Sega Loses $50 Million in Three Months

[The Wooster]

Sega Loses $50 Million in Three Months

Things are going from bad to worse for Sega.

The now infamous ad campaign for the Sega Megadrive (or Genesis, for you scruffy colonists) once proudly proclaimed that "Sega does what Nintendon't." What Sega does that Nintendo does not, for the past few years at least, is lose vast stacks of money. While Nintendo has been having a fairly miserable time of it these past few months [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.303433-Nintendo-Slashes-Profit-Forecast-by-Four-Fifths?page=1] its age-old, and sadly mostly vanquished, rival Sega has been faring even worse.

Despite releasing several high-profile titles, including the latest installment in the critically acclaimed [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8736-Total-War-Shogun-2-Review] Shogun [http://www.amazon.ca/Shogun-2-Total-War-Limited/dp/B004CZZZXQ] series, Sega has managed to lose a whopping $50 million dollars in the past three months, a vast increase from the mere $8.23 million it lost in the same period last year. Sega Sammy, the company brought about when Pachinko machine giant Sammy (which, I must stress, is a company, not an actual giant.) bought out Sega back in 2004, managed to offset that loss somewhat with earnings from its sprawling casual gambling empire, but still ended up reporting an overall loss of $28.8 million.

Though the two companies are really no longer comparable, Sega's plight does put Nintendo's recent performance into perspective. President and CEO Satoru Iwata took a 50% pay cut [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111963-Nintendo-CEO-Takes-50-Pay-Cut] in response to Nintendo going from insanely profitable to merely quite profitable. One wonders how much of a pay cut Sega Sammy CEO Hajime Satomi would have to take to account for a near thirty million dollar loss.

Source: Gameindustry.biz. [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-07-29-losses-climb-to-USD50m-for-segas-consumer-business]

Permalink

 

[TheNaut131]

Ah, this is gonna be a fun thread.

Well, can't say I'm too surprised. Sonic can only make so much money, Platinum games is just barely accepted, and everything else Sega typically does is pretty much either pointless, unmemorable, or simply trash.

Edit: Since I'm not a complete Negative Nancy, here's an interesting idea.

Let Sonic Team, and perhaps even those storybook guys, try to make something different.

Remember Billy Hatcher, Sonic Team? His game wasn't too praised, but it was still a pretty good game. It was a nice attempt at something different and new coming from you guys...it was also the last time you tried something different. Hey Storybook guys, want to make something that doesn't have a blue, anthropomorphic hedgehog clogging the works? C'mon, just take the overall themes, get rid of the everything Sonic-fied, slow it down a bit, add in your own characters, tweak it a bit, and there: You've got yourselves something worth at least checking out.

tl;dr: Let Sonic Team TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT. You can't just rely on Platinum games and whatever minor groups you've got working there to make other games that aren't Sonic.

 

[koroem]

Here is an idea sega. Stop making Sonic games.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

We'll see what Phantasy Star Online 2 does for profits, then.

I like SEGA. I don't want them to stop making games.

They published my two favorite titles of 2010. Bayonetta and Vanquish.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Start doing Shenmue III or a new Earthworm Jim Project !


ps: lol my captcha was "flat out"

 

[Xman490]

I feel so sorry for Sega that my consideration for Sonic Generations has gone from "Meh, maybe" to "Likely buy".

 

[Gindil]

We'll see what Phantasy Star Online 2 does for profits, then.

I like SEGA. I don't want them to stop making games.

No one wants them to stop making games.

They just need to start making good games.

They won't even license the Streets of Rage remake, nor will they port the games that used to make them great such as the Shining Force series. Top that off with their sad push into all things Sonic and you have a company with backwards thinking committed to games no one else will touch.

Hell, I think their original PSO would have been good to simply work on making it F2P and attracting more people to their servers.

TLDR: Sega is doing it all wrong.

 

[Armored Prayer]

God damn thats a huge loss in such short time.

If Sega wants to continue living they better get their shit together and make something worth playing for once.

 

[Frankster]

Wasnt there the exact opposite of this news a while back with the same joke in reverse "sega does what nintendont: namely make piles of money"? Article was about sega posting good profits for their quarter iirc.

Unless that was a figment of my imagination, poor sega, they thought they were doing well :\

 

[Keava]

I wish i had 50 millions dollars to loose.... it just seems so much fun. Shame for Sega tho, but they haven't really been able to come up with any new interesting ideas lately.Just proves that no one is safe in the industry, and maybe that gamers would actually want to finally move forward rather than being constantly fed more of the same, recent indie boom seems to be supporting that theory

 

[Salad Is Murder]

Is that actual loses or that weird market forcast-expecatations where the company said it was going to make 500mil and made 450mil?

Also, just HD remix PSO ep 1&2 and put it on XBLA; problem fixed.

Okay, seriously, this Solvemedia captcha stuff is garbage. C'mon Escapist.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

We'll see what Phantasy Star Online 2 does for profits, then.

I like SEGA. I don't want them to stop making games.

No one wants them to stop making games.

They just need to start making good games.

They won't even license the Streets of Rage remake, nor will they port the games that used to make them great such as the Shining Force series. Top that off with their sad push into all things Sonic and you have a company with backwards thinking committed to games no one else will touch.

Hell, I think their original PSO would have been good to simply work on making it F2P and attracting more people to their servers.

TLDR: Sega is doing it all wrong.

They won't stop with Sonic. They SHOULDN'T stop with Sonic, from a financial perspective, at least. It's one of their few profitable series.

So, they aren't doing it ALL wrong.

 

[Salad Is Murder]

No, they should stop with Sonic...that well is truly dry.

 

[TheNaut131]

No, they should stop with Sonic...that well is truly dry.

After Sonic Generations, they should put Sonic away for a few years and perhaps let Sonic Team try something different. Anyone here remember Billy Hatcher? It wasn't the best game ever, but hell it was pretty good in my book. It was also the last time Sonic Team tried something different.

 

[Fensfield]

Sega was bought out buy a pachinko chain? Yeesh..

I wonder if that explains as much as my gut is claiming it does.

 

[Gindil]

They won't stop with Sonic. They SHOULDN'T stop with Sonic, from a financial perspective, at least. It's one of their few profitable series.

So, they aren't doing it ALL wrong.

Shadow the Hedgehog
Werewolf Sonic
Sonic as a sword swinging knight...

No, they really need to stop beating him further into the ground. Sonic needs a vacation.

 

[ShotgunZombie]

SEGA, didn't you have a thing going on with Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Madworld, Vanquish), what happened to that?

 

[Sylocat]

We might be building up to a worldwide financial meltdown here...

 

[mireko]

That's sad. Platinum and the Valkyria Chronicles team have been making some fantastic games this gen.