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Sega Europe is moving to recycled packaging for PC games
Remember when PC games came in a box and you had to buy them at a store? Apparently that's still a thing. To curb pollution and waste, Sega Europe is committing to using 100 percent recycled and 100 percent recyclable packaging for its PC games. The company promises that the boxes and manuals will have a premium look and feel, so collectors can still display their games with pride. The packing materials are printed with water- and vegetable-based inks to further cut down on waste. Even the shrinkwrap is recyclable.
Layoffs hit Sega Europe following restructure in US
Sega Europe suffered "a limited number of redundancies" due to a restructuring in Sega of America's Sonic and mobile divisions. The layoffs follow those that hit Sega of America in October 2013 due to another restructure. "Sega is in the process of consolidating certain functions of the Sonic and Mobile departments within Sega of America, where the management and production for those areas of the business reside," Sega told Joystiq via email. "As part of that strategy a limited number of redundancies have taken effect in our European office, based in London." Sega slashed its profit forecasts in February for the fiscal year ending March 31, cutting its expected net income by 36.2 percent to 30 billion yen ($293.5 million). [Image: Sega]
Sega Europe acknowledges Aliens: Colonial Marines trailers didn't reflect final content
Sega Europe will alter its deceptive trailers of Aliens: Colonial Marines in the UK to acknowledge the difference between promotion and final product. GI.biz reports a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK by a Reddit user triggered Sega to make amends in order to avoid a formal investigation."Sega Europe acknowledged your objection that the trailers did not accurately reflect the final content of the game," Niall McVeigh, complaints executive at the Advertising Standards Authority wrote. "[Sega] agreed to add a disclaimer, both on their website and in all relevant YouTube videos, which explains that the trailers depict footage of the demo versions of the game. The disclaimer will be visible when each online trailer is played."According to the ASA website, the organization received four complaints. It's widely known now that Sega and developer Gearbox Software misled the press and public with inaccurate demonstrations of Aliens: Colonial Marines for years. The game currently stands as one of the worst reviewed titles of 2013.
Sega shuttering several offices across Europe and Australia
Sega's European arm is closing offices in four European regions and Australia, the company announced this morning. The move is part of Sega's continued "restructuring" toward a smaller company – a result of "extraordinary" losses incurred over the past few years. Sega offices in France, Spain, Benelux, Germany, and Australia are being closed.Taking up distribution responsibilities in lieu of Sega is Koch Media, parent company of Dead Island publisher Deep Silver, who will handle things in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and Spain. Handling Benelux and Australia are Level03 Distribution and 5 Star Games, while Sega's London office will remain open in an oversight capacity.Sega Europe COO Jurgen Post reconfirmed Sega's commitment to its core IPs in the announcement. "SEGA is entering a new and exciting phase that will position the company as a content led organisation maximising sales with strong and balanced IP such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise." He also noted Sega's "confident that this will lead to a successful future."It's at this time unclear how many Sega employees were let go in today's office closures, but we've reached out to the company for more info.
Wii U dev kits to be updated to latest prototyping hardware in the coming weeks
Nintendo couldn't have put all those glorious names of third party developers up alongside its Wii U announcement earlier this month without giving those companies at least a glimpse at the actual hardware they'd have to code on. Sega Europe's Gary Dunn was among those to have tinkered with a development kit before we even knew what the Wii U would be called, but he says that Nintendo intends to refresh that hardware to the latest prototype model at some point before the end of July. According to Gary, coding for the new system is pretty straightforward, and though he wouldn't get into specifics about performance, he does expect more details to emerge once Nintendo starts distributing the latest version of the Wii U dev platform. Asked about how it compares to the Xbox 360 and PS3, Sega's dev leader simply said the new Nintendo console is "different."
What Sega is making now: lots of swag
Sega of Europe had a bunch of swag made up for its "Summer Sizzle" event and, knowing how much we enjoy looking at things with the Sega logo on them, posted some pictures of the bounty handed out to lucky attendees. We'll highlight each item while also highlighting a video game that Sega passed over in favor of inconsequential swag. Sega t-shirt (produced instead of the Wii Jet Set Radio game) Sega water bottle holder (just cut into the budget that would have gone into a new traditional Phantasy Star RPG) Sega fan (sorry, human Sega fans -- no Yakuza 3 localization!) Sega flash drive (the data for Panzer Dragoon Saga 2 might fit on here, if Sega made it) Sega flip-flops ("We're making Shenmue 3! No, no we're not.") To everyone who attended the event, and to future winners when the company gives this stuff away on Twitter: enjoy your t-shirt!
Guilty Gear coming to XBLA
With so many places to gather information from these days, it's rare that a game is actually announced by the people who are really making it, and this time is no exception. After the very recent release of Guilty Gear X2 #Reload to the Xbox Originals download service, this might seem to be a rather strange move, but still, Sega is looking to bring another Guilty Gear game to the 360, this time via the Live Arcade. The European ratings board just got up its rating for the game, which is simply entitled Guilty Gear. While it is of course unknown at this time whether or not the game is going to be a straight remake of the original or something new, given XBLA's history, a port of the original PS1 game seems likeliest.
