SEGA is reportedly planning to cut 240 jobs across a number of its studios, with Total War developer Creative Assembly, SEGA Europe, and Sonic Dream Team developer Hardlight being the studios set to be affected by these layoffs. Meanwhile, the publisher has announced that it’s sold Company of Heroes developer Relic, which now plans to go independent.
This news is the latest to break in what’s been a terrible year for games industry layoffs so far, especially among big publishers, with Microsoft having laid off 1,900 staff from its video game division in late January, and PlayStation having let 900 staff go just last month. While the numbers involved in these cuts aren’t as huge, they do also follow SEGA of America laying off 61 people earlier this year, after announcing plans to “phase out” tepmorary workers in controversial fashion late last year.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, most of the layoffs are set to affect staff at Creative Assembly and Sega Europe, while Hardlight will seemigly see a smaller number of cuts. Neither Two Point Hospital studio Two Point Studios or Football Manager developer Sports Interactive, both of which are also owned by SEGA, were mentioned as part of these cuts.
