No Gamescom for Sega

If you’d planned on travelling to Gamescom in Cologne to catch sight of a blue hedgehog you’ll be disappointed. That’s right, it seems Sega won’t be travelling to Germany to showcase their wares this year. Citing “commercial” reasons for the decision, they have confirmed that they won’t be going to the event, even though they did confirm it as “…the most important European event in the calendar.”

Whilst it may seem like we’re missing out on the love from the publisher, you can understand their perspective. Whilst not quite in the league of E3 it costs a lot of money to run a booth at Gamescom, and in the current economic downturn not everyone is going to be able to afford it. In particular Sega is looking to cut costs right now, including a 12 percent cut in staff numbers at the start of the year.

Sure it’s sad that you won’t be able to get your hands on Sonic 4 at the show, but at least Sega won’t go under. Isn’t that we all really want? Hopefully not attending will let the teams focus more on making the games great, instead of having to spend all the extra time and resources preparing a booth for the show.

Source: VG247 via Joystiq