SEGA cancels Football Manager 25 and lowers full-year outlook, with Metaphor’s current sales exceeding expectations

Football Manager 25

Financial highlights

• According to its earnings presentation, Sega generated ¥322.3 billion ($2.1 billion) in revenue in the first three quarters of FY25, down 8% compared to the same period last year.
• Operating profit fell 20.6% year-over-year to ¥43.7 billion ($287.4 million).
• The Entertainment Contents division, which includes video games, animation, and toys, reached ¥238.6 billion ($1.56 billion) in revenue, up 8.2%.
• Sales in the Consumer area (video games) grew 10.5% year-over-year to ¥164.8 billion ($1 billion).
• 64.5% of all video game sales in the nine-month period came from countries outside Japan. Domestic revenue amounted to ¥58.1 billion ($382 million).

• Full-game sales amounted to ¥59.2 billion ($207 million), up 11.2% compared to the same period last year. New titles accounted for 42.7% of the total, while the rest came from Sega’s back catalog.
• During the first three quarters of FY25, Sega sold 24.8 million copies of games, up 29.8% year-over-year. Of that, 4.79 million copies were new releases, while sales of back catalog titles amounted to 20 million.
• Sega noted that its Q3 releases, Sonic x Shadow Generations (2M copies sold) and Metaphor: ReFantazio (1M copies in 24 hours), “have been sold well.” Metaphor’s current sales are exceeding the company’s expectations.
• The Entertainment Contents division’s growth was also driven by strong sales of back catalog titles.

Sega cancels Football Manager 25 and lowers full-year outlook

• Sega decided to cancel the development of Football Manager 25, saying that it was “aiming for a major evolution of the series by renewing the UI and graphics and adding new elements, but it was found that more time was needed than expected to ensure quality.” The company will use the development assets and focus on the next title in the series.
• As a result, Sega “recorded a loss in the third quarter by work-in-process assets write-downs.” This adds to an extraordinary loss of ¥6.1 billion ($40.2 million) associated with the Amplitude Studios divestment in H1.
• On February 7, the company revised its full-year forecast. It now expects its Entertainment Contents segment to reach ¥320 billion ($2.1 billion) in sales, compared to the previous outlook of ¥335 billion ($2.2 billion). Video game revenue is expected to be ¥216.5 billion ($1.42 billion), down from the previously forecasted ¥235 billion ($1.55 billion).