Sega Announces “Significant Increase” in Sales of Packaged Games

Sega released its financial results for the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2020.

You can see from the table below that all income figures are in the black and show significant improvement year-on-year.

The same goes for the Entertainment Contents Business, which includes games.

We then read on the results highlights that a “significant increase” was recorded in the sales of packaged games (which are console and PC games).

We also get a breakdown of the period’s performance in the press release.

“Regarding the environment of the entertainment contents business, in the digital game software field, the strong competitive environment for mobile game continues, especially in Japan.

With regard to the packaged game software field, in the market for hardware of home video game consoles, the game software sales market is expanding, mainly in overseas due to the growing penetration of current-generation video game console hardware. In addition, the expectations are rising for expanding overseas download sales and revenue opportunities from new business models with the launch of new platforms and services.

We also hear a more specific report on the Entertainment Contents business.

“In the digital game software field, the Group recorded transient sales such as title transfers and offering titles. Also sales of existing
titles in operation have been performing solidly. Besides, expenses substantially decreased due to the impairment loss on fixed assets
recorded in the previous fiscal year.

In the packaged game software field, the Group sold repeat titles steadily though expenses increased, partly as the result of the amortization of development expenses due to multiple releases of “Total War: THREE KINGDOMS”, “Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020″ etc. As a result, sales amounted to 26,760 thousand copies (23,440 thousand copies in the previous fiscal year).”

The outlook for the current fiscal year is up in the air due to the COVID-19 emergency, but below you can find a table providing an overview. It mentions possible delays of new games if the situation continues, while there is growth in the sales of packaged games, especially in download form outside of Japan.

Below you can find all the relevant slides.

If you’d like to compare, you can check out the results from the previous quarter, released in February.