Konami's social games userbase surpasses 15M, helps lead to increased revenue, profits

Konami has posted financial results for the nine months ended December 2011, with both increased revenue and profits year-over-year thanks in part to "brisk sales" from its digital entertainment business. The group noted that its total number of registered users for its social games has now surpassed 15 million users -- in particular, its game Dragon Collection has over 5 million users signed up for membership, while Sengoku Collection has over 2.5 million players registered. The company also said that its soccer and baseball sales are selling well, while its Metal Gear and Yu-Gi-Oh! franchises continued to perform strongly. The company's pachinko and slot machine business saw record high revenues and profits for the nine month period, with its slot machine game Podium showing particularly strong sales. For the nine month period ended December 31, 2011, Konami's Digital Entertainment division posted revenue of ¥99.5 billion ($1.3 billion), up 1.6 percent compared to ¥97.9 billion ($1.3 billion) year-over-year, and operating income of ¥24.3 billion ($317.3 million), up a notable 87.4 percent compared to ¥13.0 billion ($169.3 million) last year. Overall, the company posted revenue of ¥194.5 billion ($2.5 billion), up 3.3 percent year-over-year, and profits of ¥17,046 million ($222.7 million), up 77.3 percent year-over-year. Looking to the rest of the fiscal year, Konami said that it was looking to "develop content for a diverse array of devices rather than content that is designed for a specific traditional game console," given the success of the mobile market, along with the increase in software sales for both the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita.