Sega shares updated sales numbers for Persona, Megami Tensei, Yakuza, and more; aiming for simultaneous worldwide releases
Persona at 9.3 million, Yakuza at 12 million, and more.
Sega provided updated sales numbers for its major properties in it latest integrated report.
Here is the full list of sales numbers provided:
Acquired Intellectual Properties
- Megami Tensei series (since 1987) – Approx. 12.4 million (units / downloads) (packaged and digital total) across 30 total editions
- Persona series (since 1996) – Approx. 9.3 million (units / downloads) (packaged and digital total) across 15 total editions
- Etrian Odyssey series (since 2007) Approx. 1.9 million (units / downloads) (packaged and digital total) across 10 total editions
- Total War series (since 2000) – Approx. 22 million (units / downloads*³) (packaged and digital total)
- Football Manager series (since 2005) – Approx. 18.1 million (units / downloads) (packaged and digital total)
In-House Intellectual Properties
- Sonic the Hedgehog series (since 1991) – Approx. 800 million (units / downloads*³) (packaged and digital total)
- Puyo Puyo series (since 1991*¹) – Approx. 27 million (units / downloads*³ / ID) (packaged and digital*³ total, AM-registered ID total (total for registrations after IP acquisition))
- Yakuza series (since 2005) – Approx. 11 million (units / downloads) (packaged and digital total) across 92 total editions
- Aladdin series (since 1989) – Approx. 570,000 (pachislot and pachinko machines and amusement machine total) across 14 total editions
- Beast King series (since 2001) – Approx. 490,000 (pachislot and pachinko machines and amusement machine total) across 15 total editions
- Phantasy Star series (since 1987) – Approx. five million ID*² (cumulative total for registered IDs)
- Chain Chronicle series (since 2013) – Approx. 15 million (downloads*³) (packaged and digital*³ total) across three total editions
Licensed from Third-Parties
- Sega feat. Hatsune Miku Project series (since 2009) – Approx. six million units (packaged and digital total) across 61 total editions
- Hokuto no Ken series (since 2002) – Approx. 2.74 million units (pachislot and pachinko machines and amusement machine total) across 33 total editions
- Souten no Ken series (since 2009) – Approx. 440,000 units (pachislot and pachinko machines total) across nine total editions
*1 Sega Corporation acquired the rights in 1998. Figures for cumulative unit sales are the totals for titles that SEGA sold after acquiring the rights.
*2 Total for Phantasy Star Online 2
*3 Including downloads of free-to-play titles
Elsewhere in the report, Sega discusses strengthening the collaboration between its Japanese development teams with its overseas localization teams with the goal of simultaneously releasing its games worldwide as part of its “Road to 2020” initiative. Here is the blurb:
There is one more key factor that explains the brisk sales overseas. Before a Japanese game is released overseas, it is localized into the language of each country and region. For example, Persona 5 has been translated into three languages (English, traditional Chinese, and Hangul). No matter if a game is popular in Japan, it is unlikely to win over fans around the world if the localization is insufficient. The Sega Group has localization studios that make a huge difference when games are sold overseas. Atlus became a member of Sega Group due to the transfer of business in 2013, which has a studio located in California, U.S.A. The studio understands both Japanese and American games very well, and is able to localize Japanese games in a way that accurately conveys the unique world views of Japanese titles to local gamers. The studio is able to maximize the entertainment value of localized games that reflect these unique world views, and this has led to very positive reviews from local gamers. During the product development stage, game content is shared with the localization team for translation before the development is finished, facilitating the rapid release of foreign language versions of the game. We will strengthen such collaboration further with the aim of simultaneously releasing games around the world, which is an objective of Road to 2020.
Also, while not much, the plural use of “games” in the following blurb suggests that New Sakura Wars may not be the only “idle IP” that Sega is bringing back:
Regarding idle IP, in 2018 we re-released Shenmue I & II, a revival of Shenmue, which debuted in 1999, and Shenmue II. This title was the culmination of cooperation across studios with Sega Europe Ltd., our development studio based in the U.K., directly involved in its publishing. In addition to re-releases, we are also working on completely new games using idle IP like New Sakura Wars (working title), which was announced in April 2018.