Sammy Studios Confirms Layoffs

Carlsbad-headquartered developer and publisher Sammy Studios has confirmed to Gamasutra that an unspecified number of sales and marketing positions have been eliminated from the company, which is a subsidiary of Japanese-based Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. An official statement provided by the company, following independent information received by Gamasutra, explains: "Earlier this week Sammy Studios reduced its sales and marketing staff as part of an effort to put the company's focus squarely on game development. It is difficult having to release some of the very same people we hand selected to join the company. Yet our development capabilities and our creative and technical talent are intact, and we are confident that we will emerge from this transition as a top game studio." Sammy, which has offices in both Carlsbad and Los Angeles, CA, is in the process of publishing some third-party developed games, including The Shield, in development at Point Of View. However, this statement seems to signify that the company will be concentrating particularly on internally-developed games such as Xbox/PlayStation 2 FPS Darkwatch, and perhaps publishing titles in a different fashion going forward.