Konami Revenues, Profits Grow In Full Year Results

Following a major media event in San Francisco, in which a number of new titles were announced, officials from Konami have also revealed details of the company’s full year financial results – for the period ended March 31st, 2008. Over the course of the year the company saw net revenues increase from ¥280.3 billion ($2.67bn) the previous year to ¥297.3 billion ($2.83bn). Profits also rose from ¥16.2 billion ($154.2m) to ¥18.3 billion ($174.2m). In terms of specific divisions, the company’s digital entertainment segment saw a 8.4 percent increase in sales to ¥178.9 billion ($1.70bn) and a 17 percent in operating income to ¥35.4 billion ($337.1m). Key releases for the year included the latest versions of World Soccer Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer, with sales exceeding the pace show by the previous year’s iterations. The Dance Dance Revolution and Yu-Gi-Oh! series were also described as achieving “favorable” results, particularly in North America for the former. The company’s gaming and system division, which is predominately concerned with pachinko and other gambling machines, saw a 28 percent increase in operating profits, while the company’s health and fitness business saw a drop in profits of 29.6 percent. In terms of unit sales, Japan still accounted for the majority of the company’s business with 9.62 million games sold (up from 9.39 million the previous year). However, the success of Pro Evolution Soccer saw Europe just behind at 8.97 million (up from 7.70 million) and North America well behind at 4.46 million (down from 5.11 million). In terms of specific genres and franchises, the company’s soccer titles accounted for a record breaking 9.43 million units (up from 8.47 million) of its 23.33 million overall sales. Baseball titles totaled 1.66 million (up from 1.56 million), games licensed from animated TV shows were at 2.44 million (down from 2.64 million), music titles were at 2.30 million (up from 1.95 million) and the Metal Gear series accounted for 1.11 million unit sales (up from 1.10 million). Other miscellaneous titles sold 6.40 million units during the year. In terms of breakdown by platform, the PlayStation 2 still saw the vast majority of unit sales at 34.1 percent (down from 47.2 percent the previous year). The Nintendo DS was next on 23.9 percent (up from 21.9 percent), then the PSP at 16.4 percent (up from 14.5 percent), the Wii at 8.8 percent (up from 1.8 percent), the PlayStation 3 at 8.3 percent (up from 0.3 percent), the Xbox 360 at 5.3 percent (down from 6.3 percent) and the PC at 2.4 percent (down from 3.0 percent). Overall handheld consoles accounted for 40.6 percent of the company’s business in the 2008 financial year and home consoles 59.5 percent.