Sega cuts 240 UK jobs, Relic Entertainment goes independent

thesixthaxis.com:

Sega has announced another 240 job cuts for its UK-based studios, and is selling off Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment, with the studio now going independent.

The 240 jobs lost will come from across Sega Europe, Creative Assembly and Sega HARDlight. There’s no mention of Two Point Studios or Spots Interactive being affected, through CA had already been hit by redundancies after the cancellation of Hyenas last year.

The one ray of sunshine is that Vancouver-based Relic Entertainment is being sold and not subject to further layoffs at this time – they were hit by redundancies in 2023. Details of this sale are being kept private for the time being but Relic will be owned by a newly established UK investment company called Emona Capital LLP. Relic is best known for Homeworld, Dawn of War and Company of Heroes, but also worked with Microsoft on Age of Empires IV in recent years.

Head of Sega Europe Jurgen Post said in an internal email, “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.”

We wish all those affected the very best in finding new employment at this difficult time.

via GamesIndustry.biz