Saddening news from SEGA, more layoffs in Sweden, and a few figures about the classic Diablo 3.
- Last Friday, at the age of 75, Hideki Sato passed away. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was responsible for the creation of SEGA consoles like Genesis / Mega Drive, Saturn, and Dreamcast as an engineer and head of the development department. In the early 2000s, he also served as the company's president.
- SEGA had to write off nearly $200 million due to the depreciation of Rovio. This was revealed in the publisher's latest financial report. To recap, the Japanese giant acquired the Finnish studio in 2023 for $776 million. Sega described Rovio's results as "sluggish" and stated that the studio "significantly fell short of the initial forecast." The reason cited is the rapidly changing market conditions. In response, Daniel Svärd, who previously managed operations at King, has been appointed as the new COO of the studio.
- The Swedish studio 10 Chambers announced a wave of layoffs, impacting a large number of employees. These cuts will result in a significant restructuring of the company's processes. The reasons for this remain undisclosed. The studio is known for the cooperative shooter GTFO and is currently developing the project Den of Wolves.
- The active player base of Diablo 3 currently numbers several million players. This was stated by Matthew Cederquist, the executive producer of Diablo Legacy, an internal team at Blizzard responsible for supporting the franchise's old titles.