Pachislot, Pachinko Drive Sega Sammy Sales, Profits

Tokyo-based Sonic the Hedgehog house Sega Sammy today posted an overall rise in sales and a swing to profit, but its home video game business continued to struggle. The company posted revenues of ¥217.8 billion ($2.7 billion) for the first fiscal half of the year ended September 30, a 41 percent year-on-year increase. Profits rose to ¥24.3 billion ($301.2 million), up from a loss of ¥6.32 billion ($78.3 million). Aside from publishing consumer video games, Sega Sammy also has amusement center, arcade machine and pachislot and pachinko businesses. Sega's pachislot and pachinko businesses drove the higher results -- that segment saw sales jump 96 percent to ¥134.3 billion ($1.7 billion) for the first half, and operating income rose 338 percent to ¥47.9 billion ($593.8 million), as total pachislot and pachinko machine sales rose to 399,000 units during the period. Last month, Sega Sammy raised full fiscal year forecasts on stronger-than-expected sales of pachislot and pachinko machines. But Sega Sammy's consumer video game segment continued to remain stagnant in territories outside of Japan. "While domestic sales were firm, in the overseas markets, sales of new titles remained slow as affected by the adverse market condition," the company said. Total sales in the consumer gaming segment for the first half were ¥38.9 billion ($482.2 million), up 3 percent from the same period a year ago. Operating loss was ¥1.3 billion ($16.1 million), smaller than the ¥8.2 billion ($101.6 million) loss for the same period a year prior. During the half, Sega launched the rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA and the Yakuza series PSP spinoff Kurohyo: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinsyo in Japan. Total game software sales during the half came to 6.6 million copies: 3.2 million in the U.S., 2.15 million in Europe and 1.24 million in Japan and other territories. Sega also said that it closed 10 amusement centers and opened two new ones, bringing total locations to 252 centers at the end of the half. Sales in the segment were down 18 percent to ¥23.6 billion ($292.5 million) year-on-year for the period, and operating profit was ¥1.1 billion ($13.6 million), up 396 percent.