It hasn’t been a fantastic month for the Australian games industry, and news that SEGA has just cut 37 jobs hasn’t made things any easier.
SEGA today confirmed with Kotaku that SEGA Studios Australia has undergone a restructuring that has made 37 of their 80 employees redundant.
“As SEGA Studios Australia nears completion of London 2012™ – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games, it is essential to look to the future and take steps to ensure long-term growth and success.” SEGA said in a statement. “The rise of digital gaming provides an opportunity to align the studio with a rapidly growing market at a time when the games industry is undergoing a significant transition. To this end, we can confirm that SSA has signed a multi-product deal focussing across the digital marketplace. We have commenced development on these titles and will announce more details in the near future.”
“As part of this focus on digital avenues, there is a requirement to re-structure the studio resources accordingly and regrettably, we are announcing the loss of 37 staff. The decision to downsize was not taken lightly but this strategic re-structure will ensure we have a more effective and agile team that will enable us to quickly adapt to consumer needs and deliver strong content across multiple digital platforms. We thank those team members affected for their contributions and wish them well in their future endeavours. We are very confident that their efforts on London 2012™ will help us deliver the highest quality official Olympic video game to date.”
Reporting on job losses in the industry never gets easier. Best of luck to those who were effected today.
[Kotaku]