Konami Misses Projection, Profits $160m in the Year to March 2011 - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 12 May 2011 / 4,213 Views

Konami's financial results for the March 2011 year have just arrived. The company earned 258b Yen ($3.19b) in the year to March 2011, below its December quarter forecast of 285b Yen ($3.53b) for the fiscal year. Konami still profited 12.9b Yen ($159.7m) in the March 2011 year, even without the extra revenue, but the company had forecast profit of 13.5b ($167.1m) Yen for the year. In the March 2012 year, Konami expects revenue to reach 258b Yen again ($3.53b) with profit increasing to 14b Yen ($173.3m).

In reviewing its results for the year, Konami was pleased with the performance of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP), PES 2011 (various), and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (X360, PS3). Konami is also having success with social games - Dragon Collection & Sengoku Collection have 2m subscribers and 1m subscribers respectively through March 2011. Konami's digital entertainment division, which includes video games and social network games, contributed over half of Konami's revenue for the fiscal year and a 17b Yen ($210m) operating profit that was offset by weaker performing divisions.

Konami also provides regional and platform game sales. During the March 2011 year Konami shipped 21.94m games, up from 20.20m games in the March 2010 year. Using the percentages Konami provides for each platform, shipments by platform in the two fiscal years were as follows:

FY 3/2010 FY 3/2011

PS3 4.646m 5.9238m

Wii 4.444m 3.5104m

X360 1.616m 2.4134m

PSP 3.434m 4.3880m

PS2 2.424m 1.3164m

DS 3.434m 3.5104m

3DS n/a 0.4388m

PC 0.404m 0.4388m

Total 20.20m 21.94m

Overall, Konami had pretty healthy increases for most platforms - even the ancient DS. Declines for Wii and PS2 were modest enough that the company sold 9% more games in the March 2011 year than the previous year, and an increase would have occured even without the 3DS which was only 2% of Konami sales in the fiscal year.

Regionally, Konami's game shipments to Europe fell from 7.80m to 7.55m units in the March 2011 year. Americas game shipments grew from 4.99m to 6.28m units in the March 2011 year. Asian game shipments were flat at 0.33m units. Japanese game shipments grew from 7.08m to 7.78m units.

Konami also provides a breakdown of shipments by genre. The genre that grew the most was 'Metal Gear' which went from 940,000 units in the March 2010 year to 1.92m units in the March 2011 year. Soccer was the biggest genre overall - Konami shipped 7.51m soccer games in the March 2011 year, up from 7.49m in the prior fiscal year. Baseball games fell to 950,000 units from 1.42m units, and TV animated games dropped 300,000 units to 1.47m units. 'Music' and 'Other' genres showed substantial growth - music grew from 1.58m units to 2.19m units in the March 2011 year, while the 'Other' genre reached 7.90m units in the March 2011 year from 6.91m units in the March 2010 year.

Konami plans to continue supporting existing platforms in the March 2012 fiscal year, presumably because it has several platforms accounting for 15% or more of game sales, while expanding its focus on 3DS and the upcoming NGP. The company expects Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater (3DS), Doctor Lautrec (3DS), Loveplus (3DS) to perform well, in addition to its new Karaokee game (Wii), baseball games (various), soccer games (various), and Silent Hill game (X360 / PS3) in the March 2012 year. Presumably some new NGP games from Konami will be announced at E3 - but none were listed as major titles for the fiscal year even though Konami says it intends to support the platform strongly.

Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com

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