Sega sells more PC than console games, but pachinko machines eclipse both

Sega's latest earnings report reveals the company's packaged PC sales grew tremendously while packaged console game sales crashed. The company's digital sales are also almost equal to its packaged sales now, but all of these pale in comparison to Sega Sammy Holdings' pachinko business.

The company profited almost $50 million from its pachinko business in the nine months period the report covered. By comparison, Sega's "consumer business," which includes all console, handheld, and PC sales both digital and retail, made only $27 million.

Pachinko, in case you haven't heard of it, is a gambling machine akin to a slot machine thinly veiled as an arcade game. It looks like a vertical pinball table without flippers. You fire a ball into the machine and watch as it makes its way down to the bottom. If the ball goes into certain holes, you get more balls, which you can use to keep playing and ultimately trade in for prizes.

Sega's consumer business seems to be leaning towards digital and PC. It's revenues from packaged games now has only a slight edge on digital revenues, and packaged PC sales grew from 770,000 units last year to 2.27 million, while packaged console sales dropped from 2.73 million to just 1.2 million.

While Sega is probably best known for iconic characters like Sonic, PC games like Football Manager and the Total War series are becoming increasingly important to its bottom line.