Sales 2023: JPY 329.600 billion (€ 2.219 billion)

Overview

The entertainment conglomerate Sega Sammy Holdings was founded in 2004 when the Sammy Corporation, manufacturer of traditional Japanese Pachinko- and Pachislotslot machines that video game developer Sega took over.

An updated, complete company profile will be published shortly.

General Information

Headquarters
Shiodome Sumitomo Building 21F,
1-9-2 Higashi Shimbashi, Minato-ku
Tokyo
Japan

Telephone: 0081 3 6864 2400
website: http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/ir

Branches of trade: Video games, toys, slot machines, anime series, video arcades
Legal form: Stock Company
Financial year: 01.04.-31.03.
Founding year: 1952 (Sega), 1975 (Sammy Corporation), 2004 (Sega Sammy Holdings)

Basic economic data (in billion ¥)

	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Revenue	389,6	320,9	277,7	366,5	331,6
profit after taxes	46,7	32	6,5	27,6	13
share price (in ¥, year-end)	2.039,5	1.997	1.807	1.627	1.583
Employees	8.219	7.760	7.535	8.798	7.993

Executives and Directors

• Hajime Satomi, Chairman and CEO
• Haruki Satomi, President and COO
• Nayoa Tsurumi, Senior Executive President
• Koichi Fukazawa, Executive Vice President and CFO
• Hideki Okamura, Executive Vice President
• Yuji Ivanga, Director of the Board
• Takeshi Natsuno, Director of the Board
• Kohei Katsukawa, Director of the Board
• Shigerua Aoki, Standing Audit & Supervisory Board Member
• Yukito Sakaue, Audit & Supervisory Board Member
• Tomio Kazashi, Audit & Supervisory Board Member
• Mineo Enomoto, Audit & Supervisory Board Member
• Yuichi Amari, Vice President, Senior Executive Officer
• Makoto Takahashi, Vice President, Senior Executive Officer
• Toru Nakahara, Vice President, Senior Executive Officer
• Yoichi Owaki, Vice President, Senior Executive Officer
• Hiroshi Ishikura, Vice President, Executive Officer
• Takaharu Kato, Vice President, Executive Officer
• Seiichiro Kikuchi, Vice President, Executive Officer

History

Sega, the name certainly better known outside of Japan of the two companies that merged in 2004, traces its origins to Standard Games, a company founded in Honolulu in 1940 by American businessmen to import and distribute coin-operated gaming machines for military bases. After the war, gambling with slot machines banned in the USA, Standard Games moved to Tokyo, was re-founded in 1951 under the name Service Games (abbreviated SEGA) and continued to organize slot machines for US bases in East and Southeast Asia. In the mid-1960s, the focus shifted from slot machines to arcade machines for arcades/amusement arcades changed (“Rock-Ola” jukeboxes, pinball machines). Sega went from being an importer to a manufacturer, to a developer of numerous games for arcade machines in shopping malls and department stores. By the early 1980s, Sega was one of the five major US manufacturers of arcade games with sales of over 200 million dollars.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the arcade business went downhill, Sega changed direction: Based on many years of hardware expertise Sega developed its first video game consoles, with Nintendo (ranked 22nd in the media.db rankings 2022) and Atari as its biggest competitors. The first console, the SG-1000, was followed by the "Master System" console (1986 in North America, 1987 in Europe), the Sega Genesis (late 1980s), "Game Gear" (a portable console launched in 1990 as an answer to Nintendo's "Game Boy"), and the Sega Saturn (1994). Ultimately, however, Sega could not keep up with its Japanese competitors, who also dominated the global market, nor with the Nintendo 64 or the Sony PlayStation (Sony: ranked 10th in the media.db rankings 2022). Sales declined, and in 1998 the company made a loss for the first time since its IPO in 1988. The Saturn console was a commercial failure.

Then, in the fall of 1998, the Dreamcast arrived. A game console that was ahead of its time, yet would remain Sega's last console to this day. But even before that, Sega management had made a crucial mistake, as we now know, when they rejected Sony's proposal to jointly develop the PlayStation in the mid-1990s. By 1997, Sony dominated the market with 42 percent, followed by Nintendo (40 percent). Sega was way behind in last place with 12 percent. Even the technically advanced Dreamcast console couldn't change that; with the launch of the PlayStation 2 in 2000, the game was over. On December 31, 2001, console production was discontinued following disastrous business figures. Between 1998 and 2002, Sega incurred heavy losses, and there were rumors of takeover plans by Microsoft, Namco, and Sammy.

The Sammy Corporation was founded in 1975 as a spin-off of the arcade machine division of the Satomi Corporation, founded in 1947. From the early 1980s onward, it became a major manufacturer and distributor of pachinko and pachislot machines (a hybrid of pinball and arcade machines), which were extremely popular in Japan. Starting in 2003, there were talks with Sega about a takeover of the gaming company, and in mid-2004, Sammy acquired a controlling stake in Sega for $1.1 billion. Sega and Sammy became largely independent subsidiaries of Sega Sammy Holdings.

management

Hajime Satomi, born in 1942, founded the Sammy Industry Company in 1975 after studying at the private Aoyama Gakuin University (Tokyo). Satomi was successful in converting the business model to the production of pachinko machines, was the driving force behind the Sega takeover in 2004, enjoys gambling, and is now one of the richest Japanese. Hajime Satomi remains at the helm of Sega Sammy as Chairman and CEO, where his son Haruki Satomi, born in 1979, now serves as President and Group COO functions.

Business segments

Sega Sammy organizes its business into three segments.

“Pachislot and Pachinko machines”: Vertical slot machines originating in Japan from the 1920s onwards, into which thousands of small metal balls were initially inserted. Typical of pachinko (and also one of the clichés of Japan abroad) were garish, often deafeningly loud arcades with hundreds of machines, which sprang up all over the country. One reason for their popularity: With the exception of pachinko (where the exchange of won metal balls for cash is tolerated) and state lotteries, gambling is prohibited in Japan. In 2018, the manufacture of pachinko and pachislot machines accounted for almost a third of total sales.

“Entertainment Content Business”: The entertainment business generated approximately two-thirds of revenues in 2018. This includes, among other things, globally produced video game software (Sega of America, Inc., Sega Europe Ltd., Sega Korea Co., Ltd.), arcade machines, toy manufacturing (Sega Toys Ltd.), animation and anime film production (with numerous production companies), and amusement center operations.

"Resort Business": Hotels/resorts in Japan (Phoenix Seagaia Resort, The North Country Golf Club) and South Korea (Paradise City). The resort business accounted for approximately three percent of total revenue in 2018.