Mario and Sonic at Olympic Winter Games, Bayonetta Drive Profits at Sega

Sega Sammy Holdings today reported its nine-month fiscal results for the period ended December 31, 2009. Thanks in part to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and new IP Bayonetta, the consumer business (which houses the home video game business) posted operating income of 1.42 billion yen - a nice improvement over the 6.5 billion yen operating loss from a year ago. That said, sales were still down 13.6% to 83.1 billion yen. Overall, Sega Sammy posted net income of 16.9 billion yen and sales of 285.3 billion yen.

Revenues in the consumer business were down mostly because of a dip in overseas sales, Sega said.  Sega sold 6.09 million software units in the U.S., 8.16 million in Europe, and 2.47 million in Japan and other regions. The publisher also pointed to an "adverse market condition" and the launch of some titles being postponed to the next fiscal year. 

The aforementioned Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games sold 5.67 million units on Wii and DS, while Sega's newest property Bayonetta sold 1.1 million copies, which is a solid showing and probably means Sega will turn it into a franchise. Other contributors included Football Manager 2010 (740K sold on PSP, PC) and Phantasy Star Portable 2 (540K sold on PSP - Japan only).