The Scottish games industry has raised over £66,000 for Glasgow’s Children’s Hospital, via its Games for the Weans campaign.
08.11.2023 - 16:51 / gamesindustry.biz
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox
Sega Sammy is reporting a solid first half to its financial year, driven by its pachinko and pachislot business.
Net sales for the six months ended September 30, 2023 rose 47.3% year-on-year to ¥221.2 billion ($1.5 billion) while operating income increased by a whopping 313.4% to ¥39.6 billion ($262.5 million).
That's in the face of weaker-than-expected sales from some of its new game releases and losses from its ongoing structural reform.
As a result, the company raised its forecasts for the current fiscal year, now expecting net sales of ¥474 billion ($3.1 billion), operating income of ¥60 billion ($397.7 million), and ¥63 billion ($417.6 million).
Here's what you need to know:
For the Entertainment Contents segment of the business, net sales came in at ¥121 billion ($802 million, up 3.8%) with operating income at ¥7.4 billion ($49 million, down 46.4%).
The Consumer division of Entertainment Contents, which includes video games, saw sales rise 3.9% to ¥77.9 billion ($516.3 million), while operating income dropped 52.8% to ¥5 billion ($33.1 million).
Sales of new games came in at 1.66 million units (up from 1.48 million in the same period last year, while catalogue titles sold 8.85 million (up from 8.65 million), for a total of 10.5 million full game sales.
Sega released a number of titles during the first half, including Samba de Amigo: Party Central, Sonic Origins Plus, Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection and the console editions of Humankind and Company of Heroes 3.
However, the company referred to sales of new titles as "weak" with some unnamed titles performing below expectations.
Sega Sammy reaffirmed that it's currently undergoing a structural reform, which involves reviewing its portfolio of titles and reducing fixed expenses. This is primarily going to affect its European operations, as we've seen with the redundancies at Creative Assembly and cancellation of Hyenas.
The company also reminded shareholders that Rovio was now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sega Sammy, with their financial results incorporated into those of Sega from September.
For the overall business, Sega Sammy reported strong performances from its pachislot and pachinko machines, with net sales increasing 240% to ¥93.4 billion ($616.4 million).
The Scottish games industry has raised over £66,000 for Glasgow’s Children’s Hospital, via its Games for the Weans campaign.
Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more.
Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 may not be the longest game out there, but there’s one good reason that some gamers may jump back in to play it again and again.
Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more.
Sega's gracing our news pages a fair bit today. Firstly for being the subject of unfair labour practice allegations by its unionised workers, and now for, ah, talking up the possibility of films based on the Persona and Yakuza series. A bit of an awkward transition, but you play the hand you're dealt.
Bazooka Tango, the developers behind the upcoming Web3 collectible tactics game Shardbound, has raised $5 million.
Back in August of this year, it was announced that Sega of America employees would be forming a union—the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS-CWA)—alongside the Campaign to Organise Digital Employees (CODE-CWA).
Replai, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, has unveiled its tech for combining AI with mobile game advertising to make much more effective ads in a very short time. The company has also raised $8 million to date.
Sonic has been enjoying renewed popularity in recent years thanks to the two Sonic the Hedgehog movies that have become some of the highest-grossing video game adaptations. Sega hopes to capitalize on this by bringing more of its franchises to a non-gaming audience.
After the mega success of its Sonic movie adaptations, Sega says Yakuza and Persona don't have to just be video game series.
The Transcend Fund is announcing the closing of its second seed fund of nearly $60 million to invest in games and digital entertainment.