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Sega Sammy full-year profits jump 105%

Tom Magrino
By Tom Magrino

Despite weak game sales, publisher rides Sonic Color's 2.18 million units to 3.1 percent revenue climb; Vanquish sells 830,000, Shogun 2 moves 600,000.

Sega Sammy added its name to the list of industry players that turned in positive results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011. Reporting on its fiscal 2011 results, Sega Sammy said revenues inched up 3.1 percent during the 12-month period to ¥396.7 billion ($4.91 billion). Meanwhile, profits boomed during the period, jumping 105.4 percent to ¥41.5 billion ($513 million).

Sonic and Tails continue to get it done for Sega Sammy.

Sonic and Tails continue to get it done for Sega Sammy.

For its consumer business (which houses home gaming software and toys), Sega Sammy saw the biggest performance from Sonic Colors, which sold 2.18 million units. Released for the Wii and DS in November 2010, the platformer defied the Sonic franchise's recent trend of poor quality by securing a strong critical reception. Iron Man 2 also broke the platinum milestone, selling 1.54 million units.

Sega Sammy's collaboration with Platinum Games also yielded some success, as Shinji Mikami's sci-fi shooter Vanquish finished the year with 830,000 units sold. Shogun 2: Total War and Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity rounded out Sega Sammy's best-seller list, moving 600,000 units and 370,000 units, respectively.

Calling demand "generally weak in the US and European markets," Sega Sammy recognized that it needs to "adapt to changing business environment in which the market demand for new content geared to social networking service (SNS) and smartphone is expanding."

All said, the consumer business posted revenues of ¥89.55 billion ($1.11 billion), which is off 26.5 percent from a year ago. Likewise, operating income fell 68.9 percent to ¥1.97 billion ($24.38 billion).

In projecting its earnings expectations for the in-progress fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, Sega Sammy cautioned that the Japanese market remains wildly unpredictable following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck the country on March 11, 2011. Still, Sega Sammy said it expects sales to rise 13.4 percent to ¥450 billion ($5.57 billion), with profit falling off 20.5 percent to ¥33 billion ($408 million).

Tom Magrino
By Tom Magrino

Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.

39 comments
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ricardo-sene
ricardo-sene

This is absolutely NOT good news... Game's division revenues down 26,5% and income down 68,9% is not a good result for us gamers.... Also, the new focus on SNS and smartphone just turn the things worst...

Objio24
Objio24

Congratulation SEGA! , i like sonic games since i was a kid and sega games like Panzer Dragoon, Virtual On, Nights, Shemue, Jet set radio, 5 channel. i cant wait for Guardian Heroes for XBOX360 good job Sega and i hope shining force 3 is coming too!!!! scenario 1,2 and 3

LindBergh2007
LindBergh2007

scapegoatsqueal. It's in the works. Trust me. Watch for thier next arcade machine. We'll get a game tablet from them first this years.

Everiez
Everiez

Where are Yakuza 4 and Valkyria Chronicles 2 sales? :(

Flint247
Flint247

Sonic Colors was a great game. :D

scapegoatsqueal
scapegoatsqueal

W00T! With that kind of cash being raked in every year, a new SEGA console is looking good!

GulliversTravel
GulliversTravel

Vanquish numbers arent bad at all Hopefully its enough to make a sequel, you know with online play (not that i want it, but the CoD kids might pick it up as a result)

USDevilDog
USDevilDog

Congrats Sega. Hopefully an upward trend will allow it to make Streets of Rage 4, Shenmue 3, Skies of Arcadia 2, Panzer Dragoon Saga 2, another Shining title, Virtua fighter 6, and Phantasy Star 5... as well as taking creative chances on amazing titles from Platinum Games. Gamers have been patient long enough.

jadefury27
jadefury27

how about releasing dreamcast collections that dont contain games already available for download?

ebookerd1
ebookerd1

Go Sega I need you to release Shenmue 3!! .......... please......

duderdave
duderdave

It's good to hear Shogun 2 is doing well. It's a heck of a game! :D

PoindeJ
PoindeJ

Ah, 2.18 million for Sonic Colors - I knew VGChartz had to be wrong! Good job Sega, keep making good Sonic games and you'll do just fine.

Rovelius
Rovelius

@Agelu Sonic Generations :)

strayfies
strayfies

Wow, good for them. Since they got involved with the Total War franchise I've had conflicting impressions but it's overall pretty good, so here's to hoping for more from Sega.

DennisWZH
DennisWZH

damn, vanquish deserve much better.

MuffintopX
MuffintopX

Vanquish was just so much fun and also got great reviews. I'm sad not many people jumped on board.

gatsbythepig
gatsbythepig

I am incredibly surprised. Maybe, if they do well enough, they could turn their software company into a console company. Wouldn't that be cool? Just imagine, Sega making a console. How ludicrous.

Agelu
Agelu

I'm very happy for Sonic. Oh, joy if they could actually keep making quality Sonic games...

mario-nin-freak
mario-nin-freak

Hopefully this means Sonic will return as a huge game character. I love sonic, just the past games were bad.

Richardthe3rd
Richardthe3rd

Good to see them doing a little better; Shogun 2 is the best TW title so far, and I've been meaning to give Vanquish a try. Just keep rolling out good titles Sega!

01_855403
01_855403

I wonder why Iron Man 2 sold more than a million?

fan360
fan360

Sega should use that $500 million profit to make Shenmue 3 !!

VenkmanPHD
VenkmanPHD

Soniiiiic is awesome that is all I have to say

prohogo2
prohogo2

600k for Shogun 2! Amazing knowing that it's a strategy game in not so popular setting and is a PC exclusive. Good job CA! I'm certain that if they keep the same quality and change setting to ancient times (with Rome 2 maybe?;), they will do 3 or 4 times as good!

goodemon
goodemon

So now that you are all profitable SEGA, I just have one question to ask: Can Yu Suzuki be given the budget he needs so we can finally get a chance to play Shenmue 3? Don't tell me it's a money issue!!

xcollector
xcollector

That is a freakishly amazing number for Sonic and that is basically for 1 system. Don't know how many actually care to buy it for the DS. Sega should release Sonic Colors for the 360/PS3 so we can have it HD.

Jhedan
Jhedan

They can rot in hell, they killed the Guilty Gear series...

learningd2
learningd2

@mattg90520 Hate to interrupt your rant, but that's the name of the actual company. Sega merged with Sammy.

Rikufan
Rikufan

wait who in there right mind bought Iron Man 2

mattg90520
mattg90520

Why is it gamespot thinks it funny or clever to come up with these stupid names for game developers? They insist on referring to Nintendo not as Nintendo but the House that MArio Built, now Sega Sammy? Cmon, how lame are you gamespot?

jaifrecap
jaifrecap

I don't get why Sonic Colors was a Wii exclusive game. Don't get me wrong, the wii is great but there are a lot of Sonic fans that would've bought the game for 360 or PS3. They make a great game but lose 2/3 of what they could have made in sales.

TheArcade
TheArcade

I so wish Sonic Colors would release for 360. :(

chocolate1325
chocolate1325

I think it prooves that Sonic Colours was a great success and SEGA can take the postive sales of that game and continue to make Sonic games that are fast paced fun and not with a serious plot.

LaytonsCat
LaytonsCat

Good to see that Shogun 2 did well

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