Today, Sega Sammy released financial results for fiscal year 2017, which ended on March 31st.

You can check out the consolidated results below, with all numbers in the black showing a significant improvement compared to the previous fiscal year.

We also get the outlook for the next fiscal year, with Sega predicting higher sales but lower income figures.

The accompanying press release included a general statement on the Entertainment Content business, which includes games.

"Regarding the environment of the Entertainment Contents Business, a slowdown in the spread of smartphones in Japan and the predominance of leading publishers are accelerating in the market for digital games for smart devices. Therefore, provision of higher-quality content is expected, resulting in a trend of longer development lead times and higher operating costs. Meanwhile, in overseas business, future growth is expected mainly in Asia.

With regard to the packaged game software market, expectations are rising for future expansion of the market due to the penetration of next generation hardware in addition to current generation hardware of home video game console. In Europe, the U.S., and Asia, large markets have been developed for PC games."

More a more specific breakdown by game mentions "robust" sales for Phantasy Star Online 2, which benefited from the launch of the PS4 version at the beginning of the fiscal year. We learn that the Total War series shipped over 20 million copies in its history, and Persona 5 also pushed the business' performance.

It's worth mentioning that Persona 5 was launched in the west after the end of fiscal 2017, so we're just talking about sales in Japan.

"With regard to the Entertainment Contents Business, performances were robust in every business field. In the field of digital game software, sales remained robust for “PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2,” which celebrated its fourth anniversary from its release and PlayStation 4 version was launched in April last year.

With regard to titles for smart devices, sales were strong mainly for existing major titles including “Hortensia SAGA” and “Puyopuyo!! Quest,” for which the Group conducted various events, updates and other measures.

In the packaged game software field, sales amounted to 10,280 thousand copies (9,220 thousand copies for the previous fiscal year), thanks to the launch of mainstay titles including “Total War: WARHAMMER,” a new installment in the “Total War” series, which is highly popular mainly in Europe and were sold more than 20 million copies for 16 years, as well as “Persona5,” a new installment in the “Persona” series."

Last but not least, we get the outlook for the Entertainment Content business for the current fiscal year, with the publisher that expectsd to ship over a million copies above last year's numbers in the package games field, mostly due to sales of Persona 5 in the west, and upcoming PC games like Dawn of War III, Total War: Warhammer II and Endless Space 2.

"With regard to the Entertainment Contents Business, in the field of digital game software, the Group expects that the predominance of leading publishers will continue to accelerate. Amid these circumstances, the Group plans for continued contribution to income through a year-on-year increase in the launching of new titles for smart devices, as well as carrying out various events, updates and other measures for existing major titles.

In the packaged game software field, the Group plans to sell 11,600 thousand units, mainly by continued overseas development of “Persona5,” whose cumulative worldwide shipments exceeded 1.5 million units in April 2017, and by expanding such new PC game titles as “Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III,”“Endless Space 2,” and “Total War: WARHAMMER 2.”

Interestingly, the press release made no mention of the upcoming Sonic games, nor of the debut of the publisher on Nintendo Switch. We'll have to see if those will be mentioned in further financial documents to be released down the line.