Vanquish Ships 820K, Sonic Colors 1.85M

Sega Sammy on Friday revealed the top three selling games for the publisher during the fiscal nine month period ended December 31. Sonic Colors for Nintendo's Wii and DS led sales for the publisher during the period with 1.85 million units shipped worldwide. The game, developed by Sonic Team and Dimps, launched in Japan and Western territories in November last year. Vanquish, the fast-paced third-person action game from Japanese MadWorld and Bayonetta studio Platinum Games, shipped 820,000 units during the period. The game released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 across major territories in October 2010. Platinum's Sega-published Bayonetta released in Japan in the same month a year prior, and shipped 1.1 million units in that country in the same time frame. The game launched in other territories the following quarter. Sega and Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2011 soccer simulation game, released in November, shipped 690,000 units through December on PC and PSP. Sega Sammy, which sells pachinko machines as well as home video games, today reported sales of ¥310.1 billion ($3.78 billion), up 9 percent year-on-year. Profits were up 117 percent to ¥36.8 billion ($448.9 million). Despite the gains, the company said home video games sales were slow in Western markets. "The demand was generally weak in the U.S. and European markets due to the headwind like sluggish personal consumption," said the company, which also cited a rising yen and "decelerating" Western economies.