Weak US sales of computer games, including sports titles, has knocked profits down at the Sega, creator of Sonic the Hedgehog.

The Japanese game maker reported a net profit of 1.01bn yen (�5.2m; $8.3m) in the six months to September, compared with a loss of 20.8bn yen in the same period last year because of a one-off charge.

But the company said its operating, or core profit, fell by 20.3% to 4.6bn yen ($37.7m) as sales fell 2.7% to 95bn yen.

Sega cut its global software sales target for the year to 12.6 million units from 20 million, because of the weak US demand, especially for "Sega Sports NFL 2K3", an American football game released in August.

Game on

The maker of Sonic the Hedgehog warned two weeks ago that it would be reporting a smaller than expected profit.

Sega said that while videogame sales had fallen profits from arcades, of which it is Japan's largest operator, were strong.

For the full year to next March, it expects a net profit of 5bn yen, after reporting a net loss of 17.8bn yen in the previous year.

Sega has been refocusing on games software development after exiting the hardware market when it dropped the Dreamcast game console early last year due to big losses because of stiff competition.

On Monday the company announced plans to re-market its classic games from the 1990s over the internet.