So, yesterday, the Sega Racing Studio in Solihull closed. There were various different reasons, some of which I was privy to thanks to working with people who used to work there and others who are friends of mine. It all boils down to profitability and, sadly, the studio had something of a dry patch in that respect.

I think it’s because Sega Rally skipped a generation.



Gaming “generations” are a lot quicker than human biology. Those halcyon days when we had all the time in the world to kick around playing games and throwing snowballs at each other quickly pass into the bleak world of employment and the search for a partner. There tends to be some defining games within that short period where we had loads of time to spend playing them and, way back in the arcades of my youth, Sega Rally and Daytona were the coin munchers of choice. They were premium games; costing two or three times more than a regular coin-op but rewarding the player with a comfy seat, force feedback and twin-screened vs action. A lot of the time they were also the games where it didn’t matter about the leaderboard, the length of the game or the arcade you played it in.

It was about the experience.

Music would pump all around you, mixed with occasional, outrageously bad commentary, spurring you to the finish. You were totally focused on the screen in front of you, watching the world slide by, feeling the impact of your friend trying to get past....

It makes me kinda sad thinking about it.

I’ve been in arcades recently and the atmosphere has changed. Aside from the light-gun games, there’ll be a few teenage girls on the DDR machines and some tracksuited, fluffy-moustached youths losing money into machines with flashing lights and the promise of a jackpot. The seats of the racing games lie empty, unless someone needs a place to sit with their chips and chat to their friends.



Kids today get the games pumped directly into their veins; they’ve no need to hunt, skin and cook their fun. Sure, they’ve missed out on a great experience but with so many others to be had, who’s to say they don’t have it better? No watching a machine munch your coins and going back to the one game you could afford for the system with the same processing power as your video recorder? They could be onto something...



Sega Rally had so much competition by the time it tried to rejuvenate its market that it never quite made it into people’s hearts in the same manner as the arcade era. It used to be that having the console version reminded you of the arcade. Now it’s just another game...

Anyway, when a studio like Sega Racing closes its doors, the vultures start to circle. With the amount of talent available from such a prestigious company, the stragglers will be picked off before they finish realising they’re unemployed. All the other studios in the UK smell blood and start circling the bodys, waiting to pick off the stragglers. Some are nice about it, like the nymphs of the forest, calling the unwary into the green, while others are the devil with a contract, plying the redundant developers with alcohol and promises. It works out well for those with contacts and those employed elsewhere with bounty schemes for inviting new talent.

The UK is a rollercoaster for smaller gaming studios and it only takes a few titles to get canned, delayed or go astray for everything to fall down around your ears. Sometimes it takes a fall or two to make you realise how lucky you are to be in a stable company.

For now.