SEGA halves losses to $239 million
But publisher's games business sees revenues tumble thanks to stronger Yen
SEGA Sammy Holdings has recorded a JPY 22.8 billion (USD 239 million) loss for the financial year ended March 31, 2009, up from losses of JPY 52.4 billion (USD 550 million) the previous year.
Sales during that time hit JPY 429 billion (USD 4.5 billion), down 6.5 per cent year-on-year, with videogame sales falling by 13.4 per cent in the same time frame comparison.
Full year sales for the videogames segment was slightly higher than expected, at JPY 82.1 billion (USD ) based on sales of Sonic & Mario, Football Manager 2009, Empire: Total War and Sonic and the Black Knight.
The main reason for the reduction in sales was the continued appreciated of the Yen, but the company has also moved to trim down titles and reduce R&D expense for the fiscal year ahead.
The company's most lucrative platform for new releases was the Wii, netting 3.92 million unit sales, followed by the DS on 3.17 million, the PlayStation 3 on 3.13 million, the Xbox 360 on 2.12 million and the PC on 1.98 million.
Europe meanwhile was where the company sold the most games - including catalogue releases - on 12.7 million, followed by the US on 12.4 million and Japan (plus the rest of the world) on 4.2 million units.