Sega Sammy has released a financial report detailing its performance during the fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2017.
During its first quarter, the Japanese holding company saw net sales of ¥107.3 billion (~$974.2 million), up 52 percent from the ¥70.6 billion (~$641 million) reported during the same period last year.
As a whole, the Entertainment Contents arm under which Sega Sammy houses its video game business saw sales of ¥50.2 billion (~ $455.8 million) during Q1, marking an increase of 7 percent year-over-year.
Digital game sales made up ¥9.5 billion (~$86.2 million) of that total, a decrease of 21 percent from the ¥46.7 billion (~$424 million) reported at this time last year. Sales of physical, packaged games meanwhile saw a year-over-year increase of 35 percent, coming in at ¥14.4 billion (~$130.7 million) versus last year’s ¥10.7 billion (~$97.1 million)
On the physical front, Sega Sammy saw the release of 5 titles during this quarter; one in Japan, one in Asia, and three in Western regions. In both Japan and the West, the company’s back catalog saw the bulk of physical sales this time around with as much as 71 percent of packaged sales in North America and Europe belonging to games released prior to Q1. Similarly, 73 percent of the 150,000 packaged game sales in Japan involved previously released titles.
The report attributes the strength of is packaged game sales, at least in part, to the success of Atlus' Persona 5 which it notes has shipped over 1.5 million copies worldwide since its Japanese release in September 2016.
For digital games, Sega Sammy says that sales for Phantasy Star Online 2 remain “robust” following the game’s fifth anniversary and notes that it continues to support its mobile titles like Hortensia Saga and Puyopuyo!! Quest through updates and events.
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2017