Sega Sammy Holdings, parent company of the Japanese video game publisher Sega, announced on Thursday the elimination of around 240 additional jobs in Europe, after 250 jobs already eliminated since the end of last September in this region where its activities are currently resenting.
Consumer trends “are evolving rapidly, especially in Europe,” including a decline in demand for domestic activities such as video games in a post-Covid context and “the economic slowdown due to inflation,” Sega Sammy justified in a statement.
For this reason, last September the group undertook a restructuring of its activities in Europe to improve its profitability by “optimizing” its fixed costs and being more selective in its investments.
8,200 employees worldwide
In Europe, the group has offices and video game development studios in the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Turkey. It also owns the Finnish Rovio (“Angry Birds”) since last year, and the French studio Amplitude since 2016.
As of 2023, Sega Sammy had more than 8,200 permanent employees worldwide, including 2,355 outside Japan, according to its latest annual report.
The group also announced Thursday the sale of its Canadian studio Relic Entertainment, which it acquired in 2013.
This studio specialized in strategy video games (“Warhammer 40,000” franchise, “Ages of Empires IV”) will be sold to the British investment company Emona Capital. The financial conditions of this transaction have not been specified.
The entire global video game sector is currently suffering from austerity: Microsoft announced in early January 1,900 layoffs at its Xbox and Activision Blizzard subsidiaries, followed in February by Japan’s Sony, which eliminated 900 jobs at its Playstation subsidiary.
The American Epic Games, creator of the popular video game Fortnite, also announced last September the dismissal of about 830 people, that is, 16% of its workforce.
Source: BFM TV
