SEGA returns to the track of success in its fiscal results boosted by Phantasy Star Online 2

The company registers profits after a year 2020 that was very difficult for it.

Afer a year 2020 that was quite complicated for SEGA , due to the closure of its premises and physical businesses due to the pandemic, the blue hedgehog company is back at full throttle . SEGA Sammy Holdings has published its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal year, which spans from April to June 2021. And the company has successfully concluded its recovery: SEGA records profits and good sales in the wake of games like Phantasy Star Online 2 . On this subject, let us remember that SEGA managed to close the previous fiscal year positively after a profound transformation of its businesses and the sale of real estate.

Locals have not yet reached a full recoverySEGA SammyBut, back to the results of this quarter, SEGA publishes net sales of 59,447 million yen (458 million euros) among all its divisions, 22.9% more than a year ago. While both the pachinko machines and resorts divisions continue to generate losses , these are much lower than a year ago and are increasingly close to reversing. Something that is evident in the fact that, despite them, SEGA closed the quarter with net profits of 3,844 million yen (29.6 million euros).

“Although the market has entered a trend towards recovery […] the operations of the premises have not yet reached a full recovery due to the impact of COVID-19,” SEGA notes in its report. Regarding the data of the video game division , which is the one that concerns us, the entertainment segment highlights the sales of “new games focused on remastering in the North American and European markets”, for sales of 6,580,000 games during the trimester. They are barely half the number of units a year ago (12.98 million), in the middle of the pandemic.

PSO2 has generated 770.5 million euros so farDespite this, the Entertainment Contents division (games) increased its sales by 5.1% (47,440,000 yen) and its profits by 3.1% (8,533,000 yen). This is partly due to free games like Phantasy Star Online 2 , an MMORPG that SEGA highlights in its report. PSO2 not only already exceeds 9 million players worldwide (6.5M in Japan, 2.5M in the West), but the launch of its renewed version ‘New Genesis’ has made it register the highest number of monthly players of its history .

In total, PSO2 has already generated more than 100 billion yen in revenue in its entire life , about 770 million euros. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, SEGA reminds us that the launches of new sagas such as Humankind , Amplitude’s 4X, as well as new installments in established sagas such as Lost Judgment (Yakuza), Sonic Colors: Ultimate , Shin Megami Tensei V , Total await us War Warhammer III and Two Point Campus . The quarterly report makes no mention of the game known as Sonic Rangers , scheduled for 2022, so it is very possible that it will come out in the next fiscal year.