Sega to cut 560 jobs

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In a self-flagellatory announcement where it admits it “failed to swiftly respond to sharp changes in the business conditions, [and] is expected to record substantial operating losses in its amusement facilities business and consumer business in two consecutive years”, Sega has announced 560 job losses.

As part of its attempts to reduce costs, Sega will:

• Close 110 amusement centres in Japan (out of 347 operating at the end of 2008)
• Offer voluntary redundancy to 560 employees (out of 3,127)
• Reduce R&D expenses through “consolidating titles to be developed” (in the same way that EA has said that it will reduce the SKU count for the next couple of years)

It is not clear whether all of the redundancies will take place in Sega’s Amusement Centre division, which runs pachinko arcades in Japan and has suffered from “sluggish personal consumption”, or whether the divisions that develop and publish videogames are to be affected.

For now, we add Sega’s 560 lost jobs to the Job Loss Tracker.

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