Iron Man vindicates SEGA's movie milking

By Robert Purchese Published 13 May, 2011

Profits up, despite harsh conditions.

Despite "stagnant personal consumption", "generally weak demand" for video games and the devastating 11th March Japanese earthquake and tsunami, SEGA has managed a magnificent profit.

Thank you, dreary Iron Man 2 game (1.54 million sales), thank you, Sonic Colours (2.18 million sales).

Sort of thank you, Vanquish (830,000 sales), sort of thank you, Total War: Shogun 2 (600,000 sales).

Polite thank you, Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity (370,000 sales).

But the biggest thank you goes to Panchinko Slot machines - the chief reason profits shot up 105 per cent to ¥41.5 billion ($515 million, £317 million). The game-specific part of SEGA's business was actually down 27 per cent.

Europe turned out to be SEGA's most lucrative market, although Western sales "remained slow" because of "adverse" market conditions.

"The Group needs to adapt to changing business environment in which the market demand for new content geared to social networking service (SNS) and smartphone is expanding," SEGA commented.

In the year ahead, SEGA pins console hopes on Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. That series, which encompasses Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games, has sold a staggering 19 million units.

SEGA yesterday announced a promising new Alien IP being developed by at Total War dev Creative Assembly UK, albeit by a brand new team. SEGA also enjoys the fruits of mildly bonkers but brilliant Japanese developer PlatinumGames, whose latest game is Anarchy Reigns.

SEGA's Iron Man 2.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • J0rdan_KZ #1 1 year ago

    Sonic Colours well deserves those 2 million sales. It is a fantastic game, regardless of the mascot on the front cover. Lots of fun to play and makes me quite excited about Sonic Generations!

    Also:

    CUUUBE!
    Edited by J0rdan_KZ at 13/05/11 @ 12:13

  • thedriffter50 #2 1 year ago

    Why are people buying Sega games ? They are the definition of '' crap ''.

  • Triggerhappytel #3 1 year ago

    Fucking 1.5 million sales for Iron Man 2 and less than 900,00 for Vanquish?!

  • Madafunkola #4 1 year ago

    If only they'd painted the Vanquish armour like Iron Man's suit...

  • the_dudefather #5 1 year ago

    If they painted Joe Vanquish (or whatever the main character is called' red and slapped Iron man 2 on the box everyone would be a winner!

    edit: boo, too slow
    Edited by the_dudefather at 13/05/11 @ 12:52

  • menage #6 1 year ago

    If people want to buy shit in a box, power to them.

  • HyperTails #7 1 year ago

    Sonic the Hedgehog 4 must of helped as well. After all, they said that it sold really well and they've been able to up the budget for Episode 2 (hope to see it at E3, Sega). I'm really looking forward to Sonic Generations as well.

    Good job Sega. Even if Iron Man 2 was crap, i'm glad to see you making money.

  • Mr_V #8 1 year ago

    Hey you! Yes, you. You who like shooters and action games in general, but haven't bought Vanquish.

    Go find a copy right now. Trust me. It's quite simply one of the best shooters of the generation, period. Read Eurogamer's review if you don't believe me.

    Less than a million copies… Sheesh, no wonder we're facing a future where the only games one can buy are the latest instalment of CoD or whatnot. Sigh.

  • nuanimal #9 1 year ago

    I hope 830k sales for Vanquish was still profitable for Platinum Games. Vanquish was lovely, and was the reason my PS3 controller gave up on me :o)

  • Freek #10 1 year ago

    You take the money from the dumb blockbuster to fund the niche/indy title.
    So hopefully we'll see another 2+ million sales for Iron Man 3 or The Avengers so that we can have more Platinum and Creative Assembly games.
    Edited by Freek at 13/05/11 @ 14:28

  • seanyboycorben #11 1 year ago

    Football Manager is their only title of any quality. I wouldn't touch any other SEGA game if you paid me.

  • Ryze #12 1 year ago

    SEGA must DIE.

    Its IP needs to be owned by a company with the competence and understanding to manage and deliver consistently high quality gaming products in the 21st century. Sammy are not that company. Therefore...

    SEGA must DIE.