Card Games Increase Konami’s Profits

The company expects its group net profit to reach a record 21.7 billion yen on sales of 171.4 billion yen for the fiscal year ended March 31. Konami’s group net profit was 18.3 billion yen in its previous fiscal year. Much of Konami’s success is being attributed to the runaway success of a card game, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelmonsters, which has sold 3.5 billion cards and seven million Playstation and Game Boy units since its debut in 1999. The company hopes to extend its Yu-Gi-Oh! success by releasing card and Game Boy version in the United States in time for Christmas. Konami will release its complete financials on May 10.