240 jobs gone and Relic sold off as Sega reckons with the hangover of 'the favorable winds of the early Covid-19 period'
The videogame industry's unending anni horribiles continued today as Sega announced it would be laying off 240 staff across Sega Europe, mobile developer Sega HARDlight, and Total War studio Creative Assembly. To top it off, the corporation has also sold Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment, which will transition to being an independently-run studio with the aid of «an external investor» in the years to come.
In a statement on Twitter, Relic told fans that its shift to being an independent studio was a «huge change» for the company, but that it wouldn't affect ongoing support for Company of Heroes 3 or its upcoming 1.6 update this April.
Important Update from Relic Entertainment pic.twitter.com/nCcF8olDaCMarch 28, 2024
Though grim, the layoffs aren't entirely unexpected. In September last year, Sega announced that it would be making «structural reforms» at its European studios after abruptly scrapping Hyenas, Creative Assembly's doomed live-service shooter. The company made another series of cuts around that time.
But it wasn't done, as Sega has now released a statement announcing this latest round of layoffs, and which refers directly to its September promise of «structural reforms». Sega says that it is responding to «reactionary decline from the stay-at-home demand in Covid-19 and the economic downturn due to inflation, etc,» as well as a general downward trend in profitability.
The layoffs are meant to «promptly adapt to these changes in the environment and improve profitability», as is the Relic sell-off. Writing to staff (via GI.biz), Sega Europe boss Jurgen Post apologised to those affected by the cuts but claimed they were «to secure the future of our games business,» before saying Sega and its owned studios need to «streamline, focus on what we are good at, and position ourselves as best we can for the road ahead.»
Back in November, Sega gave a presentation to investors in which it claimed that its live-service push with Creative Assembly was
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