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There was a time at Sega Sammy where the performance of the pachinko and pachislot compensated for the delicate results of the video game. The situation is quite different today. While the Japanese slot machine market is in decline and has been the subject of numerous government regulations to fight against addiction, it is video games that are pulling the group up today. Well, of course, the segment “ Entertainment Contents encompasses a little more than just video games on consoles, mobiles and PC. It also takes into account the money generated by game rooms (which nowadays are more occupied by lint-catching machines than classic arcades), by animation (Sega distributes in particular films Detective Conan) and by toys. But even if we focus on the results to keep only the video game, they are the ones who lead the dance with a turnover of 1.2 billion euros and an operating profit of 220 million. euros, far ahead of the other business sectors mentioned above.
Sonic and Persona rule the roost
Between April 2022 and March 2023, Sega distributed 27.9 million games, up from 20.7 a year earlier. Sonic Frontiers stands out as one of the heroes of the year with 3.2 million copies sold at the end of March, not to mention that the Sonic franchise as a whole generated record royalties, which is not surprising between the film sonic 2 and the series Sonic Prime on Netflix. The release of Persona 5 Royal on its new platforms also made it possible to scratch 1.7 million additional sales. The Persona 5 family (which includes Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal, Persona 5 Strikers and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight) is approaching 10 million sales since its debut. In addition, some mobile games continue to bring in a lot of money, including Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage, which has been a hit since its release in September 2020 and now has 10 million users. But Miku’s mobile queen status is under threat, as Sega will soon bring Rovio and its Angry Birds into the equation. Unless 404 GAME RE:SET, Yoko Taro’s new curiosity released on April 25 in Japan, comes as a surprise.
As often with Japanese publishers, the importance of mobile in accounts should not be underestimated. For the fiscal year, traditional games generated a turnover of 490 million euros, against 415 million euros for free-to-play. And in this little internal duel, as much to say that the integration of Rovio will be a strong ally for free-to-play. Speaking of Rovio, Sega highlighted the fact that 88% of its mobile revenue currently comes from Japan. Once Rovio is in place, the situation will be much more balanced since Japan should retain 55% of mobile revenues, against 45% for the rest of the world.
The sequence of events looks good for Sega, which expects a strong increase in sales for the fiscal year from April 2023 to March 2024 and is counting on 34.3 million games distributed. An enticing prognosis suggesting a fairly busy program. For now, the prospects are varied but still quite modest with titles like Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection (June 1), Sonic Origins Plus (June 23), Samba de Amigo: Party Central (summer 2023), Endless Dungeon (October 19 ), Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (2023) and Hyenas (2023). In any case, Sega makes it a point of honor to generalize worldwide and multiplatform releases… remains to be seen if this objective also applies to Atlus games, right?