Sega announced today as part of its financial results presentation that it has sold the Paris-based developer Amplitude Studios.
The sale, mentioned in the financial press release was completed through a “management buyout,” which usually means that someone from Ampitude’s own management purchased the studio’s independence from Sega.
Something similar happened back in July with Relic Entertainment.
Sega also mentioned that this sale completes the structural reforms of its European business that have been ongoing for a while (since September 2023).
This has allowed the company to “realize a business structure that focuses on strengths through selection and concentration.” The goal now is to “achieve regrowth” for the European business.
As a consequence, Sega has recorded a 5.9 billion yen (approximately 38.6 million dollars) loss on business restructuring as extraordinary losses.
The restructuring of the publisher’s European business has been far from painless, as it involved the cancellation of games in development (including the science-fiction first-person shooter Hyenas) and numerous layoffs.
If you’re unfamiliar with Amplitude Studios, the developer was acquired by Sega in July 2016 as part of a bid to expand in the PC gaming market.
The studio is well known for having created the Endless Space franchise and more recently Humankind and Endless Dungeon.
At the moment, the studio has not announced its plans for the future, but we’re likely to hear from them soon enough.
Update: Amplitude confirmed that’s it’s returning to its indie roots, with ownership returning to some of its original founders and members of the team. We hear from founder Romain de Waubert de Genlis:
“Our studio is backed by strong and meaningful franchises and our team is committed to creating the best games possible. With our extensive experiences in strategy game development and two exciting titles currently in progress, we are confident in our ability to deliver outstanding experience to players. This decision allows us to be more agile in our approach while continuing to shape the vision that has been ours from the very beginning, empowering us to push boundaries and be closer as ever of our community.”
A new Humankind patch is coming soon with more details to be shared next week, while more information about what the studio has in store will be announced in January 2025.
Incidentally, Sega also announced its financial results for the second half of the fiscal year (related to the period between April and September 2024) today, and you can read all about them in the dedicated article.
