Japanese gaming firm Sega Sammy has revised its full year forecast for the 12 months ending 31 March 2019 down, despite a strong third quarter in which year-on-year sales grew 20.0% to JPY79.3 billion (US$723.4 million).
A significant uptick on its pachislot and pachinko business in the three months to 31 December 2018 when compared with the prior year period and ongoing ramp of Korean integrated resort Paradise City were behind the improvement, with pachinko and pachislot sales rising from JPY7.1 billion to JPY27.5 billion.
Sales in the company’s resorts segment, which includes the 45%-owned Paradise City as well as the non-gaming Phoenix Resort in Japan, were up 8.2% to JPY7.9 billion (US$72 million) with Sega Sammy stating both sales and profits were substantially up in Korea for the period.
Sales for the first three quarters of the 2019 financial year at Paradise City have increased 78.3% to KRW230 billion (US$205.3 million).
Nevertheless, company-wide sales are down 4.0% for the year to JPY250.3 billion, primarily on the back of falling revenue in the pachislot and pachinko segment where sales are down 20.2% for the nine month period to JPY76.1 billion.
In its results summary, Sega Sammy said the “acquisition status of approval in prototype testing has been lower than expected” and that “the number of machine unit sales are expected to decrease from the initial plan.”
As a result, the company has revised down its full year forecast from JPY390 billion to JPY347 billion.