SEGA Completely Out of Debt, Posts First Profit in Five Years

SEGA has just given word that it has made a profit for the first time in five years! That's huge news, considering that the company's future is tied to Sonic's future - so a healthy SEGA is a healthy Sonic franchise.

According to Gamespot (via TSSZ), "while Sega's operating profits were 34.5 percent lower than the year before, the company's arcade business posted a profit of 18.8 billion yen ($161 million), resulting in 3 billion yen ($25 million) in profit for the company."

Compare that to last year, where it made 8.5 billion yen ($73 million) in losses, and half of their games did not make any profit for the company at all, and you can see how that is an amazing turnaround.

But it sounds like there will be more changes to come in order to keep the profits flowing. Gamespot's article reads;

Quote

While Sega believes that it can still recover its operations without a merger, the company plans to make a number of changes. Its current development subsidiaries are scheduled to be reorganized from 10 companies down to four or five. Of its current 1,000 development staff members, 10 to 20 percent will be laid off. Sega's president, Hideki Satou, will be stepping down from his position to become the chairman of the company. Hisao Oguchi, the president of Sega subsidiary Hitmaker, will become Sega's new president after the next stockholders meeting on June 27. Sega also plans to broaden its sales in the United States, and it is considering business partners in that territory.

Sega still expects 20 percent of its 77 console game titles in the upcoming fiscal year to lose money, but it estimates an overall profit of 7.5 billon yen ($64 million) for the company overall

We'll wait and see what all of this means, but the good news is that SEGA is now clear of it's finance troubles, and is even making a tidy profit. Perhaps if the company spared the world of the 32X and the Mega CD, we could have seen these profits sooner. Never mind, eh?

Many thanks to Robert Frazer for the tip!