Konami Sees Significant Earnings Drop For Year

Officials from Konami have announced the company’s full year results for the period ended March 31st. During this time the company saw profits fall by almost 50 percent to just ¥10.5 billion ($99.2m), compared to ¥20.1 billion ($190.2m) last year. Consolidated net revenue was also down from ¥273.4 billion ($2.59bn) in 2004, to ¥260.7 billion ($2.47bn) this year. Sales in the company’s computer and video game division was up slightly, though, from ¥92.5 billion ($875.6m) in 2004 to ¥94.4 billion ($893.6m). Metal Gear Solid 3 proved to be the company’s biggest seller with 1.5 million units sold in America, 1 million in Europe and 0.8 million in Japan. The Yu-Gi-Oh! video game series also performed well, as did the World Soccer Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer franchise – which tallied double million sales in Japan and Europe for the third consecutive year. Overall, the company saw total video game shipments exceed 20 million units for the fourth year in a row. Sales were also up in the arcade division, by 6.1 percent to ¥375.6 billion ($3.55bn), where the company’s networked e-Amusement gambling and quiz games continued to perform well, alongside Konami’s stalwart series of rhythm action games such as Pop’n Music and Guitar Freaks. It was the company’s toy and hobby division which caused the general downtown in fortunes, with revenues falling from ¥57.5 billion ($543.8m) to ¥41.0 billion ($388.0m). This was largely attributed to fall off in sales of the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card games, particularly in Europe. For the next year Konami is predicting sales to grow by 3.6 percent to ¥270 billion ($2.56bn), with profits rising by 73 percent to ¥18 billion ($170m). This will still not regain the company’s position as the largest independent publisher in Japan though, a title recently taken from it by the merger of Sammy and Sega. As a result, the company will no doubt be hoping though that the upcoming next generation of consoles, as well as its recent acquisition of developer Hudson, will present an opportunity to further improve its results.