Sega reports $95.8m loss

I don't quite understand the numbers in the last paragraph.
If the financial quarter is from January to end of March then eiotehr my calculations are wrong or some of the numbers I have (through [link url=http://www.vgchartz.com)
]http://www.vgchartz.com)
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These are the 360 titles I could find for the quarter:
Viking (released 03/26/08, 0.07m units)
Condemned 2 (released 03/11/08, 0.19m units)
SEGA Superstars Tennis (released 03/18/0, 0.04m units)
The Club (released 02/19/08, 0.12m units)
Universe at War: Earth Assault (360 release 03/25/08, 0.02m units)
The Golden Compass (release date 11/30/07, 0.2m units)

Altogether I count a bit more than 600,000 units.

While Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) alone sold more than a millions copies in the US and Europe in that quarter!

And the Wii version of Mario & Sonic sold 1.3m units in that quarter!
If you add the numbers for the other Wii titles such as Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (0.34m), Ghost Squad (0.18m), NiGHTS (0.1m), House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, Golden Compass and Bleach: Shattered Blade then I count almost 2 million units for the first quarter!

So I think that the Wii titles made much more money then any other platform.

Posted:4 years ago

The results are taken from the Sega financial disclosure, the full version of which is available here.

Page 15 on the bottom right corner displays the pertinent figures, with a comparison to the same quarter last year.

On that list the implication is that they're only counting titles released in that quarter (which may vary according to territory), with all other sales (platforms aside) lumped into the Catalogue figure.

On a side note, one of the reasons we don't report on VGChartz information is because it is based on estimates, and the numbers are sometimes changed later on.

Compelling reading as it is, and while we wouldn't necessarily go so far as Gamasutra's analysis of the site (we haven't conducted our own investigation as yet), we do have a strong preference for official numbers.

Edited 2 times. Last edit by Phil Elliott on 6th August 2008 6:17pm

Posted:4 years ago

I believe Phil's points are correct. Most fiscal quarter reports only report titles released during that quarter and sales accumulated from previously released titles are listed as catalog (and many times not even reported at all).

VGChartz works fine as a means of getting an overall feel of sales (and for free I might add) but I wouldn't put money on any of it.

Posted:4 years ago

Thanks for the interesting Gamasutra article, Phil!
I didn't have any idea so far where VGChartz gets their numbers from.
Too bad there's no better source for games sales figures...

I also belive you're right about the catalog title listing. As the financial report states back catalog sales have been 2.86m units. I believe that's largely due to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games which had just been released at the end of Q4 2008.
I'm still surprise the Wii titles didn't fare better in the report, but I think that's just due to the release dates. Overall Wii titles should make almost half of SEGA's games sales.

Posted:4 years ago

Sega has certainly faired better on Nintendo consoles (even GameCube If I recall) than on competing systems.

I've been hopeful given this success and the collaboration of Sonic and Mario and more interaction between the companies would spring forth.

The early Nintendo fan in me would love nothing more than to see the Nintendo invest a major share in Sega and make them 2nd party but that obviously goes against Sega's desires as a multiplatform publisher.

Posted:4 years ago