SEGA Studios Australia is closing down

Kotaku has received confirmation from SEGA that their Australian based games development studio will be closing down later this year. SEGA Studios Australia was established in 2002 as the Australian branch of UK-based games developer, The Creative Assembly, and was best known most for producing Total War titles such as Medieval II: Total War, and Stormrise.

When SEGA acquired The Creative Assembly in 2009, the Australian studio was re-branded as SEGA Sudios Australia and worked on London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games for consoles and PC. Released in 2012, London 2012 was touted as "the best Olympics Game to date" by a Senior Editor at IGN Australia, and was generally praised for going way above and beyond the expectations of a mere licensed title.

Towards the completion of London 2012, SEGA Studios Australia suffered drastic staff cuts as the new direction for the studio shifted towards smaller budget digitally downloadable games. From SEGA's official press release on the downsizing to half the size of the studio...

As SEGA Studios Australia nears completion of London 2012™ – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games, it is essential to look to the future and take steps to ensure long-term growth and success. The rise of digital gaming provides an opportunity to align the studio with a rapidly growing market at a time when the games industry is undergoing a significant transition. To this end, we can confirm that SSA has signed a multi-product deal focussing across the digital marketplace. We have commenced development on these titles and will announce more details in the near future.

As part of this focus on digital avenues, there is a requirement to re-structure the studio resources accordingly and regrettably, we are announcing the loss of 37 staff. The decision to downsize was not taken lightly but this strategic re-structure will ensure we have a more effective and agile team that will enable us to quickly adapt to consumer needs and deliver strong content across multiple digital platforms. We thank those team members affected for their contributions and wish them well in their future endeavours. We are very confident that their efforts on London 2012™ will help us deliver the highest quality official Olympic video game to date.