SEGA Sammy Holdings recently held an investor meeting where the company detailed the results of the last fiscal year for the company. Along with the reports, there was also a Q&A with investors in which they asked some questions bout the recent success of Sonic Frontiers. We took the liberty of translating the most interesting questions, which you can read bellow!
Q: While the Metascore for Sonic Frontiers was not as high as expected, we recognize that the user score was high. How do you evaluate the quality of this game?
A: Although it is true that the Metascore was slightly lower than expected, we believe that we were able to release a title that was well received by many people around the world due to the extremely high ratings given by users. We also plan to release additional downloadable content, which was recently announced, in due course, and expect to continue building repeat sales. In addition, we plan to further expand the Sonic IP in the future, including Sonic Prime on Netflix, which began distribution in December, as well as a third movie and merchandising.Q: While Sonic Frontiers as had sales, the average unit price, we noticed, has not gone down that much. What were the results of these sales and what is your sales strategy for the future?
A: We are proceeding with this title based on a strategic sales plan, and have conducted intensive promotions around the timing of the November 8 launch, and as announced recently, we believe we have achieved good results so far. In terms of sales price, we temporarily implemented a sale during Black Friday, as per our initial strategy, but have since returned to the initial price, and have been able to achieve results so far while maintaining the price level to a certain extent. The number of units sold far exceeded the company’s full-year plan at the beginning of the fiscal year, and the company believes that this is a title that it will continue to sell over the long term based on its sales strategy, which includes sales, promotions, and the development of free downloadable content.
Q: With the strong performance of Sonic Frontiers and other global titles, we expect that you will be focusing more on the consumer field in the future.
A: We assume that development costs in the consumer field will become even larger in the future. For the development of mainstream titles using existing IP, we will strive to ensure solid quality at existing development costs. However, due to the impact of the global external environment, development labor costs are on the rise, and we expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. In addition, since it is necessary to take on firm challenges for major titles, especially “Super Game”, we are proceeding with development at some cost, even from the basic research stage. Therefore, we assume that development costs for new titles in the future will be correspondingly large.
Q: Considering the current market environment and the current earnings forecast for the current term, we assume that there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the next term. How do you plan to increase repeat sales in the next fiscal year, and what is the status of your new products?
A: Since there were many new titles in the previous fiscal year, we are taking a bullish view of repeat sales figures in this fiscal year’s plan, and it continues to fall short of our forecasts. On the other hand, even though the market environment has not been favorable, we have been able to maintain the repeat sales level on par with the previous fiscal year, and we believe that we have a certain degree of visibility for the next fiscal year, as Sonic Frontiers and other titles that have performed well this period will be turned into repeat sales. Naturally, the company is also considering its sales strategy, including pricing strategy. We are planning to release new titles such as the Yakuza series and HYENAS as well as some new titles that have slipped from this fiscal year, so please look forward to the lineup to be announced in the future.
Stay tuned to Sonic City for more Sonic Frontiers News and Updates!
Source: SEGA SAMMY Investor Q&A
