Sega Sammy announced today the fiscal results for the year ending March 31, 2008. Sales were down from 528.24 billion yen ($5.04 billion) in 2007 to 458.98 billion yen ($4.38 billion) this year. As a result, the company posted a net loss of 52.47 billion yen ($501 million) compared to net income of 43.46 billion yen ($415 million) during 2007.

In particular, Sega Sammy seemed to suffer in its pachinko and arcade departments, where higher fuel costs and availability of next-gen consoles is thought to have cut into that typically profitable business. Unfortunately, Sega's entertainment group will cut about 400 jobs and close around 110 facilities.

Sales were up for Sega's game division, but Japanese sales were seen as somewhat weak, and the division posted a loss of 5.9 billion yen ($56.3 million). "As rebuilding our consumer video game business is crucial, we now need to review our game title strategy more flexibly to adapt ourselves to changes in the trend of the market," said Koichiro Ueda, head of Sega's public relations department,

Looking forward, Sega Sammy is projecting sales of 470 billion yen ($4.48 billion) with net income of 5 billion yen ($47.4 million) for the current fiscal year ending in March 2009.