Strong video game sales for Namco Bandai

Namco Bandai today announced increased revenues and profits for the first half of the 2013 fiscal year, with strong video game sales a key factor. The company's Content segment, which includes its video game business, saw improved results year-over-year thanks in part to increased retail game sales. Namco Bandai sold 9.1 million software units across 104 titles during the first six months of the current fiscal year, compared to 7.2 million units sold across 69 titles year-over-year. Breaking those figures down, the largest improvements were seen in the U.S. (3.4 million units sold compared to 1.9 million year-over-year) and Europe (2.4 million sold compared to 1.1 million year-over-year.) In comparison, Japanese sales figures were actually reduced (3.4 million units sold across 75 titles, compared to 4.2 million units sold across 44 titles). In particular, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 sold 840,000 units in Japan and Europe, while Soul Calibur V managed 680,000 units sold across all regions. Namco Bandai's best platform for sales was the PlayStation 3, with 3.3 million units sold in total across all regions, compared to 1.8 million sold for PSP, 1.5 million sold for Xbox 360 and 1.0 million sold for Nintendo 3DS. For the fiscal half ended September 30, 2012, the company's Game Software business saw revenues of ¥31.5 billion ($392.3 million), up compared to last year's ¥28.0 billion ($349.0 million). For the entire Content business, revenues were ¥116.7 billion ($1.4 billion), up 34.6 percent compared to ¥86.7 million ($1.1 billion) year-over-year, and operating income of ¥20.1 billion ($251.0 million), up 275.0 percent compared to ¥5.4 billion ($66.9 million) year-over-year. Overall, Namco Bandai saw revenues of ¥222.6 billion ($2.8 billion), up 14.6 percent compared to ¥194.2 billion ($2.4 billion) year-over-year, and profits of ¥17.3 billion ($215.7 million), up 115.8 percent compared to ¥8.0 billion ($99.6 million) year-over-year.