Sega sales up despite ‘weak market

Sega Sammy has posted an operating income of 14,951 million YEN (110.8m/$173m) for the three months ending March 31st, 2011.

It’s a significant increased compared to the 7,820 million (58m/$90.6m) YEN loss the firm reported in the financial first quarter last tear,

The firm’s net income was 7,036 million YEN (52.2m/$81.5m), up from the 10,293 million YEN (-76.3m/-$119.3m) loss in 2009. Net sales for the quarter totalled 91,340 million YEN (677.4/$1bn), up 51.1 per cent from 60,461 YEN (448m/ $701m) in 2009.

Sega sold 3,290,000 units of games during the quarter. However, sales of new titles including Iron Man 2 and Alpha Protocol were slow in the US and European markets. Nevertheless, both territories remain the biggest earners for consumer software. 2.1 million Sega games were sold in US and Europe during the three month period.

Despite struggling sales of new games, Sega’s consumer business’ net sales were up 15.4 per cent to 20,859 million YEN (154.7/$241m). Nevertheless, the firm still posted an operating loss of 636 million YEN (-4.7m/-$7.3m), up from the 4,500 million YEN (-33.4m/-$52.1m) loss suffered in 2009.

Sega said in its report that for video game software ‘the demand was generally weak in the US and European markets due to the headwind like sluggish personal consumption.’

The publisher admitted it ‘needs to adapt to changing business environment’ brought about through social networks and smartphones. This reaffirms Sega’s plan to become big in the digital markets, with its Sega West office in San Francisco to lead the new business strategy.

The big earner for Sega Sammy was Sammy’s Pachinko machine business, which saw an operating income of 15,133 million YEN (112m/$175.3m). Sega’s Arcade Machine business posted an operating income of 1,399 million YEN (10.4m/$16.2m), while its amusement centre’s generate 177 million YEN (1.3m/$2m) for the company.

For the full year, Sega Sammy predicts an operation income of 40,000 million YEN (297m//$463.5m)