Sega-Sammy Announces Higher Revenue, Profit

Sega-Sammy Holdings, the Japanese holding firm that oversees pachinko giant Sammy Corporation, Sega's international arcade, console, and PC business, and a number of subsidiary developers, yesterday announced profits for the first half of its fiscal year. The firm's revenue for the period between March 30 and September 30 was reported at 24.9 billion yen (approximately $209 million), a substantial increase over the 18 billion yen predicted recently, and profit was 14.2 billion yen ($120 million), more than doubling earlier predictions. Sources cited for the increase include the continuous success of Sammy's pachinko and pachislot arcade machines, and an increase in consumer videogame sales due to some titles being released earlier than originally scheduled. Additionally, Sega-Sammy reports a decrease in research and development costs, due in no small part to the re-use of key components in Sammy's newest pachinko and pachislot machines. Due to rising game development costs and dragging software sales - due, they said, to consumer anticipation of the three upcoming next-gen consoles - Sega-Sammy has been placing most of its resources lately on the very profitable gambling portion of its business, although Sega's Western console and PC development and publishing arms have been expanding significantly of late. Additionally, the firm reported that full-year income predictions for the period ending March 30, 2006 may increase after the sales of a new line of pachinko machines, slated for release next month.