Marvelous Posts Wider Loss, Plans Fewer Games

In a tough year that included the sell-off of a subsidiary and an executive pay cut, No More Heroes 2's Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment posted lower annual sales and a wider net loss from the previous year. Sales for the company during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010 were ¥8.3 billion ($91.7 million), down from ¥10.1 billion ($112.3 million) year-on-year. Net loss increased to ¥1.6 billion ($18.5 million) from ¥1.2 billion ($13.5 million). Marvelous gave clear warning signs that the fiscal year was going to be weak when in January the company cited a "severe foreign business climate" in which packaged games were heavily discounted. The publisher, which also has an anime business, subsequently lowered annual forecasts and further cut executive pay. Marvelous managed to come slightly ahead of those revised forecasts. For the current year, Marvelous expects sales to fall 21 percent to ¥6.5 billion ($72 million), and profits to rise to ¥90 million ($996,000). The company only plans on shipping 400,000 games during the current fiscal year across 10 games. Four of those will come to PSP, with planned shipments of 200,000. Last year the company shipped a total of 660,000 packaged software units across 20 games.