Tekken 6 longevity boosts Namco Bandai bottom line

When Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada crashed a Comic-Con Street Fighter panel last month in order to announce a pair of crossover titles, he gave away copies of Tekken 6 to the crowd, advising the attendees to familiarize themselves with his own series in advance. The generous gesture might not have been entirely necessary, as Harada's latest fighter has been selling well on its own.

Namco Bandai has released financial results for its first fiscal quarter, revealing that Tekken 6 notched another 1 million copies sold during the three months ended June 30, accounting for more than one-third of the publisher's software sales. Combined with the publisher's last update on the game, Tekken 6 has now sold more than 3.3 million copies worldwide. The fighting game launched around the world last October to a strong critical reception.

Tekken 6 was far and away Namco Bandai's best-selling title, with the closest follow-up being the latest Japan-only edition of Taiko Drum Master for the Nintendo DS, which racked up 170,000 copies sold. The Western reissues of Ben10 Alien Force Vilgax Attacks did well enough to push 110,000 copies of the game out the door, with the latest DS Super Robot Wars title for the Japanese market selling roughly the same number for the quarter.

The publisher's bottom line improved as well. For the quarter, Namco Bandai reported revenues of ¥81.9 billion ($958 million), up 8 percent year-over-year. And while it posted a net loss of ¥1.6 billion ($19 million), that was still an improvement on the ¥2.8 billion ($33 million) net loss the company suffered in its previous first quarter.

Namco Bandai expects to turn that loss around in the coming months, as the company also posted a full-year forecast for a net profit of ¥4.5 billion ($53 million), a significant turnaround from the ¥29.9 billion ($350 million) it lost last year. Revenues for the full year are also expected to be up a little less than 6 percent to ¥400 billion ($4.7 billion).