SEGA has sold off primarily PC-based strategy game developer Relic Entertainment, and is in the process of cutting up to 240 jobs across its various UK studios. Relic, which makes the Company of War games, will become an independent studio moving forwards, and said in a short statement that it remains on good terms with its former parent company.
As mentioned above, the bulk of the job losses will be attributed to Creative Assembly and SEGA Europe, although mobile developer SEGA HARDlight will also be hit. There’s no mention of Two Point Studios or Sports Interactive, so presumably those two are safe.
“I want to sincerely apologise for the worry and understandable distress this news will cause, particularly for those directly affected,” explained new SEGA Europe boss Jurgen Post, who’s presumably experiencing a baptism of fire here. “These decisions have been incredibly tough to make, and they follow meticulous consideration and deliberation with leadership teams across the business. Change is necessary to secure the future of our games business, and to ensure that we are well placed to deliver the best possible experiences to our players going forward.”
Obviously this is just the latest in a long line of job cuts which have been ravaging the industry for well over a year now. “We need to streamline, focus on what we are good at, and position ourselves as best we can for the road ahead,” Post concluded. “In order to do that, we need to respond to the changing economic landscape and the challenges we’re facing in the way we develop our products and bring them to market.”
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 26
This industry is on its knees
The UK’s a flaming bin bag full of dog turds. The job market is abysmal at the minute and I don’t expect it to get any better.
@nessisonett Is this happening in UK just with IT jobs or in every other aspect of jobs as well? Also, what is the cause, covid/ukraine/inflation in general because I would assume it is not brexit related? This is a legitimate off-character question from an EU citizen with an IT job.
@nessisonett I must state that I have a little bit of a hard time to understand what is going on atm in Uk. Lol. And yeah also a bit curious about the reson behind it hehe.
Now it's looking like they're doing it cause everybody's doing it.
@Czar_Khastik Depends who you ask really. It’s probably a case of “all of the above”. Brexit has got to have had an impact too. Costs have gone up in the UK across the board due to added red tape (the total opposite of what was “promised”) and the uncertainty has made it less attractive for foreign investment so they look elsewhere. As for jobs, it seems to either be they can’t afford to keep people (like this example), or in other sectors, they can’t find enough people to work. I think there’s record unemployment in the UK just now but shortages of health professionals for example. So yeah, it’s a total and utter mess.
@Czar_Khastik Coming from an IT angle, yeah it’s real bad out there. Places are only wanting to hire senior roles with 5+ years experience and so forth, which is unrealistic given the sheer number of graduates every year and the lack of jobs. I’ve seen worrying amounts of clearly AI generated job descriptions for slightly dodgy looking startups too. For my mum who was made redundant last year, it’s just as bad in areas like retail and hospitality, which the UK is basically built on due to us not exactly producing much in the way of goods or raw materials. It’s all quite grim. Unless we all retrain as health professionals and become scabs!
Brexit broke Britain - simple as.
@get2sammyb
I think you mean "Company of Heroes" games. They also made the excellent Warhammer 40K Dawn of War game, its mediocre sequel, and capped off the trilogy with an ultra stinker.
@sanderson72 it blows my mind how the gammons still to this day believe it will work
@nessisonett
Leaving the EU and isolating itself was a super dumb decision.
@sanderson72 the government broke Britain as they never planned for Brexit. They also haven't invested in infrastructure required to make it successful. As there still cutting services a cross the board.
Uk was broken waaaay before brexit. I should know lived here all my life (now51) and it’s been on a downward spiral for decades.
What's "Company of War"?
Should probably take heart from the fact I didn’t get that job at Creative Assembly a couple years back then, I’d have been the first to get the chop 😬
Why is everyone talking about Brexit when the article doesn't mention it once? Isn't there a rule about "going off topic" on here?
And sega of America just ratified a union in California
I live in the UK. A lot wrong in the UK and it is beyond the scope of this article. But I don't think it is just because of to Brexit. It is just easier to point out the elephant in the room. Ukraine war does have impact on the whole Europe. And there is shortage of burse
@LifeGirl
It seems related to me.
@TheCollector316 Really?
-Looks through the article-
Nope, still don't see it.
Sounds like you are just excuse hunting to have a moan to me.
@nessisonett I have like always thought that there is many IT companies that only hire folks who have 5 like years of experience. Also where I live we seem to have a huge demand on health care pros hehe. Also many cleaning jobs.
@LifeGirl So the person appealing to the moderators is accusing someone else of “excuse hunting to have a moan?” Quick, stifle this conversation before someone says something interesting! As neither Sony nor Playstation is mentioned in this article that has somehow found its way onto a Playstation website, maybe they should just bin the whole thing? Problem solved!
@Amnesiac Sega makes PlayStation games. This is a PlayStation website. This affects PlayStation gamers.
...
I dunno what sort of epic burn that you thought you were going for there but I doubt I will need a plaster for it.
@LifeGirl So you can suss that out but can’t figure out how economic policy may relate to layoffs? No need to toss a match when you’re clearly a pro at self immolation.
There's just too many bloat on AAA games development, I remember back in the old doom days most of developers are friend that just make games together, like indie games now. I think AAA games should scale back and focus on gameplay rather than movie-like cut-scenes.
@TheCollector316 it's called self reliance, people could learn a thing or two instead of mommy wiping their backsides
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