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What Are Sega Working On… A Look At Their Studios

Sega had a decent 2024, in terms of games released, but they also had a bad one as they laid off over 300 staff across the year and lost a few studios as they bought themselves back from the company.

The job cuts that Sega put forth across 2024 mostly impacted the European group, with roughly ~240 jobs impacted, the remaining amount came from Sega’s American branch. This follows on from the roughly 140 jobs that were cut in 2023, which while not as much as some other publishers, is still a sad thing to see.

Studios Sold:

  • Amplitude Studios - Bought itself from Sega, now independent

  • Relic Entertainment - Bought itself from Sega, now independent

These are the games that were published by Sega last year, the bolded titles are original releases:

  • Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

  • Persona 3 Reload

  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Sweep the Board

  • Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble

  • Metaphor: ReFantazio

  • Yakuza Kiwami

  • Sonic X Shadow Generations

It wasn’t just games that Sega released in 2024, with their production partners the studio also saw the release of Knuckles, Like a Dragon: Yakuza and Sonic the Hedgehog 3.


SEGA GROUP

Division 1

Last Game Released: Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble | Series: Like A Dragon series, Super Monkey Ball series

I feel like we are looping here, because last year we were talking about Division 1 and how it contains Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and how in just a few weeks they were going to release a game and here we are, saying the same thing. Before that however, we should talk about their 2024 efforts, because the studio not only released Infinite Wealth at the start of the year, later in the year they delivered a 1-2 punch on Switch with Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble and then Yakuza Kiwami.

So what is on the cards for 2025? Well Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is launching in a month and change, but that is all we know about their 2025 plans. The group is working on a new Virtua Fighter title, with the PC version of VF5 coming to PC in just a few days, and we know they have something new in the works, but there is no real name for Project Century, or even a time frame for it. Given that they released on average 2 games a year for the last few years, we could see something else from them in 2025, we just have to wait and see.


Division 2

Last Game Released: Sonic X Shadow Generations | Series: Sonic series, Olympic Games series, Puyo Puyo series

2024 was the year of Shadow, not only did he get to star in new parts of a game, he also was a key part of a movie. Sonic X Shadow Generations was the big game from the Sonic Team in 2024 and it didn’t quite hit the right notes, but it did ok. The team also look after the Puyo Puyo series and a new game in that series released last year, but you might not be aware of it, as it was only for Apple Arcade. 2024 was also an odd year for the group, as it was the first time in a long time that there was no Olympic Games.. game from them, the Mario and Sonic licence ended after Tokyo 2020, but for Paris 2024 there was nothing.

So what about 2025? Well we know that Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is in development, we got that teaser at the 2024 Game Awards and if that releases in 2025, would be a six year gap between racing games, but there is no date for it yet. Sonic Rumble, a new 32 player mobile game will release in full, there is a PC port expected, but for now mobile is the first platform to get it. Beyond those games, we might need to wait for the 2025 Sonic Central, if that happens, before we learn more.


Division 3

Last Game Released: Phantasy Star Online 2 | Series: Phantasy Star Online, Jet Set Radio

2024 saw this group continue their updates to Phantasy Star Online 2, with 2025 kicking off with a Frieren collab. But we don’t care about a game that has been around since 2012, ok we do, but that is not where the good stuff is.

It has been 12 months since we got word that Sega was developing new entries in some beloved series, like Crazy Taxi and Shinobi. We have not gotten anything official since that reveal, though in mid 2024 a video was released for Crazy Taxi, where some of the developers talk about the new one. One of the call outs is that it will be a multiplayer title, which could be quite an interesting take on the series. That does line up with some job openings that the studio has, with some asking for both open-world experience and car game experience. Given that there were 5 games shown off a year and change ago, one would hope we hear about one of them in 2025, but with open roles, there is no way of knowing.


Division 4

Last Game Released: One Piece Bounty Rush | Series: Many

This is the mobile arm of Sega, at least in Japan and they develop titles for mobile that are connected to console and arcade series. The studio has published games from the Shin Megami Tensei series, First of the North Star and of course, Hatsune Miku.

Last year saw the group team up with Bandai Namco to release One Piece Bounty Rush for mobile and PC. There is no word on what else they could be up to, but as a mobile focused group, that tracks with how those games release.


Division 5

Last Game Released: Initial D The Arcade | Series: Many

The group responsible for the arcade efforts of the company, in recent years they have scaled things back, but they are still making games. The catch is that they are like 99% focused on Japan, so whatever they do, we are unlikely to hear about it.


ATLUS

CREATIVE DEPARTMENT 1ST PRODUCTION

Last Game Released: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance | Series: Shim Megami Tensei series

After a few years of silence, we finally heard from this group in 2024 and it was with a reworking of Shin Megami Tensei V and alongside Switch, the game came to all platforms. Prior to that release, the last time we had seen this group was back in 2022 with Soul Hackers 2.

There are a lot of jobs that the studio has open, from graphic designer to cutscene designer, but none of them give hints as to what they are for, well one does but more on that in a bit. Given they released a game last year, I can’t imagine they have anything to show this year, but time will tell.


CREATIVE DEPARTMENT 2ND PRODUCTION

Last Game Released: Persona 5 Tactica | Series: Persona series

If there is one group from this studio that has worked very hard over the past few years, it is P-Studio. For context in the past 3 years they have released Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 3 Portable, Persona 5 Tactica and Persona 3 Reload.

So the job I mentioned before is for Persona, well a Producer. The problem is there is nothing in the job that points at a lot of different aspects, not just a singular game. The last main stream Persona game released in 2016, so we are now 9 years removed from that, but due to the sheer number of other games they have made, they might be going slower on Persona 6. The problem is that we just don’t know what is going on and until they announce whatever is next, we likely won’t know.


CREATIVE DEPARTMENT 3RD PRODUCTION

Last Game Released: Metaphor: ReFantazio | Series: Catherine: Full Body

Well after revealing the game back in 2016 as a project, Metaphor: ReFantazio finally got released last year. The game got some character DLC at launch, but there has been no word on if the game is going to get any sort of expansion or content update.

Given that the team just shipped a massive RPG in 2024, if they have no DLC plans, we won’t hear from them for a while.


SEGA EUROPE

CREATIVE ASSEMBLY

Locations: Sussex, England | Sofia, Bulgaria | Newcastle, England

Last Game Released: Total War: Pharaoh | Series: Total War series, Alien Isolation

It has been a while since we have heard anything decent from Creative Assembly. In 2022 they released Total War: Warhammer III and that game got a lot of updates, where as Total War: Pharaoh released a year later is not getting as much. The problem is that Creative Assembly were going all in on Hyenas and then the game was cancelled. In October 2024 the studio did announce that after 10 years they were stepping back into the world of Aliens, as they were creating a sequel to Alien: Isolation.

From all the studios currently open roles only one of them is for Alien, the rest are for Total War. In a letter to fans, the team did admit that their journey of bringing the Total War series back to where fans expected it to be is still progressing, you can read that letter here. What is interesting is that they have confirmed via the letter that 2025 will see even more content arrive for Warhammer, just no word on what it might be. With the Total War series turning 25 this year, I would bet we see something big from it, a new game reveal being the most likely.


HARDLIGHT

Last Game Released: Sonic Dream Team | Series: Sonic Dash series

2024 was not a good year for the Hardlight team as they were hit by the job cuts that Sega imposed across its European divisions. The studio released Sonic Dream Team onto Apple Arcade and it seems that they spent most of 2024 supporting that and their other Sonic mobile games.

The studio could have been working on something new, but there is no telling how the job cuts impacted the studio. The studio also does provide support to other Sega titles, but there is nothing indicating that they are doing that at this time. So for now we can enjoy what is out, because we have no idea what else is happening.


Rovio Entertainment

Last Game Released: Angry Birds Block Quest | Series: Angry Birds series

After being scooped up by Sega in 2023, 2024 looked like it could have been a good year for Rovio. The studio are the lead developers on Sonic Rumble, which launched in 2024 in select countries for a soft release, the roadmap has a ‘Winter’ release for the global launch, but who knows when that is meant to be. The studio was also set to release Angry Birds Block Quest, which did launch on Android, but with claims of AI generated art used to make the game, it was pulled from the Google Play store in November 2024.

The studio has a number of open roles they are looking to fill, but nothing in there points to something new and with more than 600 staff there, they have to have something new in the works. With the studio working on Sonic Rumble, expect them to be focused on that, while they support their countless already released mobile games.


SPORTS INTERACTIVE

Last Game Released: Football Manager 2024 | Series: Football Manager series

Normally for this group we would just say, the team just launched a game, but that would be a lie. In October 2024 the team revealed Football Manager 2025, shocker I know, but there was a shock just two weeks later when they announced the game would not release in November as planned, but would now arrive in March 2025.

There has been nothing from the team indicating that they are going to miss that window, but given they changed engines between 2024 and the upcoming 2025 release, who honestly knows. Sega have a long history of Soccer games, but this series is one of their longest running titles, even beating out Sonic in its consistency of releases. With the game expected to release in March, expect to hear more from the studio as the date gets closer.


TWO POINT STUDIOS

Last Game Released: Two Point Campus | Series: Two Point series

Two Point Museum is out in just a few weeks, given the post launch content that the last two games got, expect to see this developers name across 2025 and likely into 2026.


So that is Sega and for the first time in a while, a lot of their Japanese groups are without a major project revealed. So what are you hoping to see from them in 2025?