Sega hopes to become the #1 publisher in America, but it looks like America isn’t taking to the idea.
Sega left the console hardware market in hopes to reclaim the powerhouse title they once owned. At this year’s E3, Sega boldly announced that it was looking to buy out other publishers and developers in order to become America’s #2 publisher in the short term and eventually blossom into first place, displacing the current powerhouse, Electronic Arts. But things aren’t going according to Sega’s plan, and due to unexpectedly low sales of one of Sega’s key titles the publisher’s stock is now at 13-month low.
"Disappointing sales of its key football game in the lucrative North American market have raised concerns about the fate of Sega's revival scenario as a game software publisher," said Takeshi Tajima, an analyst at BNP Paribas.
How disappointing? Sega had estimated NFL 2K3 to sell around 1.5 million copies within the current time frame, but has only managed to sell 400,000 discs, no doubt in part to the remarkable success of Sega’s new arch-rival’s Madden NFL 2003. In response to the poor sales, many analysts have reassessed the stock’s value to a less impressive rating. Sega isn’t down for the count, but it looks like the company’s “platform agnostic” structure isn’t as bullet-proof as many had originally hoped.
