Game software maker Sega Corp. said Tuesday it expects a bigger group net loss for the first half that ended Sept. 30 due to an appraisal loss of 23.8 billion yen on its securities holdings in the wake of falling share prices.
Sega said it expects a group net loss of 20 billion yen for the first half of its business year, up from the earlier projected loss of 4.3 billion yen.
But the firm raised its estimates for group pretax profit and sales for the first half on better-than-expected domestic sales of entertainment products, such as video game software and character goods.
The company now expects a group pretax profit of 4.5 billion yen, reversing its earlier projection of a 2.4 billion yen loss, on sales of 97 billion yen, compared with an earlier projection of 82 billion yen. For the full year to March, Sega expects to fall into the red on a net basis while forecasting better-than-expected estimates on pretax profit and sales.
Sega expects a group net loss of 15 billion yen for the year, revised down from the earlier projected profit of 2.1 billion yen. It anticipates a group pretax profit of 10 billion yen on sales of 200 billion yen, up from 5.4 billion yen and 189 billion yen forecast earlier.
Dreamcast's deadline
Sega Corp. will stop shipments of its Dreamcast video game console in early November, Chief Operating Officer Tetsu Kayama said Tuesday. The final round of shipments will be to the U.S. market. In March, Sega suspended production of the high-tech game machine.
Kayama said the company expects Dreamcast's accumulated shipments to surpass the 10 million threshold. Sega had inventories of some 2 million units in February. The game machine, rolled out in November 1998, attracted game fans with the fastest image-processing speed at that time and a unique television commercial.
But a lack of software titles damaged sales, forcing Sega to pull the plug on the popular game console. After announcing in March that production would be suspended, Sega has been selling the console for 9,900 yen, 10,000 yen below the regular price. The company slashed its domestic inventories to 40,000 units by September.
SOURCE:
Japan Times.
