SEGA Sammy Q1 results for Fiscal Year March 2015

Sega Sammy has released their financial results for what was a fairly quiet Q1 for the company. Japanese tax increases and advertising costs took a toll on their bottom line, while their games divisions, including arcade, console, and mobile, all struggled due mainly due to a lack of new content. In short, Sega Sammy has certainly seen better days, though some big titles coming up should help them regain at least some of their traction.

The sole new release for the quarter in the physical games category consisted of Atlus’ 3DS spinoff, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, which managed sales of around 250,000 in Japan. The game’s Western release isn’t planned until November, though given the popularity of Japanese RPGs on the 3DS in Western territories in recent years, it seems likely that the title will do at least fairly well for the company by the end of this year.

Looking at its Japanese release, sales of 250,000 is solid for a Persona spinoff, especially the first one on a Nintendo console. The company however expected to sell 450,000 of new physical software this quarter, and with Sega Sammy’s only other physical release being the North American localization of Atlus’ somewhat poorly received Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars (3DS/PS Vita), it’s probable that Persona Q’s Japanese sales didn’t quite meet expectations.

It’s probable that Persona Q’s Japanese sales didn’t quite meet expectations.

Sega-Sammy’s Consumer business, which includes physical games, digital games, toys, and anime, experienced a loss of .2 billion yen this quarter, a loss they blame mainly on advertising costs. Only 1.7 million pieces of software were sold, which is a remarkably low number for a publisher of SEGA’s status.

Looking forward, the company expects to sell about 440,000 copies of Alien: Isolation on the Xbox One and 600,000 on the PS4, while expectations for sales on the PS3 and 360 look to hover in roughly the 500,000-600,000 ballpark on each system for around a 2-2.5 million expected total.

The company expects to sell about 440,000 copies of Alien: Isolation on the Xbox One and 600,000 on the PS4

Sonic Boom meanwhile is aiming to sell around 600,000 on the Wii U, which would mean SEGA expects a performance roughly in line with last year’s Sonic: Lost World; surprising, given Sonic Boom’s oft-stated goal of bringing new fans into the fold, though the game’s mixed reception thus far and the Wii U’s continuing sales woes may have dampened their hopes a little for this 3rd pillar Sonic title.

The company plans to release 73 Pay to Play and 61 Free to Play games for mobile devices in the future, continuing their undeniable shift to predominantly releasing this type of software going forward.

Moving to the arcade industry, Sega-Sammy saw a loss this quarter as well, due mainly to a lack of new titles and Japanese tax increases. They revealed a loss of .6 billion yen for arcade sales, and .4 billion yen for their Amusement Centers.

And that’s about all she wrote for this incredibly quiet quarter. A lack of new releases across all categories, along with increased Japanese taxes and rising marketing costs, have left SEGA Sammy in fairly poor shape this past quarter. They forecast improvement going forward, and with a couple big titles in the pipeline finally seeing release towards the end of this year, I don’t see why that shouldn’t happen.

Thanks as always to Aki-at for his analysis.

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