Iron Man vindicates SEGA's movie milking

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.