Namco Bandai Profits Plummet In First Quarter

Namco Bandai's video game division was its only growing business in a first fiscal quarter where profits fell by 63.2 percent over the previous year -- its arcade division disappointed, while Bandai's toy business was weak. The company reported net income of ¥1.02 billion ($9.4m), compared to ¥2.77 billion ($25.5m) the previous year. Net sales also fell from ¥96.10 billion ($884.6m) last year to ¥89.98 billion ($828.2m) in the first three months of the year. The company’s home video game division was the only one to show growth year-on-year, while the arcade business continues to combat the proliferation of home consoles and economic conditions unfavorable to arcades. Video game revenues rose by 3.8 percent to ¥25.51 billion ($234.8m). However, the division failed to profit, reporting a loss of ¥214 million ($2.0m). Boosted by Bandai’s media and toy network, Japan represented by far the company’s largest market, with revenues of ¥67.67 billion ($622.8m), compared to ¥10.14 billion ($93.3m) for Europe and ¥9.16 billion ($84.3m) for the Americas. In terms of the video game division alone, 1.7 million games were sold in Japan during the quarter, 1.39 million sold in Europe and 740,000 sold in the U.S. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was the company’s most successful title during the three month period, based on European sales alone, with 420,000 units sold on the Wii and PlayStation 3. Japanese only release Meccha! Taiko no Tatsujin DS: 7-tsu no Shima no Daibouken was second with 260,000 units sold and Tales of Symphonia on Wii third with 215,000 unit sold. The PlayStation 2 continued to be the company’s most successful format, with 1.15 million units of software sold during the quarter. The Nintendo DS was next on 895,000 units, followed by the PSP on 769,000 units, the Wii on 690,000 units, the PlayStation 3 on 270,000 units and the Xbox 360 on 172,000 units. Still, the company made no changes to its full-year forecast, predicting a net profit of ¥22.5 billion ($207m) on revenues of ¥470 billion ($4.3bn). The company did, however, lower its first half revenue forecast by ¥2 billion ($18.4m).