Sega Europe has introduced sweeping layoffs that have an effect on Total War maker Creative Assembly and Sonic Dream Team developer Hardlight.
Sega Europe boss Jurgen Post despatched employees an electronic mail this morning notifying them of the cuts, in addition to the sale of Company of Heroes and Dawn of War developer Relic Entertainment. The layoffs have an effect on roughly 240 roles throughout Sega Europe, Creative Assembly, and a “small number” at Hardlight. Football Manager developer Sports Interactive and Two Point Hospital developer Two Point Studios, additionally owned by Sega Europe, weren’t talked about.
Sega didn’t disclose how many employees at every studio had been affected, however did subject IGN an further replace on the standing of Creative Assembly's upcoming tasks: "Creative Assembly continues to have multiple projects in development with Total War and a new unannounced project.”
Post said the sale of Relic had been agreed and the studio is transitioning to become independently run, which means it is no longer part of Sega. “Sega is working closely with Relic on this shift, and we wish them the best for the future,” Post said.
Relic issued a statement of its own, saying it had become independent with the help of an unnamed external investor. It added that work on updating real-time strategy game Company of Heroes 3 continues, and indeed it will continue to support its games.
Important Update from Relic Entertainment pic.twitter.com/nCcF8olDaC
— Relic Entertainment (@relicgames) March 28, 2024
Post then apologised to staff at Sega Europe, and insisted the cuts were necessary “to secure the future of our games business”.
“Before I go on, 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.
“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.”
Post then apologised to any employees who discovered in regards to the layoffs from social networks or the media earlier than Sega itself. “Sega Sammy Holdings made a declaration regarding this news to the Tokyo Stock Exchange moments ago,” Post mentioned. “Due to the nature of this announcement and our legal obligations in Japan, we were unable to share any detail with you until now. That is far from ideal and means some of you may have read about this in the media or via social networks before seeing this email. If that is the case, I’m sorry.
“Again, I want to reiterate that these are not decisions we take lightly. Every affected employee will be treated with respect and compassion, and you have my commitment on the following:
“We will provide support to affected employees where we can, including severance pay, career support and access to independent and internal guidance. We will adhere to the proper regional processes for redundancy. We will communicate individually with everyone affected to offer as much transparency on this process as we can. More details relating to impacted business areas and associated roles will be communicated in due course from within the affected business units.
“I fully appreciate this means we are moving into a very unsettled phase, and I ask that we all look after each other through this difficult time.”
These layoffs are the latest at Sega Europe and throughout the video game industry in what’s one of the hardest occasions for builders in current memory. In May 2023, Sega Europe laid off 121 employees from Relic. Then, in September, Sega canceled Hyenas, the multiplayer extraction shooter in growth at Creative Assembly, with a source telling IGN all the growth staff confronted redundancy. Late final 12 months, Total Assembly launched Total War: Pharaoh, which has struggled to seek out an viewers. The studio additionally apologized for various missteps it had made with Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC.
In January of this 12 months, Sega of America laid off 61 staff because it moved to outsource QA and localization, a transfer which impacted AEGIS-CWA union members. At the time, the union mentioned it was capable of negotiate to double the quantity of saved jobs, and offer severance to non permanent staff.
Overnight, AEGIS-CWA announced they had ratified their first contract with Sega, much less than a 12 months after their recognition as a legal union. The contract consists of a quantity of employee protections, together with raises for all unit members (roughly 150 full-time and non permanent workers), Just Cause protections, layoff protections together with a recall listing and severance, dedication to crediting all staff on video games they work on, and a quantity of different advantages.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].