Sega profits up in ‘weak’ year

Sega has seen its Q2 profits leap year-on-year .

Sega Sammy generated 569m for the last quarter ending June 30th, 2012, a 7.1 per cent increase over the same period the year before. Profits reached 20.3m, which is up over an 18m loss last year.

The company reports ‘weak’ demand for boxed games, partially due to the struggling economy in Europe. The firm also released fewer video games in the last quarter (London 2012: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games being the notable exception). In total, 1.34m games were sold, 700,000 of which was sold in Europe, 400,000 in the US and 230,000 in Japan.

Sega has restructured its European operations to help generate more profit for the business. The firm will focus on four boxed games, Aliens, Sonic, Total War and Football Manager.

The company has enjoyed some digital success, however. Kingdom Conquest for smartphones has now been downloaded over 3m times. Sega expects its digital revenue to grow, and set up Sega Networks earlier this month to focus on digital game software.