SEGA closes European and Australian offices


Another sad day in SEGA land folks, SEGA has announced today that they will be closing their European and Australian offices. Koch Media will be the distribution partner for the European territories, except for Benelux, which will be handled by Level03 Distribution. Australia territory will be handled by 5 Star. SEGA UK will remain open as the European HQ. So it isn’t all that bad.

“SEGA is entering a new and exciting phase that will position the company as a content led organisation maximising sales with strong and balanced IP such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and the Aliens franchise. The company will benefit from a clear focus and realigned strategy for our digital business and packaged goods and we are confident that this will lead to a successful future.” – COO of Sega Europe Jurgen Post

This goes with the rumor they sort of predicted during E3, only that the rumor wasn’t 100% right. Actually still think the guy just guessed and happen to hit some of the mark. What do you guys think? Is this ‘new and exciting phase’ for SEGA or is this bad?

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SEGA Sammy Holding’s post half year results

SEGA Sammy posted their half year results for the period ending September 30th 2011. A difficult period saw that the publisher declined in both revenue and profit, numerous reasons from the natural disaster that struck Japan earlier this year that still holds ramification for the publisher today, to the weak global economy that is affecting consumer sales. In these tough times, read on to find out how the group managed.

SEGA-Sammy changes half-year forecast due to poor game sales


SEGA-Sammy has changed their financial forecast, stating that they will make less revenue, yet make more profits.

SEGA-Sammy has changed their forecast  due to recent software titles not selling as well as expected. But they reduced the cost of operation from their pachinko machine business, thus they will return profit instead of losses.

SEGA-Sammy orginally posted that they expected to make $2.15 billion in revenue, now they changed it to $1.96 billion. Revenue isn’t Profit. SEGA orginally forecasted that they will lose $39.11 million, now changed it to a profit of $26.08 million.

[Thanks: TheREALTupac]
[Source: Gamasutra]

SEGA-Sammy report net income loss of over $28 million


The first quarter of the year hasn’t been to kind to Japan and its video game industry. What with the tsunami and earthquakes that ravaged the lands. Its not that surprising seeing SEGA-Sammy post about losing revenue.

“During the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, some uncertainty prevailed in the Japanese economy due to various impacts in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake that took place on March 11, 2011, including the concern for the availability of parts and materials and the struggle to cope with the shortage of electricity supply which is now likely to be prolonged”

This means that operating their Japanese studios, pachinko slots and arcade buildings cost more than previously, thus where some loses come in. But what about SEGA, the consumer division?

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SEGA and BBC Earth team up to fuse technology and nature


That’s right, SEGA has announced a partnership with BBC Earth to create a unique user experience. Yes, the press release actually calls it an “experience,” and quite a number of times at that. The “experience” will be coming to both the USA and Japan in the next couple of years.

“I am very happy that we have been able to join together with BBC Worldwide who possess one of the world’s finest libraries of Natural History footage. I am confident that by fusing this fabulous content with our entertainment know-how, we can deliver a new and thoroughly unique experience of the natural world. Through the universal theme of nature, SEGA will create a new live entertainment experience that will be enjoyed by all nationalities, ages and genders” said Okitane Usui, SEGA Corporation’s COO.

Where exactly can you experience this collaboration? No locations or solid dates have been set yet, but SEGA says they will be announced in the upcoming months. I personally can’t wait, since I love BBC’s Planet Earth series.

[Source: SEGA Sammy]

Arc System Works now owns the Guilty Gear franchise

Back before the SEGA and Sammy merger, Sammy published a pretty good fighting game known as Guilty Gear. The games where developed by Arc System Works. When the merger happened, the rights to the series were owned by SEGA Sammy. Sadly SEGA Sammy had no plans to continue the franchise.

Arc System Works started a new 2D fighter for this generation called Blazblue. Hardcore fighting fans never forgot their original franchise and asked if it would ever come back. Daisuke Ishiwatari, creator of Guilty Gear, said there would be a new game eventually.

Now Arc System Works filed a trademark for “Guilty Gear”, which was published in the Japanese database today. This either means that the developer bought the rights to the franchise from SEGA-Sammy or SEGA-Sammy gave them the franchise. Most likely bought.

Arc System Works has confirmed that they do own the Guilty Gear franchise now, so this isn’t some sly deal.

[Source: Siliconera]

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Sega – The Earthquake Affects News Round Up

We’ve all seen the devastation in Japan caused by the earthquake, tsunami and the ongoing nuclear worries. Many companies have felt the effects, not least Sega, who have donated a considerable amout of money to the recovery efforts. In this article I will cover all of the Sega related infomation we have linked to the earthquake.

Donations:
Sega have been extremely generous when it comes to donations from both sides of the pond.

-Sega Japan is donating 200 million yen to support recovery efforts. That is approximately £1,542,827 GBP or $2,481,722 USD.

-Sega Europe and Sports Interactive have donated all of their revenue from the Football Manager app starting from last Friday for the next 7 days to the disaster relief funds in Japan.

-Sega America will donate all proceeds from Sonic iOS titles to the Red Cross disaster relief funds in Japan.

As an added incentive Sega have even lowered the price of the Sonic iOS games for this week, there is simply no excuse not to go get them right now!

Find out more after the jump:

Marza Animation Planet working with Hollywood writer for next feature

Marza Animation Planet is the CGI animation studio owned by SEGA-Sammy. They are the team that did the awesome ‘Night of the Werehog‘ short and is now working on the Space Pirate Captain Harlock film.

If that wasn’t enough, it seems that the team is cooking up another project, this time with Marie Rose as a writer. She has worked on such films as Poseidon, LA Confidential and The Proposal. We shall see what comes out of this, should be interesting.

[Thanks: Liam via e-mail]
[Source: Mule Films page]

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SEGA-Sammy Q3: $451 million in net income

SEGA-Sammy has posted a net income of ¥36,821 million (about $451 million), that’s 117.3% increased compared to last year. So what branch of SEGA made the most money? Not a big surprise. Pachinco/Pachislots division ranked in ¥54,666 million(about $670 million) operating income.

Coming in at a hot second was Amusement Machine Sales, which had a operating income of ¥8,458 million (about $103 million). Guess who isn’t losing money and didn’t come dead last? Consumer Business (SEGA you know and love, they make those games you play). They brought in an operating income of ¥2,811 million(about $34 million). Congrats SEGA!

SEGA to expand arcade business to China


China has like, a lot of people and SEGA thinks all those kung-fu loving communist would like to play some arcade games. So what are they going to do about it? Expand their arcade business to China, make exclusive arcade games tailored for the average Chinese consumer.

Should be interesting to see what arcade cabinets SEGA will launch with in China and what kind of titles they will develop for the country. Maybe some exciting stuff?

[Source: Kotaku]

SEGA Sammy group post profits of 7 billion yen

 

There was plenty of good news in SEGA Sammy’s recently disclosed financial report for the first period for the fiscal year ending March 2011, although note all of it was a rossy picture. Despite that, the group posted strong profits of 7 billion yen this quarter, an exceptionally sound result considering recent reports from other major publishers. Read on to follow the general breakdown. 

How much does SEGA-Sammy CEO make?

Every SEGA fan always dreamed of the day that they could control SEGA and make Shenmue 3. Of course, they never thought about the type of money they would be making in the process. SEGA-Sammy’s CEO, Osamu Satomi makes ¥435 million (about $4.90 million) a year. Wow.

To put it into prospective Honda CEO, Takanobu Ito, only gets ¥115 million. So what good is the car business? They don’t make Shenmue! How much did Nintendo pay Satoru Iwata this year? ¥187 million.

Where are those damn applications…

[Source: AndriaSang]

SEGA-Sammy earnings report


Here we go, I usually dread these things because I have to post how much money SEGA loses, but this time around I get to talk about how much money they earned. So put your spandex pants on and get ready.

SEGA-Sammy’s fiscal year ends on March 31st, 2010.  The company, as a whole, saw a 10.4% drop in sales to ¥384,679, but saw a 399% increase in operating income to ¥36,712 million.

Hit the jump for a break down…

SEGA-Sammy expecting $194 million profit


SEGA-Sammy have been losing money for a while now and it seems they are finally getting the hang of things. They have posted that they expect to make $194 million dollar profit in the end of this fiscal year.

Things to note, Pachinco & Amusement Machine sales saw an improvement; while Amusement Facilities & Consumer business made less income than they thought it would. As for consumer business (Consoles, etc.) they were expecting  to sell 29.7 million units of software, but that guess has been lowered to 26.3 million units.

What game didn’t hit expectations? It might be Resonance of Fate. What do you guys think?

[Thanks Suzuki Yu]