It’s been a big week for SEGA, with two of the company’s biggest games, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload, releasing just seven days apart and both breaking records.
Infinite Wealth released on January 25 and, within days, became the series’ most-played entry on Steam, with over 41,000 concurrent players. That’s a massive step up from the second most-played game, which is Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, at just 13,737.
SEGA has also announced that Infinite Wealth has sold 1 million copies seven days after release, making it the fastest-selling title in the franchise. To commemorate the occasion, SEGA is giving a commemorative T-Shirt set to all players in Infinite Wealth.
While Persona 3 Reload just launched today, it’s similarly set a new record for the franchise with the most concurrent players on Steam, hitting over 42,000.
While the news is certainly good to see for the fan-favourite series, it comes in tandem with SEGA laying off a sizable portion of its workforce. Confirmed by a WARN notice filed in Orange County, California on January 8, SEGA will lay off 61 employees on March 8 across two locations on its Irvine campus.
The Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA reacted to the layoffs on social media.
“Through our union efforts, we’ve been able to more than double the number of saved jobs and to offer severance to our temp workers,” says the union. “This, however, does not take away from the fact that many of our coworkers are being laid off in a decision we believe will have a negative impact on the working conditions of those who remain with the company, and in the quality of our future games.”
These layoffs coming in the face of huge success for some of SEGA’s biggest series is a grim reminder of the gauntlet the video game industry has been through with layoffs. In January 2024 alone, there have been over 6000 layoffs across the industry.
