Follow ups and Clarifications all around! ^__^
First things first, the Reuters article that was printed on a lot of major news sites (most noteably Reuters and Gaming Age). According to Gaming Age, the recent Reuters article they reported on, which basically confirmed that Sega would develop for multiple game consoles: After the news story broke, GA went straight to Sega of America for a quote as well as some clarification. The original article appears to be either a mistranslation on Reuters part, or some very wishful thinking on the part of the author. A Sega PR rep provided them with a copy of the release which was the source for the original Reuters article, and made the comment that “As far as we know, that’s (Sega developing for rival game consoles) not the case”.
When reading through the complete release, it makes much more sense as to where the confusion may have originated. The thing is a _LONG_ one, so instead I’m just gonna link it. It can be found here.
The next bit of clarification is concerning SEGA’s actual reported loss. This is from IGN DC:
Cross platform development, hardware licensing, network gaming… there’s wild speculation everywhere regarding Sega’s steps in these areas. There’s no speculation what so ever, though, on one thing: Sega is losing money and is not living up to previous expectations. Today, the company (which is described by Bloomberg as “a money-losing video-game console maker”) announced its expectations for the year ending March 2001. And they’re not good. The company is forecasting a group net loss of 22.1 billion yen ($204 million), in contrast to the expected profits of 1.5 billion yen. These estimates will mean that Sega is losing money for the fourth straight year in a row.
Half year results ending September are also lower than the initial forecast. Sega will post a group net loss of 29.2 billion yen, down from the 600 million profit that was initially expected.
Analysts are suggesting that the price cut for the Dreamcast in Europe and America, in addition to slow Dreamcast sales in Japan, are contributing to the poor performance. Comments Nomura Securities analyst Yuta Sakuai, “The loss has been expected since the console price cuts, because the company had been making a 1,000 yen loss per machine even before the price reduction.”
Sega is still expecting to reach a worldwide 10 million mark for Dreamcast in time for March of 2001, matching Sony’s forecast for PS2. As of September 30th, 5,870,000 DC units had been sold worldwide, with 1.06 million of those checking in between April and September. For the six months between October and March, Sega is forecasting sales of 3.77 million Dreamcasts worldwide, with 2.1 million systems going to North America, 770,000 units in Europe and 730,000 in Japan (maybe the rest will go to Antarctica?).
So will the slaughter end anytime soon? Hideki Sato, who will assume the role of Representative Director and Vice President of Sega starting November 1st, stated “I think we are predestined — the real battle starts now.” Nomura’s Sakuai commented “the fourth straight annual net loss is a blow to Sega, but it now has a better chance of returning to profit next year.”
And the FINAL bit of claricication comes from Sega’s stance on producing games for OTHER platforms and what they have to say. This is also from IGN DC:
There’s an online buzz going around about the SEGA Dreamcast. Specifically, sources on the Internet claim that SEGA will soon announce a new business strategy that will include plans to provide game software to rival maker’s consoles. To which we say… yeah, right. SEGA held an earnings report where they had announced their new strategy to focus on network gaming. It seems many have likened to make speculation into news, since on the press release there is absolutely no mention of plans to have SEGA software on competitors’ consoles. The closest statement is:
“Further, SEGA will take other strategic measures such as utilizing its vast software library of more than 1,000 titles to develop content for other consumer entertainment and mobile devices, making full use of the SEGA’s renowned brand and characters to expand its game software business”
It seems everyone wants to get a shot at SEGA, whether fact-based or not. While SEGA is projecting a pretty big loss for the end of the fiscal year, there is, I repeat again, no mention of software development for rival consoles.
And THAT is THAT. 🙂