Sega announces due to recent financial hardships by both them and Sammy (parent company), they are restructuring the entire company with layoffs and game project cancellations in progress.
The main issue is the company itself is bleeding out cash while Sammy is unable to offset the losses due to themselves also having financial problems.
The good news is the situation is not as severe as THQ's ongoing problems and the projects not cancelled are still on track for their release dates.
The Japanese branch of the company will not be affected with the changes only affecting both the US and European branches.
Quote:
“The Consumer Business centred on Sega Corporation is expected to post operating loss in the year ending March 2012, due to the challenging economic climate and significant changes in the home video game software market environment in the U.S. and Europe.”
“Given this circumstance, the companies determined that in order to actualise earnings recovery of the Consumer Business in the following period and after and return to a growth path, it is essential to streamline organisations in the field of home video game software in the U.S. and European markets, while shifting to a structure that corresponds to change in environment, including strengthening development in the field of digital content.”
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In terms of actual games, none of the bigger or AAA labeled titles will be affected but the company will cancel a lot of their smaller and "riskier" projects. It also means they will take less risks with newer IPs which is the opposite of what they were doing for most of this generation.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...ining-process/
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Daily Recap:
1) A long lost Easter egg has been discovered in Goldeneye 007 for the N64 and it involves the game containing an actual emulator and 10 games for the ZX Spectrum system primarily sold in the UK. A fan-made patch will actually activate the games making them playable on a ROM version.
http://kotaku.com/5897828/long-lost-...d-in-goldeneye
2) Before Warner Bros rejected the idea after buying out Midway Games, there were plans by Midway to reboot their Rampage series as a Kinect title based on recently leaked concept images.
http://kotaku.com/5897533/looks-like...in-development
3) EA announces they will not be making a UEFA Euro 2012 game this year and instead will offer the tournament as a DLC pack for FIFA 12 on April 18 for the price of 1800 MS Points ($22.50).
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...n-for-fifa-12/
4) Microsoft is investigating recent claims of hackers being able to access credit card information stored on used Xbox 360 consoles who had their hard drives previously reformatted.
http://kotaku.com/5897876/microsoft-...edit-card-info
Bonus: Fan-made HD remake of Sonic 2 has been released as a free download on the PC.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/soni...-released-free