Three mergers, a merger and a split, a new developer and a lone survivor. Sega hopes this is the winning formula for future success.
Sega has announced some details on the reorganization of its development studios. Where it was originally reported that some would be closed and others created, it has turned out that more merging than closing will take place, with the true creation of only one new developer.
Six of the original nine Sega developers will combine into three new ones, while Amusment Vision and Smile Bit will each supply talent to two studios made up of their developers. Sega-AM2 will stay put. The biggest story to come from all of this is that Yu Suzuki will be forming his own development studio under the Sega wing. It's still unnammed, and it's unknown where his development team will come from.
Each of Sega's seven new development studios will concentrate their development on a specific type of game. For instance, Wow and Overworks will make games suitable for all ages, while one of the AV/Smile Bit groups will make nothing but sports games. Sega hopes that this sort of approach will help them streamline game development and prove more efficient in the future.
Here's a quick summary of what the new Sega seven is going to look like, when the reorganization is complete later this year:
- Sonic Team and United Game Artists
- Hitmaker and Sega Rosso
- Wow and Overworks
- Parts of Amusement Vision and Smile Bit
- Parts of Amusement Vision and Smile Bit
- Sega-AM2
- Yu Suzuki's New Studio
