Strong Tales of Xillia sales help Namco Bandai to Q3 profits

Namco Bandai has posted financial results for the third quarter of the current fiscal year, noting an increase in both revenue and profits year-over-year. The company's Content Business, which houses its arcade machine division and its video game division, saw overall revenues increase compared to last fiscal year. In particular, the company noted that Tales of Xillia sold more than 760,000 copies, while Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. sold 550,000 units. Other notable sales figures include Ben 10 Racing with 440,000 sales, AKB1/48 2 with 410,000 sales, and One Piece Gigant Battle 2 for Nintendo DS with 350,000 units sold. Namco Bandai had the most success on the PlayStation 3 platform, with 3.9 million software unit sales in total for the console, while the PSP secured the company 2.8 million game sales. For the quarter ended December 31, 2011, Namco Bandai's Content Business sector posted revenues of ¥64.7 billion ($832.5 million), up compared to last year's ¥58.8 billion ($756.8 million), and operating income of ¥6.3 billion ($80.6 million), compared to ¥6.2 billion ($79.2 million) year-over-year. Overall, the company posted revenues of ¥129.2 billion ($1.7 billion), up compared to ¥114.4 billion ($1.5 billion) year-over-year, and profits of ¥8.3 billion ($106.5 million) compared to ¥5.6 billion ($72.1 million) year-over-year. Looking to the rest of the fiscal year, the company forecasts that it will see revenues of ¥440.0 billion ($5.7 billion), up 11.6 percent compared to ¥394.2 billion ($5.1 billion) year-over-year, and profits of ¥18.5 billion ($238.1 million), up a notable 901.1 percent compared to ¥1.8 billion ($23.8 million) year-over-year.