Today is another dark day in the world of the Blue Brand. Earlier today we learned of another downsizing at SEGA of America, bringing another restructuring, more layoffs (that include familiar people from its staff), and worse of all, its original San Francisco location will be shut down and forced to relocate to Southern California. Even SEGA of Europe isn't safe, tho a "limited number" of downsizing will happen there.
And just earlier at the time this thread was made, two staffers are now out of the job. Sam Mullen (then Localization Manager and Producer) & KellieParker (Senior online Community Manager and Social Media Strategist). Especially jarring for Sam Mullen as he was SEGA of America's localization guy. With him gone...does that mean no more Eastern games heading westward? EDIT: Sam's not gone...yet.
Two ex-SEGA staffers now. And the day's not over yet. Such a shame. After being able to release such favorable games like Alien: Isolation, the 3D Classics, the Project Diva series, and even bringing over Yakuza 5 and Fighting Climax later this year.
After having the morning to read up what I could....
This is eerily similar to the 'reconstruction' of SEGA during the 90s in their arcade market and SEGA Corporation during 2001, 2004. Difference is, their packaged software department is in WAY dire straits than before. Sega Sammy's weakest division is this one, and it hasn't been doing good. Flops like Colonial Marines and Sonic Boom I'm sure are factors that lead to this.
To be honest, the reconstruction of SEGA of America has been something that was bound to happen, especially after how gutted SEGA Europe ended up being. Being just small, independent studios under an 'umbrella' of sorts under a new name perhaps that ties closer to SEGA Networks?
With that said, SEGA's utter competence internally is just laughably sad. This just shows you how distant SoJ and SoA really are and it sucks those accounts are a thing. The worst part is I don't think SEGA (what's going to be left of it) won't really learn from these piled-up mistakes.
Going back to the restructuring and relocation, word is that they will be closer to Atlus USA and other acquired studios?
Welp. Stephen Frost (the Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric producer) and Julian (aka Clumseh on Twitter) have confirmed they're out of a job. They join Kellie from yesterday now on the cutting block. Such a damn shame. We still don't even know who else been out of a job.
This is just the start of what, I feel, will culminate in SEGA Sammy Holdings doing what they should have done a long, long time ago: Assimilate SoE and SoA into SoJ, and run everything as one big company with seperate offices handling localisation for their various regions.
The problem SEGA's had over the past 5 years or so is that SoA have tried to create titles themselves, giving them massive backing over other games that people actually wanted to buy. They were the ones who pushed so hard for Sonic 4, and Sonic Boom was, and still is, very much an American venture that the rest of the world hasn't quite bought into yet.
Add to this the whole Hatsune Miku/Yakuza debacle, in that we've had three HM games come out Westward and none of them have particularly sold well, whereas Yakuza was a fairly well received franchise over here and yet there's, to date, 5 games that SoA didn't even bother to release, with one coming out digital only and 3 years after it's original Japanese release date, and then it's only coming out because fans kept badgering them. Oh, and let's not get started on PSO2/Phantasy Star Nova...
It's not all doom and gloom though. Alien: Isolation sold 1m copies last year, which is a pretty good record for a SEGA game. Football Manager and the Total War series continues to drive sales in the PC market, where SEGA are said to be focusing more now, and let's not forget that they have got Relic and Atlus on board now; Granted, they'll be making niche games, but those games have fanbases who will buy their products.
Yes, it's sad that people like Stephen and Kellie have lost their jobs over this, as they are genuinely nice people and it's been a pleasure to work alongside them. However, for SEGA to continue to be relevant in this day and age, it's time for them to become one company again, and for SEGA Sammy to start to have more of a say over what happens in the West, instead of letting the other offices seemingly run riot. You don't see that at Konami, or Nintendo, or Capcom, or Sony.
Gavvie wrote:This is just the start of what, I feel, will culminate in SEGA Sammy Holdings doing what they should have done a long, long time ago: Assimilate SoE and SoA into SoJ, and run everything as one big company with seperate offices handling localisation for their various regions.
I am all for this. SEGA today has become such a broken mess we need order. We need a uniformed restructuring.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Alien: Isolation sold 1m copies last year, which is a pretty good record for a SEGA game. Football Manager and the Total War series continues to drive sales in the PC market, where SEGA are said to be focusing more now, and let's not forget that they have got Relic and Atlus on board now; Granted, they'll be making niche games, but those games have fanbases who will buy their products.
I was happy Alien: Isolation gained that 1M mark; I said time and again The Creative Assembly is a key studio for SEGA now and after the success of Isolation, I can see TCA sticking around. After for those other IPs you mentioned, anything PC-exclusive is doing pretty well for them. Total War, Football Manager (pretty much Europe moreso here in the United States, don't quote me on that tho) plus I think Warhammer is doing good too.
You also said SEGA has Atlus but here, SEGA of America is turning a blind eye to the company for some reason. Despite SoE publishing a game itself, SoA is still tight-lipped about it all.
That might be because Atlus still have a US publishing arm. In Europe they tended to publish under NISA Europe, so that might be why SEGA are handling it more in Europe.
