As part of a plan to streamline the company, SEGA of Europe boss Jurgan Post announced that they would be closing five European offices in France, Germany, Spain, Benelux, and Australia. Though, last I checked, Australia wasn’t part of Europe, or even remotely close to it. But I guess “four European offices and one Australian office” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. The UK offices will still be open, though.

He also said that SEGA will be focusing on its four most popular franchises: Sonic the Hedgehog, Football Manager, Aliens, and Total War. “At the moment for us those are the four IPs we are talking about, they are our AAA IP. At the moment we are looking into options of course, but it’s not like we are already developing some other titles in addition to that, no.”

This bit of news is particularly upsetting, since this essentially means that the futures of games like Rhythm Thief, the new Hatsune Miku game, Super Monkey Ball, and several other, more established franchises are in question. Though, he did say that they would also keep pushing digital games throughout the next year, so there’s that.

Incidentally, if you want to pre-order Rhythm Thief, Amazon is shaving $10 off the pre-order price. Also, you can download the demo for this game right now on the eShop if you want to try it out, first.

UPDATE: It turns out that GameStop is also shaving $10 off the price of this game. So, you can pre-order here or in stores, if you want. I checked to see if other stores are releasing it for $30, but GameStop and Amazon are the only ones that are doing it, so far. I’ll update again if I find another store releasing it at $30.

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