Both digital and packaged game sales on the rise at Sega Sammy

Sega Sammy has closed the first quarter of its 2019-2020 financial year with increases in digital and packaged game sales, growth it expects to continue as the reach of consoles, as well as new platforms and services, continue to expand outside of Japan.

Looking just at the Entertainment Contents Business that houses Sega Sammy’s video game dealings (as well its amusement, animated film, and toy operations), the company saw net sales of ¥53.1 billion (~$488.6 million), a 17.9 percent increase from the same period last year.

To break that down, digital games were responsible for ¥11.9 billion (~$109.6 million) for the quarter, an increase from last year’s sales driven by existing titles, and despite what the company describes as an ongoing, strong competitive environment in that sector. On top of that, Sega Sammy expects that the launch of unnamed “new platforms and services” will help expand in the overseas digital market in the future.

Packaged game software, meanwhile, saw sales of ¥14.7 billion (~$135.3 million) on 6.24 million copies, the largest single sales chunk in the entire Entertainment Contents category and a ¥2.4 billion (~$22.1 million) increase over last year. This growth, the company explains, is largely due to current-generation consoles getting into the hands of more and more players outside of Japan as well as a strong showing from new titles.

Total War: Three Kingdoms, Team Sonic Racing, and Judgment are specifically called out as three major titles released during the quarter ending June 30. Packaged sales aren’t broken down on a game-by-game basis, but 8 new packaged games were released during the quarter, including 1 in Japan, 2 in Asia, and 4 in North America and Europe. By region, the release notes that 2.15 million units of those new releases were sold in North America and Europe combined, compared to 20,000 in Japan and 130,000 in Asia during that same period.