Sega today reported earnings for the April-June quarter

[Manta Oyamada]

SEGA - Packaged Games puts great profit loss, PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2 PC version goes "solid" remains SEGA's top profit maker in Q1 2014.

Sega today reported earnings for the April-June quarter, announcing profits overall were halved, as the company's game business saw an operating loss. The publisher said uncertainty in the Japanese economy, along with a "softening" of the package game business, was to blame.

For the quarter ended June 30, Sega's game division--what it calls Consumer Business--saw net sales rise 13.3 percent to ¥21.4 billion ($207 million). However, this division still recorded an operating loss of ¥282 million ($2.7 million), compared to operating income of ¥39 million ($378,000) last year.

This downturn was attributed to an "increase in advertising expenses."
Sega sold a total of 1.7 million packaged games during the quarter, including 640,000 copies each for North America and Europe, along with 420,000 games in Japan. One of Sega's biggest games during the quarter was Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth, which shipped 250,000 copies in Japan.

Though Sega's packaged video game business was "soft," the company said sales of its digital offerings for mobile phones, smartphones, and PC remained "solid." Sega said online role-playing game Phantasy Star Online 2 was a particularly strong performer during the quarter.

Overall, Sega recorded net sales of ¥88.4 billion ($858.7 million) for the quarter, which is down 2.6 percent year-over-year. Profit took the biggest hit, coming in at ¥5.5 billion ($53.4 million), a dramatic year-over-year decrease of 57.4 percent.

Some major upcoming Sega games include Sonic Boom and Alien: Isolation.

by junko

[DJcooltrainer]

SEGA - Packaged Games puts great profit loss,PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2 PC version goes "solid" remains SEGA's top profit maker in Q1 2014.

The publisher said uncertainty in the Japanese economy, along with a "softening" of the package game business, was to blame.


Though Sega's packaged video game business was "soft," the company said sales of its digital offerings for mobile phones, smartphones, and PC remained "solid." Sega said online role-playing game Phantasy Star Online 2 was a particularly strong performer during the quarter.

The Japanese economy was hit really hard around the same time the US economy started to really suffer, but they haven't recovered much yet. Look at the sales of the Wii and PS2 in Japan after the release of the 360 and PS3, it seems during that time most people were still going for the more 'affordable' consoles. I think that's also a big reason arcades are so big in Japan, and a big part of why F2P games are taking off in Japan.

Home video game sales in Japan have plummeted, while they've skyrocketed in most of the Western world. PSO2 and shitty mobile games are literally what Sega is making money off right now. You'd think that would be a little bit of an incentive to release those products outside of Japan, right?

Sega gonna Sega.

I predict Sega licensing PSO2 to more publishers in the near future, or Sega will just vanish. It appears that they're losing a shit load of money.

[Rain Walker]

They are making big money using pso2, not so surprising xd

[mctastee]

The publisher said uncertainty in the Japanese economy, along with a "softening" of the package game business, was to blame.

Really, SEGA, wtf? Where have you been for the past 10 years?

[Meta77]

A sign of good things to come. Keep your exclusives in japan only. Slowly sign your death contract sega.

[GHNeko]

Maybe if gaming in the west wasnt prone to redundancy and sequalitis, and better rewarded risky ventures COMMERCIALLY and not just critically, then investments would be easily to claim as worth while.

That and if AAA would stop fucking focusing on pumping money into movie-esque games, but at that point you're dealing with shitty top-down game development and that's a whole nother bag of fucking worms. -_-

[Achelousaurus]

The answer is simple.
Make less other games, put more effort into PSO2, make more money.

[GHNeko]

Putting all your eggs into one basket really wouldnt be the best of ideas, no?

Plus that doesn't really help the Sega brand as a whole.

[Ygdrad]

PSO2 and shitty mobile games are literally what Sega is making money off right now.

Only Sega's video games division, Sega's main source of money is their pachinko machine gambling centers in japan which bring in so much money that their gaming division looks like a joke.

[Laxedrane]

Putting all your eggs into one basket really wouldnt be the best of ideas, no?

Plus that doesn't really help the Sega brand as a whole.

Pretty much this. The kind of company size sega has to maintain to keep pso2 at the "Quality" it's at now. Begs for a company not just devoted to the game itself.

However I think them dragging their heels on an international release is just stupid. As much as people rally against it. I still think they make a killing being one of the first free to buy and play MOs(So we don't have that over done argument again) with high customization abilities. It would slaughter on either PS3 or the WiiU. Just pick one and go for it already.