Sega rethinks revenue expectations following gloomy physical game performances in Q3 2020

In its Q3 2020 fiscal results, Sega reported that it has moderated its fiscal forecast because packaged games are proving problematic (via GamesIndustry.biz).

Persona 5 Royal, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and New Sakura Wars were released into the wild in the three month period appraised by the report. These boosted nine month unit sales to 19.33 million, which easily eclipsed the nine month unit sales of 2019. In addition, its entertainment contents segment generated $148 million from arcade products, toys, and video games, leading to an incredible 52.8 per cent rise year-on-year. But, packaged games have let the side down for Sega. Digital games contributed a slight boost to the company’s commercial performance as a whole, but the lull of packaged games has made Sega rethink its expectations.

Going forward, the packaged games revenue forecast for the full-year has been lowered from $765 million to $678 million. That has affected the publisher’s total revenue expectations as well. Now, Sega expects a total revenue of $3.3 billion when its previous estimate was said to be $3.5 billion. It’s not all doom and gloom though, because the report also claimed that the company enjoyed a 12.2 per cent increase in revenue to $2.6 billion by the end of 2019. As for its profit, that racked up $210 million, which is a whopping increase from $6.1 million during that same period last year.