SEGA Racing Studio Revs Its Last News

In a surprise move, SEGA Europe has today confirmed that it has closed down the UK-based, racing genre focused, SEGA Racing Studio with immediate effect.

The studio, which only opened in 2005, released a single title during its three-year tenure, 2007's SEGA Rally. The game secured largely positive reviews with its re-imagining of the classic 1994 coin-op, though it fared less than expected at retail.

In a statement issued to US-based industry publication Next-Gen.biz, SEGA Europe representatives commented, "The decision is part of a review of Sega's Western Development Studios to ensure that each studio is a profitable entity in its own right, and unfortunately the Sega Racing Studio's 5 year plan would not result in a successful return for the Sega business moving forward. Sega would like to stress that there will be no changes within their other internal development studios."

It's unclear whether the Racing Studio was in pre-production for a second title in Solihull or not at the time the decision was made, but its closure comes quickly after 'Full Auto' developers Pseudo Interactive announced it too was closing.