Sega: "Sluggish" Consumption to Blame for Slow Game Sales

[vansau]

Sega: "Sluggish" Consumption to Blame for Slow Game Sales

Sega's videogame sales weren't all that strong over the past six months, a fact that the publisher blames on weak consumer spending overall.

Sega's been having a tough time of late when it comes to videogame sales. According to the publisher, though, this is is because personal consumption has become "sluggish" in Europe and North America and "stagnant" in Japan.

A six month financial report (covering activity from April to September) explains that the publisher's games department was $16.1 million in the red, which is far better than the $482 million it was overdrawn by last year. That said, Sega still made $2.7 billion during this time period, largely due to its Pachinko business. Of that amount, the company generated $301.9 million in profit.

The report doesn't factor either <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Vanquish-Playstation-3/dp/B003PHLT8W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288379316&sr=8-1>Vanquish or Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, two games that have received both strong reviews and <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-26-sega-encouraged-by-vanquish-sales>solid sales. However, <a href=http://www.metacritic.com/company/sega?page=1>looking at the metascores of Sega's recently-released games, it seems like wildly-uneven quality might be more to blame for slow sales than consumption levels.

Source: <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-29-sluggish-personal-consumption-dogs-sega>Eurogamer


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[Dexiro]

Sounds like an awkward way of saying that they have crap game sales because they make crap games. Are they trying to make it out to be our fault rather than theirs?

 

[Decabo]

Vanquish, Sonic 4, and the much underrated Resonance of Fate have all been great, and early reviews for Sonic Colors have been excellent, so I don't think Sega has a whole lot to worry about.

 

[Crunchy English]

Yeah, these guys need to trim down their spending and put larger teams on fewer games. Quality over quantity, might help I think.

That said, Damnit Obsidian, you were THIS close to creating the best RPG of the year in Alpha Protocol. But you screwed it up so bad in the polish phase that I'm not even getting a sequel next year!

 

[SimuLord]

Yeah, these guys need to trim down their spending and put larger teams on fewer games. Quality over quantity, might help I think.

That said, Damnit Obsidian, you were THIS close to creating the best RPG of the year in Alpha Protocol. But you screwed it up so bad in the polish phase that I'm not even getting a sequel next year!

Bethesda Softworks is going to settle the debate once and for all about whether it's Obsidian or their publishers that's the problem. Bethsoft has a major vested interest in its brand.

Which, incidentally (and to steer this back on topic), is something Sega wouldn't know if it bit them. They legitimately don't seem to have the faintest clue how to handle brand management. Nintendo would have its dev team commit seppuku if a Mario game got a sub-50 Metascore. That's the kind of stuff anyone with half a brain should be able to see in development (you certainly can't predict a big hit, but professionals should know crap when they see it.)

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

ITT: Sega finds another scapegoat for their shoddy game quality and quickly rushes it out the door. Just like their games.

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

Mabye it's because sega are just shit....

 

[Dr Megadeth]

Well maybe if you didn't Murder Sonic, people would actually buy your games.

 

[XT inc]

I didn't know sluggish was slang for us jerkweeds not buying poorly made games. The nerve of us, buying halo's, Cod's and generally anything thing that gets rated 8+/10 by majority vote.

Cmon guys don't you know 6 is the new 10. When will we learn that borderline broken, archaic, non progressive crap is the new awesome.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

What happened Sega? You use to be so cool. Now you're so meh.