Namco Bandai Annual Losses Hit $317 Million

Tekken publisher Namco Bandai reported a decline in sales and a substantial net loss for the fiscal year ended March 31, as the company continues major restructuring for the new fiscal year. The publisher reported annual sales of ¥378.5 billion ($4.1 billion), an 11 percent decline from the year prior. Namco Bandai's net loss for the year was ¥29 billion ($317 million) compared to income of ¥11.8 billion ($129 million) a year ago. After the first nine months of its fiscal year, Namco Bandai said that "weak market conditions" for home game consoles were a driving factor in the company's financial decline. Total annual unit sales of home video game software for the company were 22.7 million across 225 titles released during the year. That's down from 26.5 million units sold the year prior, across 181 titles. Namco's top-selling game for the year was Tekken 6, which sold 1.84 million units on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Europe, Japan and Asia (the company did not report U.S. sales, although in October last year it said it shipped 2.5 million units of Tekken 6). The PSP version of the game sold 470,000 units worldwide. Ben 10 Alien Force sold 1 million units, putting it in second place behind combined sales of Tekken 6 for home consoles. The company also said that goodwill impairment and deferred tax assets help drive losses. Namco Bandai expects to be profitable again in the current fiscal year, projecting ¥400 billion ($4.4 billion) in sales and ¥4.5 billion ($49 million) in profits, thanks in part to a cost-cutting "restart plan" that initiated in April.