The house that Sonic built certainly seen better days. The embattled publisher had already closed some operations in North America, and now they’re following suit with closures in Australia and Europe, which will affect an unknown number of employees. Just like the previous closures SEGA has stated that they will be shifting focus in Europe and Australia towards profitable franchises in digitally delivered content.
SEGA has partnered Koch Media to assist with the publishing of physical goods (ie. packaged retail games) in Switzerland Austria and France, they will however continue to publish physical games in Australia.
We wish everyone affected by the closures all the best, and we hope to hear soon whether some of Sega’s key 2013 titles, like Phantasy Star Online 2 or the next Yakuza title will be affected.