So, last week Sega announced it was offering voluntary redundancy to 300 of its staff. Globally, the corporation's US operation is likely to be hardest hit, as it moves its operation from San Francisco to southern California.
While troubling for the company as a whole, more worrying still for Sega's dedicated hardcore of weird fans (and, as unlikely as it sounds, they do still exist), it's repositioning itself as a smartphone and online PC game business.
While troubling for the company as a whole, more worrying still for Sega's dedicated hardcore of weird fans (and, as unlikely as it sounds, they do still exist), it's repositioning itself as a smartphone and online PC game business.
Its corporate guff-statement read: "Voluntary retirement will be solicited in the aforementioned businesses to be withdrawn or consolidated and downsized, while at the same time personnel will be repositioned in Digital Games and growth areas of Group mainly as development personnel, in order to establish a structure which can constantly generate profits. The purpose of these measures is to improve the business efficiency of the Group."
In short: the Japanese-owned, one-time console giant is finally moving away from console gaming, after years of flailing around like a foal on roller-skates, as its profits slid away like an oyster down a windshield. SIMILIE OVERLOAD!!!
In short: the Japanese-owned, one-time console giant is finally moving away from console gaming, after years of flailing around like a foal on roller-skates, as its profits slid away like an oyster down a windshield. SIMILIE OVERLOAD!!!
SO WHAT DID HAPPEN?
Last year, Sega released Creative Assembly's respectably-selling Alien: Isolation, and the guaranteed banker that is Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2015, but the likes of Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault - a decent enough WW2 PC strategy expansion - disappeared without a trace.
But the real question is: what was Sega doing releasing it in the first place?
From our perspective, atop our Tower of Righteous Indignation, the biggest problem is that Sega lost its focus, and has struggled to hold onto the attitude that made it great. It was almost like it never recovered confidence after the collapse of its console hardware business, and never is this more apparent than when it comes to its perma-flailing Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
Though supported by animated and comic series, the Wii U's Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (the name alone tells you it's not a game you ever want) failed to achieve any real glory, and was critically panned. A patchwork of underwhelming platform stages, adventure-ish exploring, and tedious boss battles, it felt like a game in search of identity.
Sadly, that search seems reflected in the company that released it.
Last year, Sega released Creative Assembly's respectably-selling Alien: Isolation, and the guaranteed banker that is Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2015, but the likes of Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault - a decent enough WW2 PC strategy expansion - disappeared without a trace.
But the real question is: what was Sega doing releasing it in the first place?
From our perspective, atop our Tower of Righteous Indignation, the biggest problem is that Sega lost its focus, and has struggled to hold onto the attitude that made it great. It was almost like it never recovered confidence after the collapse of its console hardware business, and never is this more apparent than when it comes to its perma-flailing Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
Though supported by animated and comic series, the Wii U's Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (the name alone tells you it's not a game you ever want) failed to achieve any real glory, and was critically panned. A patchwork of underwhelming platform stages, adventure-ish exploring, and tedious boss battles, it felt like a game in search of identity.
Sadly, that search seems reflected in the company that released it.
PRETTY PROFIT
Sega is still a company able to post a profit, but those profits have seen steady decline as the years have gone on. Frankly, the rot set in long ago - from the heady heights of the Mega Drive era, the company seemed beset by its own lack of direction. Somewhere early on, the corporate satnav broke, and nobody knew how to read a map.
Mega CD, 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast... its exit from console hardware - Nintendo's arch rival - to releasing a game like Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics (note who has top billing there), to releasing Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault, to getting out of the console "biz" altogether. But even Alien: Isolation seems like a weird fit for the brand which gave us Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Out Run, Streets of Rage, and Toe Jam & Earl.
Nintendo might be a stubborn iconoclast, it might trade on the strength of its back catalogue, but last year was a creative high for Wii U games, and it's a strategy that seems to work just enough. Nintendo might not have the funds to keep pace with the faceless behemoths of Sony and Microsoft - as tediously homogenised as the rest of the games industry may have become - but Nintendo has never lost sight of who it is.
Sega clearly thinks a corporate strategy that focuses on mobile games is one that's going to pay off for it - mobile versions of Super Monkey Ball and Crazy Taxi have already done well - but it just seems like a shame, when any old pleb can publish something on the App Store. It's hard not to see the latest news as "Goodbye, Sega". From being the Sony of their day, they're now aiming to carve out a slice of the mobile pie alongside modest-ish outfits like Halfbrick and Rovio.
It's a bit like finding David Bowie busking on the London Underground, with a can of Tennant's Super next to his begging bowl.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
Sega is still a company able to post a profit, but those profits have seen steady decline as the years have gone on. Frankly, the rot set in long ago - from the heady heights of the Mega Drive era, the company seemed beset by its own lack of direction. Somewhere early on, the corporate satnav broke, and nobody knew how to read a map.
Mega CD, 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast... its exit from console hardware - Nintendo's arch rival - to releasing a game like Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics (note who has top billing there), to releasing Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault, to getting out of the console "biz" altogether. But even Alien: Isolation seems like a weird fit for the brand which gave us Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Out Run, Streets of Rage, and Toe Jam & Earl.
Nintendo might be a stubborn iconoclast, it might trade on the strength of its back catalogue, but last year was a creative high for Wii U games, and it's a strategy that seems to work just enough. Nintendo might not have the funds to keep pace with the faceless behemoths of Sony and Microsoft - as tediously homogenised as the rest of the games industry may have become - but Nintendo has never lost sight of who it is.
Sega clearly thinks a corporate strategy that focuses on mobile games is one that's going to pay off for it - mobile versions of Super Monkey Ball and Crazy Taxi have already done well - but it just seems like a shame, when any old pleb can publish something on the App Store. It's hard not to see the latest news as "Goodbye, Sega". From being the Sony of their day, they're now aiming to carve out a slice of the mobile pie alongside modest-ish outfits like Halfbrick and Rovio.
It's a bit like finding David Bowie busking on the London Underground, with a can of Tennant's Super next to his begging bowl.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
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