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Sega Sammy sees losses in gaming sector, StarHorse3 sales continue unabated
Sega Sammy Holdings is a ginormous company; one that, on the whole, is doing pretty well for itself, having ended the first quarter of fiscal 2013 in the black to the tune of ¥2.544 billion -- a massive increase over the ¥2.224 billion loss the company reported last year. When broken down by section, however, Sega Sammy's "Consumer Business" segment didn't fare as well as the company's pachinko/pachislot and amusement center-oriented segments.The Consumer Business division, the part of the company responsible for console and handheld gaming, posted an operating loss of ¥1.559 billion for the three month period ending on June 30, but that's actually up 59 percent from the ¥3.856 billion loss reported for the same period last year. Consumer Business shipped a total of 1.3 million units during Q1, with more units shipping to Europe (700,000) than to the US, Japan and elsewhere combined (400,000 and 230,000 respectively).Honestly, we think it'd do wonders for Sega Sammy's bottom line if they'd start selling the convertible horse racing loveseats they make for "StarHorse3 Season Ⅰ A NEW LEGEND BEGINS" (above) on their own, or license out the design to movie theaters.
Samsung intros trifecta of Galaxy Duos in India, new Ace included
Sammy isn't taking its foot off the handset-making accelerator anytime soon. The company announced it's bringing three of its galactic machines along for an Indian ride, and while we'd previously met the dual-SIM packin' pair, the Galaxy Ace Duos is seeing life for the first time in its double-threat form. Sporting the same 832MHz CPU as its siblings, as well as a 3.5-inch display, 1650mAh battery and GSM / CDMA capabilities, the newcomer isn't much more powerful, but at least offers more screen real estate and an extra pinch of juice to get you through the day. All members of the family are rockin' Gingerbread and will start off at around $212 for the Y Duos and its Pro variant. As for the Ace, a mere $324 will let you unleash its GSM / CDMA powers.
Samsung gets tired of neighbors watching its Transparent Smart Window, installs blinds
Sammy's transparent OLED displays may not be the freshest piece of tech at CES, but its still pretty dang awesome. We first saw Samsung's 46-inch 1920 x 1080 digitally augmented window back in March, but dropped by its CES booth for a second look. Although the touchscreen window still teases to fulfill our fevered sci-fi dreams, not much has changed -- it's still clear, it's still loaded with widgets, and it's still not anywhere near being installed in your home. Samsung told us this was still a concept device, although they did mention that the technology could be scaled down for use in military visors and heads up displays. Hit the break to see a video demo of a few new apps, including a rather slick set of digital blinds.Joe Pollicino contributed to this report.
Samsung Series 7 Slate now up for pre-orders, shipping date still MIA (update: coming November 1st)
If you like making purchases without any sense of when your products will arrive, allow us to brighten your day. The Microsoft Store just started taking pre-orders for the Samsung Series 7 Slate -- you remember, the Windows 7 machine sporting Intel's 1.6GHz Core i5 2467M CPU with integrated graphics and 4GB of RAM, all beneath a 11.6-inch capacitive panel? Sure, you remember. MS is selling it for $1,299 with a 128GB SSD. And the mystery of wondering when it'll actually ship? That they'll throw in for free. [Thanks, pradeep] Update: Pre-orders now show a ship date of November 1st. Mystery dispelled. Thanks, Fahd.
Samsung's Series 7 Slate PC hands-on
And you thought Samsung was finished showing off its Series 7 line of PCs. Joining the gaming rig and its smaller laptop brethren is a brand new Series 7 Slate running Windows 7. It sports a 400 nit, 1366 x 768 11.6-inch capacitive panel, Intel's 1.6GHz Core i5 2467M CPU with integrated graphics and 4GB of RAM. On the front there's a 2 megapixel camera and a light sensor, and around the back sits a 3 megapixel shooter. Connectivity comes courtesy of 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, plus there's a USB 2.0 port, micro HDMI, and a SIM slot for surfing waves of 3G (no word on which carrier will send those swells of data, though). Each slate also comes with an capacitive active digitizer pen, but will also have Swype on board plus a custom software layer to make Windows a bit more finger-friendly. It comes in four versions that differ in storage size and flavor of Windows, but all are .5 inches thin, weigh 2.03 pounds, and are swathed in brushed aluminum. There are 64GB SSD variants packing Home Premium for $1,099 or Pro for $1,199, while the 128GB models come with Home Premium, a dock and keyboard for $1349 or Pro sans the peripherals at the same price. They're all scheduled for a late September release, so it won't be long before you can pick one up. Looking to take the tablet plunge into Windows waters? Read on past the break for our impressions of Sammy's new slate. %Gallery-132170%
Mysterious Samsung shows up in dev center sporting Gingerbread and 1280 x 768 screen
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Mystery Cellphone Theater. This week's enigma comes to us courtesy of T Store, a Korean app market, where the Developer Center lists an unannounced Samsung device with the model number SHV-E120S. Now, we can't tell you much about the E120S, only that it reports to sport a WXGA screen (that's 1280 x 768), Gingerbread, and a single-core MSM8250 Snapdragon. Sammy has a Korea-only handset with the SHV-E110S tag and a more standard 800 x 480 screen, and the company has made no secret about its desire to push pixel density well beyond the 300ppi mark -- still, there's no guarantee this is in fact a phone. It very well may be a tablet, or just a strange report from an emulator. Regardless, we're intrigued, and keeping our fingers crossed for 4.3-inch HD display.
Samsung Galaxy S Pro specs leak out?
Can't confirm these ourselves, but if Android Central's sources are to be believed, these Samsung Galaxy S Pro specs are mighty impressive. Here's what we're looking at: a Sammy-borne 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, a Super AMOLED screen that may or may not be the same 4-inch, 800 x 480 window on the Galaxy S, a strong QWERTY slider with raised keys, front-facing VGA camera, 5 megapixel back camera with 720p video recording capabilities, WiMAX support, and Android 2.1 with some TouchWiz 3.0 customizations. As for qualms, the source does drop "plastic-y" a couple times in a none-too-flattering light. Still, for those who find a lack of physical keys a dealbreaker for the EVO 4G, this might end up being a proper alternate. We'll have to wait and see -- not too long, right Sammy? [Thanks, Ulf S.]
Samsung's PRAM chips hit mass production in June
Mark your calendars, memory enthusiasts, for the date you've all been waiting for. Samsung's phase change RAM will go into mass production starting in June. The PRAM chips -- not to be confused with parameter RAM, often what you curse / reset if you've got a Mac on the fritz -- can rewrite data without having to erase what's already on there first. The company's still boasting it's 30x faster and has 10x the lifespan of traditional flash memory. You want to know what gadgets and gizmos will first use these chips? Us too, but we're all gonna have to wait because Sammy's not talking yet.
Sega Sammy's stock rises on news of $100m net loss for Q109
Japanese publisher (and House of Sonic) Sega Sammy posted a ¥10.5 billion (approx. US $96 million) net loss for the first quarter of Fiscal 2009 – that's double the losses from a year earlier -- and sales of ¥74.6b, a 22% decline. Despite all this, the publisher managed to beat expectations and subsequently shares were up 13% to ¥1,201 per share, the sharpest increase since its listing as a holding company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 2004, according to Bloomberg.The pachinko and arcade divisions, as well as the global and Japanese economy, were cited as reasons for the losses. Particularly, the pachinko business saw around US$40 million in losses. The games division increased sales to ¥30.5 billion, reducing the operating loss to ¥4.12b. Overall unit sales were around 6.89 million (3.16m in US, 2.89m in Europe and 830k in Japan), with Mario and Sonic at the Olympics noted as having so far shipped 7 million units worldwide.
Sega Sammy posts loss, job cuts imminent
It's no wonder Sonic is looking blue these days (har har). Sega Sammy has reported a ¥52.47 billion (US $501 million) loss in its fiscal year 2008, with sales of ¥458.98b (US $4.38b). Comparatively, the company posted ¥43.46b net income (¥95.93b difference) with ¥528.4b in sales (¥69.4b difference) in fiscal year 2007.According to GameDaily, Sega's entertainment group will be cutting 400 jobs and close 110 facilities. The company is predicting that fiscal year 2009, which ends in March 2009, will see a net income of ¥5b with sales of ¥470b.
Sega Sammy losses bring layoffs, arcade closings
Life comes at you fast if you're Sega Sammy. Just a couple of years after increased profits had the company rolling in money, the company today announced that it plans to lose a whopping 26 billion yen (approx. $230 million) this fiscal year. Compared to the previous projection of a billion yen profit for the year, the turnaround comes as a bit of a shock.The main culprit behind the downturn seems to be the pachinko side of the business, which saw a predicted 85 percent fall in profits, and arcade sales, which switched from a slight profit last year to a 11.4 billion yen loss this year (damn that popular Wii).To staunch the bleeding, the company will be offering early retirement to 400 employees and closing 110 unprofitable amusement parks and arcades around Japan. Hard to believe the previous incarnation of this company once held the lion's share of the home video game market.
Sega: Wii hype may soon wear off
Et tu, hedgehog?Sonic and Mario may be friendly enough to co-star in the Olympics, but there are some dissenters in the upper ranks of Sega who think Nintendo's console reign will soon end."I am a little concerned about the creative depth of the Wii pool. I'm not sure if they will top out in 2008 or 2007," said Scott Steinberg, VP of marketing for the U.S. unit of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc., in an interview with Reuters. "The Wii will start to look really dated in a couple years when developers get more value from the 360 and learn more and more about the PlayStation 3." Steinberg seems to be equating creativity to graphical horsepower, a notion that runs counterintuitive to Nintendo's party line. "How much value can developers and creative folks get out of this wrist motion two years from now, or 5 years from now, or 10 years from now? ... How can they design products that aren't too derivative of what's already out there?" he said. Those are strong words, though we aren't sure what parallel dimension he lives in where the PS3 and Xbox 360 are immune to a multitude of derivative titles, themselves. To be sure, Steinberg does not oversee any of the development and production decisions -- he's a marketing guy. However, with Nintendo currently riding high on sales charts and a once-unimaginable friendship existing between the two companies, is Steinberg being short-sighted or prophetic?[Update: Responding to some of the negative reaction to his comments, Scott Steinberg has shared additional remarks with Reuters Blogs. His new comments can be viewed after the break.]
Pachinko is really exciting!
Dude, we had no idea pachinko was so cool! We knew Japan was all into it, but we always thought it was some boring gambling thing. Turns out it's all a bunch of big people with huge chest muscles beating the crap out of each other in a post-apocalyptic wasteland! Man, when that guy punched the other guy like a hundred times really fast, that was some awesome pachinko! And then the other guy like exploded into a beam of yellow light! And the cool pachinko music was playing, and it totally got us pumped about pachinko!We know the graphics aren't totally next-gen (look at the cardboard hair), but it must be super tough to render realistic pachinko visuals! We are going to buy Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii RIGHT. NOW. We're totally ready for some pachinko mayhem! Watch the totally cool pachinko video after the break, and you'll feel the same way! PACHINKOOOOOO![Via Siliconera]
Virtually Overlooked: Arkista's Ring
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative. Arkista's Ring is an action/adventure/puzzle game about an elf girl who battles giant scorpions, orcs, and forest-dwelling ninja in a labyrinth-like forest, all displayed in the charming square-tile graphical style popular with games like Zelda. It was released for the NES in 1990, published by American Sammy. Sammy now owns Sega, and Sega and Nintendo are newly in love. So today's game is kind of timely, in an oblique way. Also it's fun to play and stuff.
Fist of the North Star Pachinko uses Miis
We brought you the story that an EA producer was not given access to Mii code for My Sims, and that according to him, no third parties were. The situation seems to have changed, because Sega Sammy is using the little guys and gals in its Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii. It's not the most exciting implementation of Miis, with no Fist of the North Star-style makeovers or actual in-game avatars-- in fact, it consists mainly of a Mii portrait tied to a character profile.The game uses Nintendo Wi-fi as well, but for online rankings, which hardly counts as online play. We aren't ready to call that an implementation of third-party online play yet.Coming from a licensed pachinko game, proof that it is possible for third parties to use Miis. Sega does what E ... Ain't?
Finally, a pachinko game for the Wii
We might sound sarcastic, but we're happy to see different kinds of games come to the Wii. This latest title from Sega Sammy is a collection of pachinko and pachislot (pachinko plus slot machine) simulations, called (deep breath!) Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii (Fighting Pachinko/Pachislot Victory Way! Sammy's Collection Fist of the North Star Wii). It's based on the same popular Sega Sammy pachinko games that have been released on the DS, PS2, and PSP, and contains a bundle of pachinko and pachislot boards. And, of course, it carries the license of the classic, brutal Fist of the North Star manga and anime series.This one is interesting for the same reason a lot of Wii games are: Wiimote controls. Apparently, you can use the Wiimote steering-wheel style to control the speed of the dropping balls. We admire the novel Wiimote use! It also has online ranking, in case competition motivates your pachinko-playing.Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii (Fighting Pachinko/Pachislot Victory Way! Sammy's Collection Fist of the North Star Wii) comes out on May 24th in Japan, and probably never anywhere else. Any pachinko fans here? Do any of you import these kinds of things?
Sega Sammy profits slide 23 percent
The Sega Sammy group has experienced a 23 percent drop in profits within the first nine months of the financial year, reports Gamesindustry.biz. Net income (stay with us here) went down from $526 million (¥63.49 billion) to $409 million (¥49.38 billion), with sales dropping by 4 percent to $3.35 billion (¥404.29 billion). The current financial state of the company isn't nearly as interesting as the reason given for a drop in profits -- pachinko machines proving less than popular. Pachinko machines are, of course, a notable aspect of Japanese gaming that Sammy brought along when it romantically joined hands with Sega. Though the company's net profit forecast remains unchanged for the full year, it's easy to observe the parallels between Sammy dragging profits down and Sammy dragging Sega down as a developer. The Ono-like arrival of the Pachinko maker is considered by many to be the turning point for what was once a brilliant and innovative developer. Then again, what good are brilliance and innovation when you can't pay the bills?
Sega Sammy to adopt Hello Kitty
Sega Sammy and Hello Kitty toymaker Sanrio have agreed to form a "strategic alliance" that will likely re-introduce the anthropomorphized feline to video game platforms. To date, Sanrio has worked with a mess of game publishers -- ranging from Namco and THQ to lesser-known companies like ValuSoft and Typhoon -- to release a haphazard catalogue of Hello Kitty titles. The partnership with Sega Sammy will likely spur a more aggressive and consistent campaign that could also include a line of pachinko machines. While Hello Kitty remains a globally recognizable brand, its popularity has no doubt diminished since the late 90s. With an uninspired history in the games medium, Sega Sammy's gonna have to spend some solid hours submerged in the think tank before attempting a jump-start.
Epson working on mobile-to-printer e-books
It may not have the same sort of high-tech impact as e-ink, but there's something to be said for reading stuff the old fashioned way with a nice, thick stack of paper -- and Epson would like us to use our phones to do it. The Japanese company has hooked up with Sammy NetWorks to include its muPass platform in printers and phones for managing DRMed e-book content via IrDA -- in other words, buy a book on your phone and beam it straight to your printer over an infrared connection. Epson and Sammy are thinking that the setup will be perfect for distributing periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and the like), individual articles, and out-of-print or limited audience material that can't be justified for a regular production run on the press. Integration should be a snap for phone manufacturers, since Sammy's now managed to cram the muPass system into software. War and Peace, anyone?
Sega Sammy shows increased profits ... without games
More good gaming biz news keeps rolling in, though this silver cloud comes with a gray lining. Sega Sammy (more commonly known as just Sega) announced a 52% increase in profits of $322 million for the first six months of the year, compared to $211 million last year. Before gamers stop and cheer, the profits aren't helped any by the actual video game division. Sega Sammy's game division was hampered by R&D costs resulting in a $57 million loss despite an increase in software sales. The full year forecast is also lower due to problems with the company's pachinko division. This just goes to show you how minimally actual video games impact the company. Video games only make up 14% of Sega Sammy's $2.4 billion in sales. Since they're pulling a loss, holding onto the game division may start looking like a bad idea. Will Sega be able to make a transition into the next-generation era, or will they start feeling the pressure? No other company is showing similar financial difficulties moving into 360 and PS3 development. No company can last forever, but let's hope Sega manages to stay in the game a bit longer ... we still have a soft spot for the Dreamcast.
