I heard that they BOUGHT Atlus™. Considering that Atlus has put out some awesome titles, its fair to assume that they are making huge amounts of money from it.
Sega bought Atlus because the original owners went bankrupt, just going by that you learn that Atlus never made all that money in the big scheme of things.
While we are at it, keep in mind that Atlus used to have very limited game releases compared with other companies, their games, while critically acclaimed, were rather uncommon at retail. Probably they benefit a lot from immaterial game releases, but back when it mattered, they weren't making the big bucks.
Sega would need to have captive third party support to ever have a chance at making consoles again. Can't see it happening in the short/mid term.
Everybody should read Console Wars by Blake J. Harris.
Very interesting read. There is absolutely no chance Sega will ever make a new console. Too much money to do so, they would need to hire a completely new research and dev team to even think about it.
MS did it because they have the money to do so (and other products as well) and it was a way to get their company into the living room.....Sega doesn't have that flexibility.