Marvelous Turns A Profit On Cost, Title Cuts

After a tough last fiscal year, Marvelous' strategy of scaling back its SKU count has paid off, as the Japanese Harvest Moon publisher posts a 71 million yen ($830,000) profit for its video game division in its first fiscal quarter ended June 30. It's a much-improved year over year picture; in its first quarter last year, the division saw a 131 million yen ($1.5 million) loss. Marvelous, which also owns music and animation businesses, made up the gap by cutting costs and reducing its advertising spend -- but sales declined 55 percent year over year to 532 million yen ($6.2 million). The sales slide could also be attributable to the same portfolio cuts that helped it slash spending; the publisher only released three games in Japan during the quarter, Hitman Reborn, No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise (an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 port of the franchise's original Wii installment) and Ikki Tousen: Xross Impact. According to a report in Siliconera, Marvelous also forged a new licensing agreement with publisher Rising Star Games -- a former publishing subsidiary in which it used to own a 50 percent stake it divested earlier this year when finances got bad.