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news.ft.com
Sega Enterprises, the Japanese consumer electronics group, warned on Monday that it would report ¾44.9bn ($407m) consolidated net losses this year because of poor sales of its Dreamcast games machine.
The loss, twice the size of earlier forecasts, highlights the cut-throat competition in the games business just as Sony prepares to launch Playstation2, its rival to Dreamcast.
The losses incurred by Dreamcast have forced Sega to turn to its chief shareholder for financial help.
The pressure on Sega is set to intensify when Playstation2, a games console which will also serve as an internet connection, goes on sale on Japan this weekend.
Playstation2, the successor to the flagship Playstation product offering high-quality videogames, is being positioned as a home entertainment system which in the future will be able to play movies and download music.
Playstation, the world's most popular games machine, has sold about 70m units globally since its launch five years ago.
However, Playstation2, which will be launched on March 4, will have the capacity to play digital video discs, and potentially tap the internet for the first time. It has already triggered enormous media excitement in Japan, and is expected to attract high sales.
By the end of last year Sony was estimated to hold a 67 per cent share of the world's game market, as a result of the Playstation product, followed by Nintendo with 29 per cent. Sega, however, had only 3 per cent. |
