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Sega Is Cutting 300 jobs And Is Preparing For A Digital, Non-Console Future

Sad news today as Sega has announced that it’s cutting 300 jobs and is restructuring its business model. The company says that it’s focussing its efforts on the popular mobile space and online PC games. Sega has also said that it’s cutting down on physical releases and will instead be concentrating on downloadable content. The company will also focus on their Sonic and merchandising businesses. The move comes about due to the inevitable sales failure of Sonic Boom on both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

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174 thoughts on “Sega Is Cutting 300 jobs And Is Preparing For A Digital, Non-Console Future”

    1. they have been limping along for years they never really recovered from bad decisions of the 90’s and the Dreamcast which was a good console but it did not save them pity i liked sega consoles.

        1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

          Too late as buying them was the stupid thing to do. If they can barely keep themselves afloat, they shouldn’t have bought another company.

      1. I completely agree. I loved my SEGA consoles to death. They really did make some horrible decisions in the past, but I really think that they could have recovered, if they had taken the time needed to make games that people actually wanted. They had so many IPs that people have been asking to see brought back, but the few they tried with, really just were poorly executed.

        1. the trouble is that Sega was run by the types that ran intellivision and Atari. then spent to much time focusing on investments and profit margins they neglected their products. i mean as we speak the three main console companies have already started on their next projects.
          i think one of their biggest mistakes was the indecisiveness over over the genesis/megadrive withe add-on after add-on. that is why it reminds me of intellivision final console it had more add-on than you could shack a stick at so many software companies had to choose what to make the games for and they chose the bigger install base and sega CD did poorly.
          i think they could turn it around if they looked at what consumers want instead of what they think people want.

      2. Their a bit lost in development right now. Also their games have really gone down in quality. They need to focus on making just a handful of games, focus on fun gameplay and work on story. Take time and make quality work.

        Their development is fast and sloppy and not really fun. Honestly they should sell to Nintendo and Nintendo should make them focus on more T and M rated content while Nintendo as a core focuses on new IP and classics. As well as a new QOL headed game studio that works on educational /lifestyle games and apps

    2. I blame this on Nintendo. Here is a company that placed all their cards down if you will and gambled on the Wii U only on find this chode of a console sink their company to new lows. This is why third party is “also” moving always because you Invest millions into an exclusive or port on the Wii U and receive change in return. Nintendo is like Robin Williams actually. Prostitutes Zelda into cheap thrills and go and kills itself slowly in the closet only for everybody else so suffer and watch… Disgusting if you ask me…

      1. Yea, it’s Nintendo’s fault that sonic boom was an abysmal failure. not Sega, and not big red button.

        how stupid can you possibly be? especially considering Nintendo in 2014 was one of the only consoles to ship full code complete retail titles that not only worked but were 10/10 quality.

        1. Just shut up talking shit, bitch. Sega could have brought the fucking game on PS4 and Xbone One for their sake and it would failed even harder than on Wii U. It was THEIR decision, fag!

        2. Ridley, the Angel of Death

          Guys, the anon here was insulting the Church of Sasori. His first paragraph was sarcasm. Or maybe I misread his second paragraph.

      1. EA’s biggest game in 2014: DA Inquisition (90% + Metacritic)

        Sega: ………..

        EA was actually somewhat likeable this year. Ubisoft was terrible though

          1. You are aware that Bioware is owned by EA, which in turn makes them EA, right? Doesn’t matter if they were acquired, they’re still part of the EA company.

    1. That’s EA, Ubisoft, etc. How are they the worst when all they do is make and fuck over Sonic games? They’ve been dead more than a decade ago. Now the damage is catching up to them. Not the worst gaming company but one that’s lost its luster right after Sonic 3.

    2. …are you fucking stupid…no wait don’t answer that you might hurt yourself from thinking . Also please learn to spell .

  1. It may be sad but at the same time sega really needs to focus on sonic and start to produce good sonic games. They won’t get anywhere without a good sonic game. Considering he is segas mascot. Also this wouldn’t have happened if sonic boom wasn’t such a failure.

  2. So Sega is getting ready to go completely out of business and why just blame The wiiu games for their all time coming failure?

    1. Well they didn’t technically say they were going out of business but you could think they are slowly stepping down into shutting down.

  3. How about you focus on making a good Sonic game. The days where I used to love SEGA and Sonic seem like such a distant past.

    1. Yakuza 5 isn’t being localized by SEGA. Sony was the one who had to step up and do it for them. I doubt announced projects will be canned suddenly but don’t expect that many more announcements in the future.

      1. Bayonetta, Yakuza, Phantasy Star, and Valkyria Chronicles are also good among a few others. Sonic used to be a good IP. They have repeatedly dropped the ball on that one.

        1. Bayonetta is Platinum’s game and High Voltage’s Conduit is their game as well. Only Sega published it (except Bayonetta 2 which Nintendo funded and published it) All of those “goodness” in their games are now gone and soon they will join Capcom, Rare, THQ, Atari, Atlus and many more in the Damnation line for death.

          1. Platinum is only the developer for Bayonetta. SEGA owns the IP, which is why Platinum couldn’t do anything with Bayonetta 2 after SEGA told them to stop production until Nintendo stepped up and made that deal with SEGA.

            1. And now that Bayonetta 2 performed better on one platform compare to two 60+ million sold platforms in its first 2 1/2 years with Bayonetta 1, it could get another sequel with Nintendo.

  4. So Sega thinks they will do better on PC games and downloadables? Well, let me just say this. People spend money on GOOD games. You can make shitty Sonic games for the Ps3, or the Wii U, or the fucking Ipad. A shitty game is a shitty game no matter what platform it’s released on, and sales will indicate this.

    Sega should have focused on the quality of their Sonic games and they would not be in this situation.

    The president of Sega should resign, and apologise to the employees at Sega for drowning the company staleness, and mediocrity. He clearly does not have the ability to operate a gaming company like Sega.

    It pisses me off to know end that one of the most classic and historic video game company is going to go out of business because of the incompetence of one man.

    1. I agree 100% with you. I’m seriously having trouble believing that SEGA is actually doing this… So much for the next Sonic game… (I’m not talking about Runners but I mean on the consoles)

  5. If Sonic Boom was them concentrating on Sonic then they’re in even bigger trouble than they are now. They gave it out to Big Red Button and said to hell with it and released a broken mess, further tarnishing Sonics reputation. If SEGA hadn’t been bought out years ago they’d probably be dead now or companies would be picking off their corpse.

    1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

      Don’t hold your breath. Sega is still making money off of Sonic cartoons & merchandise. They won’t let that cash cow go till even the cartoons & merchandise start to decline in popularity & sales.

    1. I agree. SEGA would not be in this position if they partnered with Nintendo and gave Nintendo the rights to make Sonic games and receive some of the profits.

      Imagine a “GOOD” Sonic game… It would sell like crazy AND imagine a SEQUEL to a good Sonic game. It would double in sales at least.

    1. That should be the feasible option. The only thing that really needed to be done was to fire whoever thought it was a good idea to take the fastest thing alive, a gaming icon notorious for this, and slow him to a crawl.
      That’s what really killed sonic boom. Sonic heroes was still focused on combat, yet still fast enough to be fun!

  6. Offtopic-ish sorry but..

    Why the heck does this blog keep using that disgusting picture of the dirty Sonic figure?.. It’s bothered me forever already but really it’s nasty.

  7. So I’m guessing that deal with Nintendo about making four Nintendo exclusive Sonic games isn’t gonna happen anymore? I mean it’s not like they were producing anything good anyway.

  8. On Metacritic, Sonic Boom has a 32/100 on the Wii U and a 46/100 on the 3DS. If they want better sales, then they should make better games. The hardware has nothing to do with it.

  9. They said “focusing”, not “going to stop releasing for consoles”.

    In other words, they’re giving PC and Smartphone games higher priority over console games, not abandoning console games altogether.

    After all, their current release schedule isn’t really affected, meaning that the games they were making for consoles before the announcement will still be released for consoles.

    1. That’s just PR talk to calm console gamers down, they’re never or very rarely releasing console games from now on

      1. Why does everyone use the words “PR” to counter arguments that try to see the bright side of things or arguments that try to interpret wording in a positive light?

        At least the company’s not closing down or being sold to another company. (Hudson Soft and THQ are two of them. Heck, Hudson Soft even made their own console at one stage {the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, in case you’re wondering}).

  10. So Nintendo could of bought Rare years ago and failed.
    They could of bought Capcom but failed.
    They could of bought Atlus but failed.

    Nintendo could of had so many good IP’s exclusive to their platforms. Imagine Megaman, Resident Evil, Persona, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Conker etc exclusive to their platforms but instead they don’t buy them and give us 5-6 quality games a year and have 10 gaming droughts a year.

    They don’t even include an AC charger for the New 3DS. I have no idea wtf is wrong with this comapny sometimes.

    1. Rare was impossible because Microsoft had more money than they do so that doesn’t count especially since Microsoft KILLED Rare on contact anyway. Rare is dead.

      Nintendo didn’t failed on buying Capcom because nobody else wanted the company yet so calm down.

      Now that Sega is falling down, Atlus could be up for grabs again so let’s see if Nintendo can pick up the pieces or maybe buy Sega who owns Atlus so it’s killing two birds with one stone. Time will tell.

    2. Oh and about Nintendo not buying Rare, it was ultimately Rare’s decision to accept or not. They were far more successful and happy with Nintendo but they turned their backs and accepted the devil’s hand. Now they’ve paid the ultimate price: Reputation is shot, most of Rare’s veterans have left, Banjo is ruined, Conker is ruined, now the company is just a shell or a ghost of its former glory.

    3. Maybe they didn’t want to seem all powerful and hog all of those games for their consoles? *laughs*

      Seriously though, Nintendo should be buying at least one of these companies and produced great quality titles with those IPs. Maybe Nintendo could have stopped Capcom from burying poor Megaman :(

  11. Here’s the deal.
    Mario = Reuse proven gameplay formula, adds something fresh to the game mechanics = success

    Sonic = Change main game mechanics & gameplay with every release = franchise dying slowly.

    Sega was founded by an American not a Japanese afaik so that means that they are following western business tradition == screw it.

      1. Sonic 06 was far from SA3. Just because it uses too many things from the games doesn’t make it even remotely a spiritual SA3. After all, ’06 technically never happened. It cost them lots of money, but it never happened.

  12. That’s what they get for the endless chain of terrible, terrible business decisions, lack of market awareness and overall big lack of competence. It was bound to happen, everybody knew that was coming sooner or later. Very sad news, 300 people lost their jobs, and it’s all the big bosses’ fault.

  13. Sir Isaac Newton of Judah

    Nintendo is wise, the knew Sega would be dirt cheap one day. Why buy Atlus, when you can purchase Atlus’ mother company plus shenmue for what ever is equivalent to a cent on a dollar for the Yen.

  14. I predicted that sega would fail competing with Nintendo! Lets face it everyone is tired of sonic! They should focus on other franchises!

  15. This is all Sega t blame you can’t blame Nintendo for none of this and they didn’t fail on buying nothing also if Sega would listen to their fans and bring back games like Jet Set Radio Knights etc and make their games right instead of barely finishing them then they would had did better now all they can do is hope to do good on the PC Mobile market or/and sell IP’s they are not going to use if Nintendo do buy they then cool they should I would love they got the money but is it really better for them to just because they buy them do not mean that the way Sega make games will change just like that Sega is hard head just like Nintendo so if this do happens it will take time but I can see it happen with Yuji Naka putting games on the Wii U and 3DS it would be cool seeing him with Nintendo so him and Miyamoto can work on games together Yuji Naka love fast gameplay so he could be head of a new F-Zero game and Miyamoto did create F-Zero so why not.

  16. First Atari,Now Sega.,lol

    Nintendo you next Buddy

    PlayStation 4 reaching 40million sold End of December 2015

    First most powerful console to also be the most selling in hisTory of Gaming.

      1. jtz from Judah the Lion Tribe

        That’s because Sony thought about power, technology and graphics during PS4’s R&D were as Nintendo thought about the 2005 Xbox 360 in Wii U’s R&D. That’s why PS4 is selling well.

  17. I can see Nintendo buying up some of Sega’s IPs like Bayonetta and Sonic.
    Microsoft will probably buy up JetSet Radio and Total War.
    Sony will most likely buy up nothing because really, we all know Sony has LOADS of games…. said no one ever..

      1. Phantasy Star, usually exclusive to PlayStation? You’re…you’re joking, right? The only Phantasy Star that’s been exclusive to PlayStation is PSO2, and even then, it’s cross platform between Vita, PC, and Mobile. Yakuza makes sense, but since I’m not weeb I don’t really know much about Hatsune Miku.

  18. Well, Sonic Team, the lifeblood of Sega, has with almost 100% consistency been an embarassment to itself since Shadow the Hedgehog. They are completely without inspiration or direction. It would only take one resourceful fan to create a 3D sonic platformer using the better ideas from Adventure 2 and uploaded it to the internet to shame nearly everything Sonic Team has done in the past ten years!

  19. What a stunning failure of a company Sega is. Seriously. The turned from my favorite company of all time to nothing more than an afterthought so quickly…

  20. All this means is Nintendo is closer to acquiring both Sonic and Atlus. Not to mention, if they buy out SEGA as a whole they have a TON of already existing IPs that could use some Nintendo revamp.

  21. “The move comes about due to the inevitable sales failure of Sonic Boom on both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.”

    Uh… Of course it was going to fail if it was such an awful game, even Bayonetta 2 coming from a smaller company and a name no one knew existed did better than Sonic, why? QUALITY!

  22. Sonic boom was awful. They brought this on themselves by forcing the release dates. They’ve been dicking around way too much lately

  23. This news makes me sad. Just played the Sonic Boom demo today. Wasn’t horrible but not so great. But if they took just a small amount of time and effort to see what their core fanbase wanted and maybe even considered working with someone like Nintendo to make it exclusively for their platforms (Wii U & 3DS only = Chao Gardens again) they’d have a hit. Most Sonic fans just want Sonic Adventure 3. If that’s impossible, fine, say that and then begin work on a new Sonic game/series that could reintroduce and build upon what fans thought was good about SA. Instead of continually coming up with plots straight out of Saturday morning cartoons with some random gameplay gimmick for each game or completely trying to re-invent the wheel but creating more of a square like Sonic Lost World just try and connect with your fanbase and give them what they want.

  24. Somehow, this shit doesn’t surprise me the slightest. Since they’ve began making PC exclusive titles and the recent Sonic mobile games, I’ve had the gut feeling that Sega would abandon their console and handheld customers. The fact that their older IP’s will live in the form of Tv shows, film adaptions, and digital games doesn’t help.

  25. Dream on Gay Babies,Nintendo isn’t buying anything,Mark my words,they won’t buy Sega,they busy working on QOL project, to further lose more money,Nintendo is following Sega’s Future

    1. jtz from Judah the Lion Tribe

      Yeah Aeolus Nintendo is sort of stupid. Not doing anything to keep Rare ware just alerting them go without a fight. Then years later ask Microsoft to buy Banjo Kazooie IP after Nintendo gave up 49% of Rarer are to Microsoft? Should have thought of that when dumbtendo had 49% ownership of Rare ware. And you guys think Dumbtendo is going to buy Sega? Get real. Their too stupid to have common sense.

  26. Sega you dodged death once with Nintendo’s help….now you waltz right back towards oblivion? Do NOT focus on mobile shit. do not focus on Digital only stuff. You’re going to end up like Capcom…

  27. I thought they were on the right track with Sonic Lost Worlds. It wasn’t the best Sonic game, but it was fun for sure. A sequel could have fixed the problems and made for a fantastic Sonic game.

    1. The people who developed Sonic Boom didn’t even work for SEGA, Sonic Boom was licensed out to a third party company. A ton of the people who worked on Sonic Boom did get laid off/fired/quit that company, though.

  28. jtz from Judah the Lion Tribe

    Sega Sega sega . So sad. I hope dumbtendo gets commonsense sooner than later or they’ll be where Sega is. Only differense is Nintendo still makes good software just dumb on hardware.

  29. Ok their business plan is bust if their aiming for kids they should a least make more educational games so parents would buy them instead of a he which focuses on red suited Italian plumber stomping on turtles to save his girl from a monster turtle

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  31. Great, now PSO 2 will never be localized… Not as if I had any hope left, but with this I’m sure it confirms it. Hopefully Sony or Nintendo steps in and makes it a reality like Yakuza 5.

    Sadly I don’t feel bad for them, they did this to themselves. For constantly putting out mediocre games here while keeping all the good ones that people actually want in Japan. By making extremely stupid business decisions, instead they sold games no one ever asked for when they could have been selling a crap load of the ones people had been begging for.

    No idea how companies like this fail so miserably, such a shame to see them fall from the pinnacle of greatness that was the Dreamcast.

    Do they even listen to their fans or read how people feel about them on the internet? It doesn’t take much to figure it all out or what they needed to do, to actually please fans and make more money.

  32. Holy mother of fuck, talk about misleading headlines. SEGA never stated that they’d stop working on consoles, just that they were going to focus more on mobile and PC to make more profit since their console games are, for the most part, getting shitty sales.

  33. it’s sad but it was pretty much inevitable, they couldn’t get themselves back to their early days of sucess, so now comes the downsizing.

  34. A: They aren’t going to stop making console games.
    B: No one was fired, They left for voluntary early retirement and and some will come back later in the months.

  35. If only they didn’t rush their game release dates. It takes time to make things great. I feel like they worried too much about getting games under the Christmas tree in time that they forgot was the most important- the quality of the gaming experience for the players. Don’t worry about fans complaining if it took long, that usually fades with time. The final result is the thing that lasts forever. Sega needs to learn from its mistake and realize that even in Sonic, sometimes it’s ok to take things slow. Leave going fast to the blue hedgehog and not the game designers. I still see so much potential in Sega and their console gaming. Don’t give up on it just yet. It’s impossible to make everyone happy. You need to go with the lesser of to evils. Haters will exist no matter what, but don’t forget that their is still people that love Sega and will continue to buy their games. For the sake of your loyal fans, please keep trying Sega.

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  37. This report is a bit mis-leading. This news is NOT SEGA in general, but applies only to SEGA of America, who’s LA office is being closed and relocated to South California.

  38. Ridley, the Angel of Death

    If this is the beginning of the end for Sega, when the end comes & they die, I hope Nintendo buys the publishing rights to Bayonetta. I wouldn’t mind if they bought Phantasy Star & Sonic, as well.

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  44. What another sad day for Sega. Run by idiots for the last 20 years and run right into the ground. The next company to do this kinda thing are Nintendo, they are on a downwards slope, after the Wii lost momentum they have failed to impress, my brother got a Wii U for Xmas and has played it no more than 10 times, its terrible.

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  46. Thanks Sega for ruining yourself and one of the most iconic characters in video game history. You guys used to be cool, but now you are just depressing. Sonic could have been so much more I think. its a shame..

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