iron Man. I'm sure SEGA decided it was cheaper to outsource the game instead of having a team to make the game.

[Aki-at]

Anyway, merged topics into one, we can disclose the reasons and the pros and cons of the closure from here on now.

[Orta]

That and the main reason they were purchased in the first place is probably a moot point now, Simon Jeffrey changed them from a tech team to a full on game development team.

This was the major mistake, in my opinion. They could be developing middleware tools for the company's projects, saving the company a ton a money. Instead Simon happened.

[Happy Cat]

That and the main reason they were purchased in the first place is probably a moot point now, Simon Jeffrey changed them from a tech team to a full on game development team.

This was the major mistake, in my opinion. They could be developing middleware tools for the company's projects, saving the company a ton a money. Instead Simon happened.

Now they can just outsource all their licensed crap to High Voltage Software, so its ALLLLLL good.

[cube_b3]

Eh, also Secret Level was dying anyway, SEGA mismanaged them and TBH they were just alive due to the sales of Iron Man. I'm sure SEGA decided it was cheaper to outsource the game instead of having a team to make the game.

Secret Level was dead when Golden Axe failed to meet target sales.

Select few were moved into Sega SanFrancisco Studio (SS SF), it was largely a new studio.

In order to objectively evaluate the closure seperate them from Seret Level. The studios redemption was not in IM2 rather it would've been in GA2 which now is gone, again.

In SL's defence I would also like to add that our beloved Sumo Digital also started off as a studio only good for ports and slowly evolved over years almost a decade so just because your a studio who only does ports does not automoatically make you inferior, I think what destroyed the studio was a lack off a functional business model and lack of supervision from the parent company, which was allegedly rectified with SS SF.

[Team Andromeda]

Secret Level did a brilliant Job on Unreal Tournament port for the Dreamcast . And I really didn't think Iron Man was half bad , Golden Axe was sheer pants though

[max_cady]

There was somethin' seriously wrong with Golden Axe's development when since announced in 2006 as a major RPG turned  into a generic hack&slash title.

[STORM!]

And now, what's next? Would Sega build a new studio?

 Sega West should create a new "Sega Technical Institute", the best studio I have ever seen in my life in Sega's history! They were really game creators!

[Sega Uranus]

And now, what's next? Would Sega build a new studio?

 Sega West should create a new "Sega Technical Institute", the best studio I have ever seen in my life in Sega's history! They were really game creators!

Yeah. SEGA needs to stop buying random studios or just publishing games over here and just make a new studio by hiring new staff and moving some great ones around. Especially in America, SEGA desperately needs some.

So what is the bigger mistake? Selling Sega Racing Studios or buying Secret Level?

[Team Andromeda]

And now, what's next? Would Sega build a new studio?

 Sega West should create a new "Sega Technical Institute", the best studio I have ever seen in my life in Sega's history! They were really game creators!

Yeah. SEGA needs to stop buying random studios or just publishing games over here and just make a new studio by hiring new staff and moving some great ones around. Especially in America, SEGA desperately needs some.

So what is the bigger mistake? Selling Sega Racing Studios or buying Secret Level?

Setting up SEGA Racing Studio was utterly pointless , given its market is limited and SOJ have like 3 studios that are more than able of handling Racers .
I would agree that STI were great , but its very easy to set up your own Top Studio on your own hardware , different story when you're 3rd party .
Anyone can say,  lets set up our own Top R&D studio , in practice,  its very hard to get the staff and set up

I feel SEGA missed the ball on the like of DICE (mind you so did MS) , or Monolith. The trouble is SEGA been all over the place since the start
No leading R&D tech to share with the teams , and no real  Multi Platform Strategy.  While the likes of Ubisoft, Capcom , Codemasters push on with their tech , share it with the Teams, and produce stunning results

For that SOJ really needs to hang its head in shame , Its called another generation of hardware badly wrong

[cube_b3]

Well new that restructural reasons have been revealed we know why Iron Man studio got the axe.

here is a very poor cover up by Mike Hayes:

1UP: Was the closing of Secret Level because of the shift to digital?

MH: It was a broader thing. We're pleased with Iron Man 2 that they worked on, but the truth of the matter is that we couldn't find another appropriate project to give them. It was something you may recall we did with our racing studio here in London, about three years ago. It was a good team, but we were unable to find them their next project.

What about Beast Rider: Redemption?