A recent Sega report showed that new premium games bring only a third of the revenue from the f2p direction (free-to-play games), but the company continues to invest in "extremely volatile new projects".
According to the results of the financial report, Sega explained why it invests resources in new releases, although free games earn more. Premium games eventually start to bring more - due to long sales and licensing.
In the past quarter, new releases earned 87 billion yen (about $556 million) against 269 billion yen ($1.72 billion) in f2p games. Sega expects the ratio to level out to 1:2 by the end of the year. It is noted that "high margins appear due to licensing and sales of old games that were once released as premium." And the constant income from f2p projects becomes the foundation for launching risky new franchises.
Taking into account sales of old games, premium games have almost caught up with f2p - 268 billion yen ($1.71 billion) per quarter. Licensing brought in another 133 billion yen ($850 million) last year, and this amount should grow. Sega admits: 60% of this amount is given by Sonic, another 16% by the Atlus and Ryu Ga Gotoku franchises.
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