Sega Sammy Reports First Half Surge

Japanese-headquartered Sega Sammy Holdings has doubled its half-year financial profit forecast to 18 billion yen ($159 million), according to a document filed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company also raised its sales forecast 2 percent to 243 billion yen ($2.15 billion), according to a report from Bloomberg News. The company's most recent financial results, covering the first quarter of the year, showed a boost to $95.5m in profit, thanks largely to sales of coin-operated pachinko gambling machines, and it appears that this positive trend is continuing, leading the company to warn on increased profits. Sega Sammy's video game division showed a loss of $18 million for the first quarter, but is expanding aggressively in the West, announcing multiple new product acquisitions over the past few months, with a next-gen development deal with Bizarre Creations, developer of Project Gotham Racing 3, only the most recent. In addition, the Kyodo News agency in Japan is reporting that Sega Sammy's U.S. arcade equipment operations, which currently consist of Sega Amusements USA, based in San Francisco, and Sammy USA Corp, based in Illinois, will be consolidated into the San Francisco-based Sega facility. However, this report has yet to be officially confirmed. Nonetheless, this move is logical, given that Sammy's U.S. console operations were effectively moved into Sega's when Sammy Studios' Carlsbad office completed a management buyout and became High Moon Studios earlier in 2005.