• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Sega to cut 300 jobs (heavily arcade/pub staff), refocusing on digital/mobile/PC [Up]

ArtHands

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Hopefully this means Yakuza series, Phantasy Star Nova get ported to PC =/
 
K

Kirlia

Banned
Tobor said:
Focusing on the growth of digital distribution and streamlining physical packaging operations...how is this bad news?

Here is one company actually making moves to secure its future, and people are crying doom?

You guys better get used to it, as there is going to be a lot more of this going forward.
Click to expand...

It's nice that SEGA wants to survive and all, but...

Steel said:
It would be one thing if they just said they were going for PC, but they're saying PC Online and Mobile... Fuck. So they're going to go the F2P route.
Click to expand...

...sigh. Not a done deal, but I'll be amazed if we don't see more F2P from them in the future.
 
ReBurn

ReBurn

Gold Member
AniHawk said:
damn. so that's it for sega of america? i mean completely pulling out of america (aside from atlus usa) is really an end of an era.

atlus will keep on keepin' on, i guess. they will probably have first rights to refusal for any japanese games that have potential regarding localization (mobile or otherwise). doesn't seem like there will be much though outside of sonic and maybe some stuff from their western devs.
Click to expand...

Local organizations managing packaged game software in Western markets will be streamlined. In the U.S., Sega of America, Inc. based in San Francisco will be relocated to Southern California by this summer and its existing office in San Francisco will be closed thereafter, which results in reducing fixed expenses, mainly in corporate functions. In addition, the Sonic and merchandising businesses will be reinforced to establish a structure which can generate stable profits.
Click to expand...

http://fs.magicalir.net/tdnet/2015/6460/20150130014909.pdf

They don't seem to be pulling out entirely. Just moving to someplace cheaper than San Francisco.
 
D

DrROBschiz

Member
Are they completely abandoning the console space?!?!

Because they are still sitting on some huge franchises that instill want to see games made from
...


I am very sad right now
 
D

DeuceGamer

Member
Tobor said:
Focusing on the growth of digital distribution and streamlining physical packaging operations...how is this bad news?

Here is one company actually making moves to secure its future, and people are crying doom?

You guys better get used to it, as there is going to be a lot more of this going forward.
Click to expand...

Well when jobs are cut it's always bad news. That said, I hope you are right to be optimistic.

I also agree we will see more of this with companies being more conservative with Physical retail, especially the amount of copies companies print. We've already seen this on several games this gen (specifically on Nintendo consoles so far).
 
A

AniHawk

Member
ReBurn said:
http://fs.magicalir.net/tdnet/2015/6460/20150130014909.pdf

They don't seem to be pulling out entirely. Just moving to someplace cheaper than San Francisco.
Click to expand...

yeah... i checked that out to see if they had picked a city, but nothing apparently yet.

i wasn't worried about atlus usa because sega seems to have purchased index with the sole intent of letting things run like they have been running, but i don't think whoever or whatever owns both sega and atlus will pay for two buildings within fifty miles of each other.
 
D

DrROBschiz

Member
All digital doesnt bother me.

I just want them to keep making games that are in demand

Something they have refused to do for the most part.

Im not optimistic for their output after what they have produced over the last several years

Valkyria Chronicles being the one bright star i can think of in the cesspool of junk releases
 
T

Tenebrous

Member
It sucks for those who've lost their jobs, but even as a Master System/Mega Drive kid, I don't really care much about Sega nowadays. They're pretty irrelevant in the console space, so this does make sense, I guess.

Just give the Bayonetta IP to Platinum, let Relic & CA do their own thing, and all will be good.
 
D

DrROBschiz

Member
Further why is conaole abandonment on the table.

At the very least i would expect them to produce for the market leader (ps4) which should be cheap since its essentially a PC at this point
 
O

oneida

Cock Strain, Lifetime Warranty
let's please return to earth here for a moment

sega of America is taking a huge hit, sanfran was their headquarters in the west

theyre relocating to SoCal and ATLUS is not affected at all so stfu about persona. this is not about persona
 
A

alfredofroylan

Member
Still my favorite game of the last generation
Valkyria_cover.jpg
 
D

DrROBschiz

Member
oneida said:
let's please return to earth here for a moment

sega of America is taking a huge hit, sanfran was their headquarters in the west

theyre relocating to SoCal and ATLUS is not affected at all so stfu about persona. this is not about persona
Click to expand...

I imagine Atlus still functions independently but underthe Sega umbrella. At least as long as their numbers remain in the green im guessing
 
D

Dario ff

Banned
oneida said:
let's please return to earth here for a moment

sega of America is taking a huge hit, sanfran was their headquarters in the west

theyre relocating to SoCal and ATLUS is not affected at all so stfu about persona. this is not about persona
Click to expand...
Not to mention that many of the releases people are mentioning that they liked weren't even SoA's responsibility (Football Manager, Valkyria Chronicles PC, etc.). SoA's responsibility was being in charge of the money sink that Sonic Boom was*. Relic should still be fine to operate as well as they're in Canada anyway...

I imagine this has been an ongoing trend of bad management and failures over the years at SoA that lead to this restructuring.

*: And Alien: Isolation which was pretty neat.
 
S

ShadiWulf

Member
Sonic Boom bombed, SOJ hated it to begin with. Now they are getting their revenge.

There is quite a few Console based SEGA Japan / Atlus games coming out this upcoming financial year. If they were fully axing console operations then those games wouldn't be coming out. Also, SEGA Sammy has a lot of money. They aren't poor by any means. I get a feeling most of this announcement is in regards to SEGA of America and other areas in smaller quantities.

Sorry for those who have lost their jobs.
 
T

thesolidshark

Member
Trying to stay rational and thinking what how this will affect the entire company instead of just the US branch, but as a Sega fanboy who prefers physical gaming media for as long as it can work.......

Fuck
 
S

SliceSabre

Banned
You know I was always under the impression that Sonic games, despite being dumpster fires in quality, actually sold well to kids because they don't know any better.
 
E

Endo Punk

Member
Rumors suggest they have games in the work for PS4 with Sony help. I guess this is how they will have a presence in the West now, if console developers fund their games.
 
S

Shion

Member
This is a rational move for SEGA.

Retail has been an AAA-only club for quite some time now. In the current landscape, publishers that don't invest in AAA productions lose their power at retail and can't survive on the shelves anymore. Since SEGA doesn't make AAA games, they need to explore different opportunities.

In my dream scenario, SEGA would rebuild their internal teams and focus on developing high-profile downloadable games, with global appeal, for Steam, XBLA and PSN.

But, of course, that's never going to happen.
 
L

leehom

Member
Before you lay everyone off Sega, could you give me an arcade perfect port of Initial D arcade please on next gen systems.

I will buy at least 5 copies. I have the PSP and PS3 version. I didn't like the PS3 version and the PSP version IS great. I love initial D so much I'm even contemplating the arcade in the future if it doesn't get ported :(
 
captainraincoat

captainraincoat

Banned
Kudos to sega for lasting this long...its a shame sega shot itself in the foot with the 32x...mega cd.....saturn as the dreamcast may of actually had a chance as it would of had money to advertise and spend on wooing third parties

It might of changed the landscape of what we see today....Sega may of been number one with sony in second place and Nintendo/MS fighting over the scraps

My childhood has allot of good memories of sega in their prime
 
L

Lernaean

Banned
I have accepted that Sega is dead for years now. I know their first party devs are dead, i know we'll never see the likes of JSR, of Panzer Dragoon, of REZ and Cosmic Smash, of Virtual On and Bare Knuckle, any of them again.
But it still makes me sad.
Atlus was bought by the worst possible publisher, seriously.
 
A

AniHawk

Member
Shion said:
In my dream scenario, SEGA would rebuild their internal teams and focus on developing high-profile DD games, with global appeal, for Steam, XBLA and PSN.

But, of course, that's never going to happen.
Click to expand...

i would just put it on steam. seriously. put a high-profile dd game on xbla and psn and the most people will pay is $20, maybe $30 tops. do the same for steam and you can probably hit $30 to $40 at launch and it wouldn't be considered an outrage.

i agree on the other points, but i don't think sega japan's teams have much drive anymore.
 
M

Madrugador

Member
I'm sorry to hear this but at the same time hope this means we get more PC ports like Valkyrie Chronicles.

Would love to see Bayonetta and Yakuza on PC.
 
Wiktor

Wiktor

Member
DrROBschiz said:
Further why is conaole abandonment on the table.

At the very least i would expect them to produce for the market leader (ps4) which should be cheap since its essentially a PC at this point
Click to expand...

Ermm...making PS4 games is still expensive as hell. Porting between XO and PS4 is pennies in comparision. So any situation when a company would make games solely for PS4 and not for XO would be bizzare
 
S

Sami+

Member
Former and current employees talk about the company anonymously:

http://www.tssznews.com/2015/01/30/former-sega-of-america-employees-voice-mistreatment-greed-racism/

Great people to work with and a great atmosphere. Lots of variety in projects to work on, and many interesting challenges to overcome.
The people who work here are great for the most part. Everyone is happy to help each other, and not many try to dump work onto others. At least not at this branch.
Employees were awesome and friendly
Camaraderie. The staff and middle/upper-middle management all get along really well. When deep cuts occur, you can expect a director or senior director to open a tab at the bar.
The good is vastly overshadowed by the bad, however. Multiple people speak of horrible business decisions, favoritism, racism mistreatment, disrespect, and from one person, greed:

Bad business decisions, well above my pay grade. Money over quality was the general attitude there, and we missed out on some great opportunities.
Forecast doesn’t look great. There doesn’t seem to be much opportunity for growth.
Lots of disorganization and internal office politics conflicted the productivity level. Also lots of animosity across different departments. The anxiety of security also affected work on a negative level. As it was my first established publisher QA gig, I didn’t know what to expect. But coming from a background that is more varied now, I could see the weaknesses that were all around SEGA. SEGA Japan and Europe were more of focuses until the mass layoffs and it seems they still are focused on those other regions now.
Increased pressure. There is a new directive that everyone be 100% busy 100% of the time. It’s pressing people to invent busy work for themselves so they never appear to be dawdling, or risk getting the stink eye from the new VP as he helicopters around the office.
Deteriorating morale. The new oppressive environment, the constant fear that you’ll be the next to go. It’s poisoning the camaraderie that was always the saving facet of this company. Everyone is on edge, everyone is fearful. No amount of enthusiastic floor speeches are going to keep people happy when they’re constantly looking over their shoulder and waiting on the axe to fall.
- Treated like a number
- Suck ups get to stay longer than hard and dedicated workers
- No Benefits
- Low Pay for California
Management…its always the same. They manage thru fear and threats…why can’t we get good managers?
…the reset ran out of steam and the products didn’t sell. Some didn’t sell because they weren’t any good and that wasn’t addressed by many people involved, but there were plenty of products that were good too. While the market does play a role in this I have to say that it’s not fully to blame. Most problem products weren’t righted and the organization in general just didn’t collectively have its stuff together to change that. It wasn’t for lack of good people or even processes, it largely appears that the output from such things was ignored or people even covered problems up fearing their own failures would see them out the door. The big downside of working at Sega America is of course having to work with Sega of Japan and Sega Europe, in particular having to work under the management from SOE over the last several years…which let’s face it, hasn’t worked out and on reflection appears to have not been a good idea. Yes, I’m biased…but it’s also true isn’t it? There are some great people within those overseas places yes, but there are also many failures, politicians and ineffective managers (managers, directors and VP’s) too. SOJ typically falls in line with what you’d expect of any Japanese company, essentially an organization that looks down on anyone who is not Japanese. Racism. There, I said it. As for SOE. The management (particularly that which has been managing or overseeing the entire Sega West business) has run the entire thing into the ground. A lot of those same people appear to have been doing nothing but empire building for themselves and instead of trying to make the business work have been securing themselves. Better people were ousted unnecessarily in order to pave the way for such empire building. I’m happy for the recent change of guard at Sega West, but it hasn’t really gone far enough and we needed more directors, leadership and decision-making back at SOA if only to curb the lack of insightful direction, decision-making and interfering from overseas. Why? Those involved just didn’t understand the problems from afar, thus couldn’t fix them. Ultimately it’s been difficult to get any products, business or other efforts off of the ground because of the stalemate and lack of decision-making in place and we lost so many good people because of that. There’s a lot of reason to not work there nowadays. It’s a good gig to have if you don’t have anything else going on of course, but that’s as far as I’d recommend working there.

Poor performance on new and existing game titles. Reputation as a whole has been dropping like a rock. Many people do not even know they still exist.
Click to expand...

No sympathy for this fucking joke of a company.
 
F

FireSol

Member
Tobor said:
Focusing on the growth of digital distribution and streamlining physical packaging operations...how is this bad news?

Here is one company actually making moves to secure its future, and people are crying doom?

You guys better get used to it, as there is going to be a lot more of this going forward.
Click to expand...

This is bad becasue this is another step to always online future. I thint there is no need to explays why this is bad for gamers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Interview with Shuji Utsumi (SEGA Co-COO) by Japanese media outlet Seizo-Trend
Business Game Dev
1
1K
Unknown? replied
  • Poll
SONY/SIE: The Balance Of Chasing Margins, Multiplat Expansion, And Maximizing The Console
Opinion Business Analysis 2 3
101
7K
vaibhavpisal replied
WWE and Endeavor (UFC) announce 21 billion dollar deal.
40
2K
thefool replied
[GI.biz] Analysts offer predictions for 2023 in games
16
2K
Magic Carpet replied
  • Poll
My HONEST Thoughts On Acquisitions & Market Consolidation
Opinion Poll Analysis 2 3
131
9K
Deleted member 471617 replied
Top Bottom