Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Sega Projects Net Loss As Sonic Boom Skids With Under 500,000 Copies Sold
With recent layoffs and the announcement of abandoning its long-time North American headquarters in San Francisco, we knew that Sega wasn’t have its best year. Today’s earnings release puts a fine point on that, as the company now projects a year-end loss following a down holiday quarter.
Sega announced net sales for the quarter of ¥113.27 billion ($945.78 million), down from ¥141.75 billion ($1.18 billion) during the same quarter last year. Profits for the holiday quarter, typically a strong one, are down over 93 percent from ¥32.98 billion ($275.4 million) last year to ¥2.06 billion (17.16 million) in the most recently completed quarter.
While Alien: Isolation performed well across five platforms with 1.76 million copies shipped, Sega’s partnership with Nintendo didn’t bear much fruit. The two Sonic Boom titles shipped a combined 490,000 copies. Neither reviewed particularly well.
The company announced a significant revision to its year-end forecast that covers the financial statements in red ink. Sales expectations have been lowered and profit expectations dropped from a gain of ¥4 billion ($33.4 million) to a loss of ¥13 billion ($108.5 million).
Our Take
While Sonic fans clamor for a return to form for the blue blur, Sega keeps failing to deliver. The latest move, giving the franchise to western studios, had a lot of promise. Unfortunately, the effort tripped and fell.
Sega made the most of its Alien license, redeeming it after the abysmal Colonial Marines. We still have yet to hear official confirmation about the Total War: Warhammer project mentioned in The Art of Total War, and I suspect that would generate some buzz for the publisher.
Here’s hoping that E3 brings big things for Sega (and maybe even Phantasy Star Online 2 for Western audiences). The publisher certainly needs more wins (like Persona 5, which is due out this year).
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
