Sega sells off Relic Entertainment and undergoes job cuts

Relic Entertainment has been under the SEGA umbrella for years now, producing games like Company of Heroes and Dawn of War, while also offering development resources for partners like Microsoft. Now, Relic is transitioning, splitting off from SEGA to become an independent studio. 

Today, it was announced that Relic is buying itself out and going independent. It is unclear if the Company of Heroes IP will go with the studio but the company should still have steady work, as it is a key partner for Microsoft's revived Age of Empires series.

Unfortunately, there is some bad news to go along with all of this. SEGA is cutting 240 jobs across its SEGA Europe, SEGA Hardlight and Creative Assembly studios. Creative Assembly had already suffered a bit of a hit in 2023, after its shooter project, Hyenas, was cancelled.

As pointed out by GI.biz, SEGA was quick to apologise to employees learning about this now through social media and news outlets. Due to rules requiring SEGA to inform the Tokyo Stock Exchange beforehand, the news spread rather quickly.

SEGA also says that these job cuts will help the publisher “streamline” operations to “focus on what we are good at”. This news also arrives alongside news that Sega employees have become the first in the games industry to ratify a union contract. Other studios across the industry are also working towards unionising.

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KitGuru Says: I can't help but feel that Creative Assembly found its calling with Alien Isolation and should have been encouraged to continue down that path. Horror games have been having a resurgence in recent years and I'm sure we all would have loved to have seen Alien Isolation 2, rather than an attempt at a live-service shooter like Hyenas. 

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