Sega Restructuring, Canceling Games, Shrinking Studios

[DoctorFinger]

Things are looking bad for the House that Sonic built. Japanese publisher Sega today announced plans to restructure the company in the wake of "the challenging economic climate and significant changes" of the gaming market in the US and Europe. Parent company Sega Sammy estimates losses of ¥7.1 billion ($86.4 million) for the fiscal year. As a result the company will be cancelling a number of games already in development and downsizing their development workforce.

Sega wouldn't say exactly which titles have been canceled, although they did say that the Sonic, Football Manager, Total War and Aliens IPs are robust enough to stay in production. Games which are close to release - such as Jet Set Radio HD, Anarchy Reigns and London 2012 - will likely still see release, but titles further out may be in danger. This means further installments in the Virtua Fighter and Yakuza series' may be in danger.

Sources - Eurogamer; Gamasutra

[Gorvi]

See, SEGA, this is what you get for not releasing Valkyria Chronicles 3 in the West. Bad karma.

[Widgetcraft]

Well gee whiz, I would have never guessed that a publisher that put out nothing but half-assed games for five or more years would run into financial trouble. They were just starting to get their shit together, unfortunately.

[TrackZero]

Good, I hope they restructure based around what Inafune has been screaming to Japanese pub/devs for years.

[muddi900]

This means further installments in the Virtua Fighter

Squeeze me?

[DoctorFinger]

Originally Posted by TrackZero

Good, I hope they restructure based around what Inafune has been screaming to Japanese pub/devs for years.

So do I. But it's not going to happen. The heads of Japanese publishers are too hidebound to change their ways, even in the face of terrible losses. They have their way of doing business, and any problems with that simply mean the market is flawed, not the model. Japanese publishers still act like it's 1997, and any crap they shit out into the market will sell simply because there's no other option. Things like online multiplayer, modern save and camera systems and Western middleware solutions are fads which will pass.

Originally Posted by muddi900

Squeeze me?

I don't think it was officially announced - they're still cranking out variants of VF5 - but you had to assume it would have to happen at some point. At least before this disaster you would. Now? I could see Sega selling off properties to other publishers. Namco's Virtua Fighter? Square's Virtua Fighter? Microsoft's Virtua Fighter? It's not as nuts as it sounds.

[TrackZero]

Originally Posted by muddi900

Squeeze me?

You're squeezed? Don't see what's confusing there, unless you're reading only that snippet of the full sentence.

[MachEnergy]

Please please please let them release their admittedly already complete XBLA versions of the Shenmue games.

[Cyndair]

Originally Posted by MachEnergy

Please please please let them release their admittedly already complete XBLA versions of the Shenmue games.

This is the first thing that I thought as well.

This bums me out as I feel like Sega was starting to turn a corner (heck, even Sonic Generations was pretty good). Hopefully this means fewer, high quality games that sell well for them so that they can get things back in order.

[CES]

As long as the Total War series isn't hit by this, I'm not too worried.

[Stmfuller]

Originally Posted by MachEnergy

Please please please let them release their admittedly already complete XBLA versions of the Shenmue games.

better yet, put the whole damn thing on several DVDs/steam/whatever and finish that shit up.
the lack of support for Shuenmue is one of the primary reasons I didn't ever beat S2.

[MagGnome]

SEGA has been putting out mostly mediocre to terrible games since the Dreamcast went belly up. I'm surprised it's taken this long for it to have some impact on the company.

There are several smaller Japanese developers that are putting out great games, but the larger studios seem to be mostly floundering.

[menage]

They may be a particular taste but they do show balls when tackling new ip, problem is nobody gives a damn if it's not a sequel or a bit niche.

I do agree their amount of shovel and subpar Sonic efforts can't help, but they really do have some great games this gen. I'm curious about Anarchy.

[CES]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

SEGA has been putting out mostly mediocre to terrible games since the Dreamcast went belly up. I'm surprised it's taken this long for it to have some impact on the company.

There are several smaller Japanese developers that are putting out great games, but the larger studios seem to be mostly floundering.

I think part of that is that every game I play from Japan seems to be stuck in time somewhere around 2004. The menu navigation never seems to evolve and while this will sound petty, games like DW and AC suffer for it.

[MagGnome]

I understand. It's frustrating playing a modern game with a clunky interface.

I felt that way playing Borderlands on the PC, but that game is from a Western developer. :/

[Karak]

Sega has some amazing amazing games they have been releasing. This sucks.

Virtua Fighter hits the hardest. Man.

[Narradisall]

Poor Sega, they were my favourite system when I was a kid, but yeah, it's been a decade or so of a downward spiral for them. Total War are the only games I bought from them in many years.

Maybe a restructure will save them, but Eastern devs have recently really seen a bit of a slump, so an already weakened Sega might not last.

[Urizen]

I just hope this doesn't interfere with anything happening at Platinum Games. I don't care about anything else SEGA is involved in, least of all unmarketable re-releases.

[Gorvi]

How about another console Valkyria game, SEGA? Or another Bayonetta, Alpha Protocol, Vanquish, or, *gasp* a real, faithful Phantasy Star or Shining Force game?

[Deadend]

I guess there just isn't a way to re-release their old games any more.
As I swear all of sega's money was from re-releasing games on XBLA.