Sega has recently made their annual financial report public for everyone to see. This report covers the profits from last year until March of this year. And looking at it now, it seems like Sega did not really get a wonderful year.
The financial report shows an increase in overall sales. However, Sega’s profit has declined for the second time in a row.
The Pachislot and Pachinko business alongside Sega’s Digital Games saw the worst performance results which were below expectation. With regards to their physical copies, their sales numbers lowered for games including Football Manager 2019 and also Yakuza 6. But there has been some repeat sales observed in Europe and North America which helped the company regain its profits.
There are several different factors which came into play and caused Sega’s financial decline. Some of these cited reasons include market saturation, competition, delays, and even their decision of taking on too many games. As it turns out, the company initially planned on releasing 12 digital titles last year. But only a total of 8 games were launched.
Now, taking all of these into consideration, Sega has come up with a plan. And that is to work more on what is actually helping them profit well. The multinational video game company is going to refocus its efforts on overseas markets. They anticipate that the domestic market in Japan will turn stagnant. With this, the company is looking into the markets of North America, Europe, and the rest of Asia.
They will specifically target their packaged games. Instead of focusing on developing so much new IPs, they will focus on their popular franchises including Sonic, and Yakuza. The game creators will pay particular attention to established hits and also bring in a remaster or re-release.
Sega will also be aiming at profiting through other ports such as PCs and mobiles. They also plan on widening the audience reach for their games. So there might be some established Japanese console games that will be re-released and hit the PCs and other platforms. This move has actually, already started as the community welcomed several Yakuza games on PC.
As of the moment, there are three unannounced games scheduled for release on the next fiscal year. It’s confirmed that one of those games will be a brand new Yakuza title. Well, with the success of Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza 0 on PC, Sega may want to capitalize on this opportunity. Hopefully, one of those two will be a Persona title.
