SEGA Announces Studio Restructure: Sonic Team to Merge With United Game Artists

SEGA is taking some dramatic moves to slim down its operations this year, as it has announced that it will be 'reorganising' its entire games business. Only one of its studios (Sega-AM2) will remain unaffected as every other development unit will be merged into (and split off from) one another.

Planet Gamecube writes that it was originally reported that some of SEGA's studios would be closing down as part of the reorganisation. But this doesn't seem to be the case anymore, now that we have a better idea of what exactly is happening.

Sonic Team and United Game Artists (known for Space Channel 5 and Rez) will merge into one unified gaming studio. The same will happen for Hitmaker (Virtual On, Crazy Taxi) and Sega Rosso (Sega Rally, NASCAR). Overworks (Shinobi, Sakura Wars) will integrate into Wow Entertainment (House of the Dead). Parts of Amusement Vision (Super Monkey Ball) and Smilebit (Jet Set Radio) will integrate and split into new projects, such as Sega Sports titles.

A brand new studio will also be set up, which will be run by Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki.

From Planet Gamecube:

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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.

No news yet on when the reorg is due to take place, but we'll let you know if there are any more updates.

Source: Mainichi (Japanese)