Sega Reveals M&S Winter Olympics Sells Over 5 Million

But Q1 Sales Still Down

The global recession of 2008 and 2009 didn’t appear to impact game companies at first, but perhaps there’s something to be said for trickle-down economics after all.  What was a more immediate effect on the world’s big business was eventually felt by the gaming industry, and Sega is no exception.

Kotaku reports that Q1 sales for Sega were off 7.7 percent compared to the same quarter in fiscal year 2009.  Speaking specifically about home software sales, the company admitted that demand remains “weak” in the west.

But there were bright spots.  What wasn’t weak were sales of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.  Sega revealed that 5.67 million copies of the game–both Wii and DS editions–were sold in the United States and Europe during the past nine months, its best seller.

Bayonetta was also a big Sega attraction, the company revealed, with 1.1 million copies sold to date worldwide.  And Phantasy Star fans have turned out in droves in Japan–Sega revealed 540,000 copies of Phantasy Star Portable 2 have been sold in Japan alone.

We don’t yet know if Sega Sammy Holdings overall reported a loss for the first quarter–something the company has done for many quarters now.  However, we can tell you that as of the time of this article’s publications, yesterday’s stock bump from the Sonic 4 announcement has been wiped out.  SGAMY stock is now down more than 5 and a half percent today.  We will update as we get more information.