Today, Sega released its financial results for the nine-month period ending on December 31, 2023, revealing a significant decline in its gaming division’s performance primarily due to underwhelming game sales.
Sales for the overall company reached 349,924 million yen, marking a significant increase of 28.7% year-on-year. Operating income also saw a notable rise to 54,445 million yen, up by 42.4% year-on-year.
However, this robust overall performance was primarily driven by the Pachislot and Pachinko Machines business.
On the contrary, SEGA’s gaming division experienced a decline in performance, with their “Entertainment Content” business recording sales of 219,316 million yen, reflecting a modest increase of 4.2% year-on-year.
Operating income in this division plummeted to 19,736 million yen, marking a substantial decrease of 52.5% year-on-year.
Although specific sales figures were not disclosed in its latest report, games released in the last quarter include Sonic Superstars, Persona 5 Tactica, Total War: Pharaoh, and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.
As a company, SEGA appears to be making up for lost time embracing modern Western progressive values, particularly in terms of embracing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) agendas.
SEGA recently supported and shared a Japan Times article, a topic we’ve recently discussed ourselves, which overlooks the extent of how Western influence and ESG initiatives have influenced Japanese corporations like SEGA and Bandai Namco.
These companies now heavily alter their games solely for Western audiences, eliminating controversial content and employing malicious localizers to inject their own fanfiction.
For example, Persona 3 Reload removed a segment deemed “transphobic” by completely removing the transgender aspect of the character and replacing it with a conspiracy theorist instead, the change was made universal across all platforms and regions, including the Japanese version.
To make matters worse, Yakuza series director Masayoshi Yokoyama defended globalized localization by asserting that it does not misinterpret or alter the original Japanese content.
He further argued that changes such as removing “derogatory terms” and “discriminatory language” are not considered censorship because they are made during the development process and do not significantly deviate from the original script, which of course we know to be gaslighting bullshit.
SEGA has gone to great lengths to tarnish its legacy and portray itself in a negative light by openly embracing ESG core values with vigorous determination, which makes their cancelation of the largest woke slop fest, HYENAS all the more confusing.
Does anybody even remember HYENAS? It was a multiplayer PVPVE extraction shooter centered on space heists, developed by Creative Assembly.
The game was set to include a playable drag queen. However, SEGA abruptly canceled the project mere days after an open PC beta test concluded and scrapped the entire game months before release, despite the fact that it reportedly cost them over $100 million USD.
HYENAS wasn’t the only flop to be released by Creative Assembly this year, as Total War: Pharaoh was largely criticized as being a mundane tech demo DLC expansion, similarly to the Total War Saga series.
Sonic Superstars, another title from SEGA, faced backlash after implementing last-minute changes, including the addition of invasive DENUVO DRM and the requirement of an Epic Games account to access its online component, despite launching on Steam.
The only saving grace SEGA has when it comes to video games from this financial result comes from their acquisition of Rovio, the developers of Angry Birds whereas actual console and PC game sales were piss poor throughout.
Sales of new games totaled 5.27 million units, compared to 6.97 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year. Repeat sales amounted to 13.83 million copies, slightly up from 13.77 million in the previous fiscal year. In total, the company sold 19.1 million copies of games, a decrease from 20.75 million.
Repeat sales of games released in previous fiscal years remained consistent, but SEGA experienced losses related to inventory write-down. Additionally, sales of UFO catcher prizes within the Amusement Machine sector of the Entertainment Content business fell short of expectations.
Primarily due to the underperformance of certain games released during the third quarter, SEGA has adjusted its full fiscal year outlook downward. The revised outlook for overall sales is 463,000 million yen, reduced from 474,000 million yen. Operating income is anticipated to be 51,000 million yen, down from 60,000 million yen.
For the Entertainment Content business, sales are projected to be 313,500 million yen, a decrease from 327,000 million yen, while operating income is expected to be 24,500 million yen, down from 36,500 million yen.
Additionally, the company is actively contemplating structural reforms for its gaming business in Europe. This includes evaluating the medium-term lineup, optimizing fixed expenses, enhancing investment efficiency, and reassessing the development, sales structure, and management system.
Since doubling down on the ESG woke virus, SEGA themselves recently celebrated by laying off 61 employees from their America branch.
Sadly it’s highly likely that SEGA may be on an upwards trajectory at least for their next financial result, given the perceived success of Yakuza: Infinite Wealth despite featuring the talentless voice of Yong Yea has managed to accumulate 1 million sales within the first week of release.
While it’s proclaimed that Persona 3 Reload is the fastest selling game made by Atlus throughout its entire history, also managing one million copies sold within its first week.
Which just goes to show that the modern gamer has absolutely zero standards whatsoever.
