Sega's losses in line with expectations

Sega Corporation has reported $169 million in losses for the first half of its current fiscal year. Increases in revenue generated by its core video game business were offset by the tumbling value of its investments. Following several consecutive years of losses, the company had hoped to turn a profit for the current fiscal year, but now it expects a loss of $122 million for the full year ending March 2002.

Still, the financial situation at Sega is considerably rosier than it was at this time a year ago--the company reported $424 million in losses for the previous fiscal year. Sega plans to continue its focus on developing games for the three major hardware manufacturers and on such ventures as driving simulators, PDA and wireless games, and on-demand Internet products. The company is also considering the acquisition of additional development studios in order to expand its game-development reach further.