Sega Loses Big, Company Now Facing Significant Layoffs

More bad news in the form of financial results has surfaced today, this time from Sega and its results for the first three quarters of its 2009 fiscal year. This period, which ran through December 31, 2008, saw a total loss of 10.8 billion yen or $119 million USD, reports GamesIndustry.biz. It may not be as significant of a loss as the previous year's staggering $173 million loss during the same period, but needless to say, this isn't good news.

Following up on the news is word from Kotaku that Sega is poised to either close or sell 100 arcade centers in Japan, reduce research and development by 20%, and layoff 560 of the company's 3,100 employees. Layoffs are apparently in a voluntary phase currently, with those who surrender their jobs willingly to be let go next month. Things aren't looking up in the fourth quarter, either, as Sega is expecting the full fiscal year's losses to exceed $235 million.

The layoffs will hopefully be sufficient in getting Sega back on track of profitability. One thing for sure to come out of this is that, as sweet as they are, you can kiss those dreams of a Dreamcast 2 goodbye.

Source : 1Up
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]