Weak Annual Results At Koei Tecmo As Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Ships 480K

Koei Tecmo on Wednesday reported weak results for its first year following the merger of the Dynasty Warriors and Ninja Gaiden publishers last year, due to low sales of key titles and major game delays. For the year ended March 31, 2010, the company reported sales of ¥34.5 billion ($376.9 million), down 13.8 percent year-on-year. Profits were ¥2.6 billion ($28.4 million), down from ¥2.8 billion ($30.6 million). Management expected the company to turn in weaker annual results for the year ended March 31. In February, Koei Tecmo cut operating profit expectations by 97 percent, leading to a drop in shares. The company cut forecasts earlier this year due to the delays of the PlayStation 3 action game Quantum Theory and the PS3 role-playing game Trinity: Souls Of Zill O'll. Top-selling games for the company included fall 2009's PlayStation 3 game Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, which shipped 480,000 units during the year. Sengoku Musou 3 for Wii shipped 270,000 units and Fist of the North Star Warriors shipped 570,000. For the year ahead, the company expects sales to rise year-on-year by 5.9 percent to ¥36.5 billion ($398.4 million). Profits are expected to rise 34.4 percent to ¥3.5 billion ($38.2 million). Koei Tecmo also said that it expects to ship 6.71 million software units this year, up from 5.77 million units for the year ended in March. Koei and Tecmo closed on a $207 million merger deal in 2009. Tecmo had previously said the merger would help in "boosting corporate value."