Just as After Burner Climax is hitting Xbox LIVE Arcade and PSN, Sega West has announced that they are re-focusing their San Francisco offices on electronically distributed content.  Sega London will now be responsible for Sega West's retail games.  These moves represent a significant restructuring for Sega West, and also include a 12% reduction in the company's workforce. Sega San Francisco will lose 36 people, while Sega London will lose 37.

Sega West President Mike Hayes is keen to stress the growing importance of the downloadable game space to Sega:

"It's no surprise that the share of digital is growing as an overall part of the video game business, so we decided we have to invest more in that specific area."

“Sega has already done some very good things in this broad digital space so far, and now it's a case of how we can take it further. We're definitely looking at mobile applications, the iPhone, the iPad — we're interested to see what happens with Microsoft and others — creating games for PSN and XBLA. Again we've had some good successes in those areas."

Hayes' further statement that Sega, "want[s] to continue to be successful with traditional goods," hopefully indicates that their retail releases won't suffer as a result of this restructuring.

Sega has been increasingly active in the downloadable games space.  In addition to the previously mentioned After Burner Climax, and the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 4, leaked screens have been making the rounds this week suggesting the appearance of Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure on XBLA.  Does the restructuring add credence to these rumors?  What else could be waiting in the wings?

Sonic Adventure On Xbla

Though the prospect of a wealth of Sega content for the downloadable games services is exciting, it is always unfortunate when jobs are lost.  Game Rant wishes the best for those former Sega employees affected by the restructuring.

What do you think about Sega dedicating its San Francisco offices to downloadable games?  What Sega games would you like to see made available?

Source: Industry Gamers, Digiex