Do you remember a year or two ago, Sega couldn’t stop buying and opening Western development studios, in the hope that the result would be more games appealing to the North American market? Well that’s starting to crumble already.
Britain’s own Sega Racing Studio – based in Birmingham – only managed to produce the rather good Xbox 360 etc version of Sega Rally in three years, and has now been closed.
“The decision is part of a review of Sega’s Western Development Studios to ensure that each studio is a profitable entity in its own right, and unfortunately the Sega Racing Studio’s 5 year plan would not result in a successful return for the Sega business moving forward. Sega would like to stress that there will be no changes within their other internal development studios.”
So basically Sega Rally didn’t sell enough copies – it was going for half price in the festive sales, only about four months after release – and that’s the only chance they were given. Harsh, but that’s business.