Sega announced its financial results for the first half of the current fiscal year in Tokyo today. Driven yet again by better than expected results of its arcade division, the company managed to increase its consolidated profit by a factor of 5.9 compared to the first half of the fiscal year 2002/2003, to 5.93 billion yen ($54.53 million US). Other reasons for the positive results were strong sales of the PlayStation 2 title J.League Pro Soccer Club wo Tsukurou 3 in Japan as well as continued popularity of titles such as Sonic Adventure DX in the US. For the full FY ending on March 31st 2004, Sega predicts a consolidated profit of 8 billion yen ($73.56 million US), a figure 2.6 times larger than last year's.

• Bloomberg Japan