Namco Bandai Profits Slide Despite Third Quarter Boost

Namco Bandai's profits fell about 38 percent during the first nine months of its fiscal year to ¥9.01 billion ($100 million), and despite a small boost in the third quarter, the publisher looks like it'll end the year 28 percent behind last year's performance, according to its own projections. Sales were up very slightly in the third quarter to ¥125 billion ($1.4 billion), and profit rose ¥1 billion to ¥7.7 billion ($85.6 million), but it wasn't enough to reverse the falling trend for the company's financials throughout the year so far. Namco Bandai's top-selling game in its video game segment was Soul Calibur IV, with 2.3 million units sold. Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit sold 730,000 units, and We Ski and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 each sold 590,000 units. Most of the company's revenue still comes from Japan, but it shows the largest level of growth in America, with ¥2.5 billion ($27 million) in revenue coming from the region versus just ¥233 million ($2.5 million) last year. ¥9 billion, or $99 million of Namco Bandai's revenues are domestic.