Sega has announced plans to cut 240 jobs across various UK studios, with Creative Assembly and Sega Hardlight among those affected.
As widespread layoffs continue to impact the games industry, Sega is now the latest company to make significant job cuts.
Sega is set to cut 240 roles across various UK studios, with the majority impacting its London-based offices at Sega Europe and Total War developer Creative Assembly. A ‘small number’ will be cut from Sega Hardlight, who released mobile title Sonic Dream Team last year.
There is no mention of other UK-based Sega studios, namely Two Point Studios, known for Two Point Hospital, and Football Manager developer Sports Interactive.
This comes after a wave of layoffs hit Creative Assembly last year following the cancellation of its online shooter Hyenas.
As part of these cutbacks, Sega has also sold Canadian developer Relic Entertainment, who are best known for the Company Of Heroes games and Age Of Empires 4. As confirmed in a statement, Relic will now operate as an independent studio.
‘With an external investor, Relic Entertainment will become an independently-run development studio,’ a statement on Twitter reads. ‘This is a huge change for us, but one thing does not change; we want to create amazing experiences for our players.
‘To our fans, we want to assure you we will continue to support our titles, including Company Of Heroes 3 – we are looking forward to the 1.6 update in April, loaded with new content and features requested by our community.’
Sega Europe boss Jurgen Post notified the various teams in an email to staff, where he said the cuts were ‘necessary to secure the future of our games business’.
‘Sega is working closely with Relic on this shift, and we wish them the best for the future,’ Post wrote (via Gamesindustry.biz). ‘I want to sincerely apologise for the worry and understandable distress this news will cause, particularly for those directly affected.
‘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.’
He added: ‘We need to streamline, focus on what we are good at, and position ourselves as best we can for the road ahead. 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.’
Sega previously laid off 121 employees at Relic Entertainment last year, where the company cited the need to ‘restructure our organisation’ against ‘challenging’ external factors affecting the industry at large.
This is part of a wider spree of layoffs across the industry, with staff at Microsoft, Riot Games, Sony and many others all affected within recent months.
Email [email protected], leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.
MORE : A Sega Mega Drive watch is about to be released – but it’ll cost you
MORE : ‘We want to surpass Mario with Sonic,’ says Sega exec
MORE : ‘We are thinking of reviving other classical Sega IPs,’ says top exec
Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us at [email protected].
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
Sign up to all the exclusive gaming content, latest releases before they’re seen on the site.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.