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We have some more details about SEGA's planned re-organisation of its studios, originally announced a few days ago. According to new reports, the paperwork for the mergers and other changes will be signed on August 18 and given approval in a stockholders meeting on August 19. If all is approved, things will move forward on October 1. Also, while it was already known that Sonic Team and United Game Artists (who created Space Channel 5 and Rez) would be merging as part of this restructure, it wasn't yet known until now what entity the resulting studio would be. Gamespot now confirms that United Game Artists will fold into Sonic Team, and Sonic Team will remain as the name of the unified studio. Similarly, Hitmaker will survive the merger between it and Sega Rosso, Wow Entertainment will survive the merger between it and Overworks (although that studio will be renamed to Wow Works), and Smilebit and Amusement Vision will in fact avoid merging after all - instead, some of Smilebit's operations will be transferred to Amusement Vision, but the two studios will remain intact. Sega-AM2 remains unaffected, and Yu Suzuki's new studio is tentatively called 'Cinematic Online Games', launching on October 1 with 50 employees. Apparently SEGA does not intend to lay off any employees as part of the restructure, meaning all who previously had roles within the studios will find a place in the new merged entities one way or another. Source: Gamespot Original Post Content: View full story

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: 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) Original Post Content: View full story