Weak sales prompt Western restructure for Sega

Sega has declared it will "streamline" its operations in the U.S and Europe after poor sales of its new titles last year.

In its financial results for FY2012, the publisher reported total sales of packaged games had dropped to 17.2m units, a year-on-year decline of eight per cent.

Sega said sales of new titles were weak "primarily in the U.S. and Europe", attributing this to "adverse market conditions".

6.1m games were sold in the US during the twelve months ended March 31st, 2012, while 8.3m titles were sold across all of Europe in the same period.

"In the consumer business, we have decided to carry out streamlining of the organization responsible for the packaged game software field in the U.S. and European markets in a bid to establish a structure that can consistently generate profit, as part of the strategies to restore growth as well as improve profitability," the company said.

"Due to the cost of this move, we have posted 345 million for impairment loss and 6.3bn for restructuring loss. From here on, we will endeavor to shift our business structure with a view to adapting to the changes in the business environment, including further focus on the development of the field of digital games."

The company’s renewed focus on the digital games sector follows the success of smartphone titles such as Kingdom Conquest, which passed the 2.5m download mark after three months on sale.

Comparatively Sonic Generations, Sega’s second best-selling title of the financial year, sold 1.8m units in just over four months. Mario & Sonic 2012 led the publisher’s sales with 3.2m units sold to date.

The entire Sega Sammy Group, which also operates arcade and Pachinko slot machines, reported net sales of 395.5bn, almost the same as that of last year. However, net income fell by nearly 50 per cent year-on-year to 21.8bn.