SEGA Reduces Hundreds of Employees for “Cost Optimization"

Now many companies are cutting in order to work more efficiently (read - save on operating costs). Even the whales of the IT industry such as IBM are cutting staff. Sega decided to carry out a number of reductions as well, about which there were rumors (and not only rumors) of bankruptcy many years ago. In 2004, a company almost completely ruined was bought by Summy, the manufacturer of toys for slot machines (pachinko).

Nevertheless, the company was able to continue its work, reprofiling to new markets. Now the company’s management plans to focus on the games sector for mobile devices and PCs, so soon all non-core assets will be reduced. As part of the company's optimization project, about 300 employees will be reduced. A number of employees will not be dismissed, but their salaries and / or the amount of work will be changed, most likely, in the direction of reduction.

It is worth noting that in the 2013 fiscal year the company employed 2,200 people. Sega's US division will also close its headquarters in San Francisco and move to southern California to lower corporate costs. According to company management, the restructuring will affect only Sega staff in Europe.

Now the company is going to leave the console games market, instead, the efforts of employees will be focused on the mobile games market, as well as on the online games market for PCs. The company previously adapted a number of its console games for mobile devices, including Super Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, and a couple of Sonic series.

Sega's most recent large-scale downsizing was in 2008. Then the company made a reduction to reduce costs, because the financial results were very poor.