PSP games Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Love Plus + help push publisher to $52 million net income on $659 million in sales for the first half of fiscal year.
While Sony's PSP frequently goes unrepresented in the US monthly top 10 sales chart, the portable and its games fare significantly better overseas. As evidence of this, Konami today posted gains in revenues and profits for the first half of its fiscal year, calling out its PSP offerings Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Love Plus + as two top sellers.
For the six months ended September 30, the gaming division's sales totaled ¥53.14 billion ($659 million), up 3.3 percent from ¥51.42 billion ($637 million) for the same period the year before. Combining the publisher's other businesses (like fitness clubs, trading cards, and casino games), company-wide revenues were up a little less than 2 percent to ¥115,763 ($1.43 billion).
While Konami's sales were barely more than flat year-over-year, the publisher did see a spike in its profits. Net income for the half year was ¥4.20 billion ($52 million), a 73 percent jump over the previous year's first half tally of ¥2.42 billion ($30 million).
While Konami said sales for Peace Walker and the latest installments of Pro Evolution Soccer "progressed favorably" for the quarter, the publisher was particularly effusive about its romance simulator Love Plus + , so far released only in Japan. According to the publisher, the game was so well received it "could be called a social phenomenon in Japan." The game launched in June in Japan, selling more than 84,000 copies in its first week and finishing second only to Monster Hunter Frontier for the Xbox 360.
Konami also gave a breakdown of the company's game sales by platform, showing a marked increase in revenues from titles for Sony platforms. The PlayStation 3 and the PSP account for 29 percent and 28 percent of the game division's sales, respectively. The two platforms combined to account for 57 percent of the Konami's game revenues in the current fiscal year, compared to 37 percent at the same point last year. While some of that share was gained at the expense of the PlayStation 2, Konami saw the Wii portion of its game sales dip from 23 percent to 12 percent, while the DS slid from 21 percent to 14 percent.
As for the back half of its fiscal year, Konami is expecting business to pick up significantly. For the full year, the publisher is expecting sales to hit ¥285 billion ($3.53 billion), with net income of ¥13.5 billion ($167 million). Key titles that could help push the publisher toward those figures include last month's Castlevania: Lord of Shadows and next week's Karaoke Revolution Glee, based on the Fox TV show.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
u see???? metal gear for the psp a good ne and make another castlevania for the PSP daaaaaaamn gameboy advance jaja he sucked pretty much all of em unfair jaja :9 still nice to hear konami holds its ground make another SILENT HILL!!! good one soon :9
I Love you Kojima San for making the best games EVER Metal Gear Solid i love all of them and i hope for Metal gear 5 and Zone of the enders soon.
This is great! If they decide to jump on the HD Bundles bandwagon, they might as well give us a hi-def collection. It should include The Twin Snakes (despite the original being better), Substance, and a 3D-supported Subsistence (just like the one coming out for the 3DS) along with the bonus content from the Limited Edition. And somewhere along the road, maybe a high-definition collection for the PSP2 as well (featuring Portable Ops, Portable Ops Plus and Peace Walker.)
Congrats Kojima because without him all Konami would have is Contra lol (which is an awesome game) ... I want more Metal Gear ... A remake of MGS1 on PS3 would be fu*%in awesome
There is some hope after all for the PSP...just not in the U.S. Anyway, it's no surprise that Konami is posting this kind of profit; they are one of the most stable and well-received developers in the gaming world today; they don't oversaturate the market (like Activision's Guitar Hero) or create a game series that grows stale over time (like EA's Need For Speed). Well, Konami's been guilty of that sometimes, but they have a respectable track record with solid games, so this is just more good news for them.
go konami! and please make a remake of metal gear and metal gear snakes revenge on one disc plus vr missions and multiplayer. then my mgs saga would be complete!!!
I've been nice and even bought the limited edition of PeaceWalker..now pretty please give me my ZOE3? Loving all the Love for ZOE3 in these comments!!
I love Konami, they are the paradigm of the global game industry, learn from them now or die!
Nice one Konami! Could you get Suikoden 6 to come to the Ps3 then? Cause thats how you build a kingdom ;).
Cool, now use it towards Suikoden 6 and have an MGS HD Collection to fund it. An easy formula to basically print money.
More DLC for Harmony of Despair pls *tear *tear I'm dying inside. I know its done just release it already. Don't want more music packs.
Good to see Konami doing well. They're a REALLY long-lived company, and I've yet to be disappointed with any of their games I've purchased. I go all the way back to the NES days with TMNT3, Contra, original Castlevania, and all that. I'm REALLY hoping for a Suikoden VI some day. Tierkreis was... all right, but it wasn't set in the same world so it didn't add any lore to the series (also a super easy game, but pretty good story and some of the best art design on DS). Suikoden V was AMAZING and highly underrated, one of if not the best PS2 RPG. Honestly, I loved FFX but Suikoden V had a far better storyline. Also: DDR PS3 reserved. Hit us up with some great DLC tracks, Konami!
Konami is one of the best companies.....thanks to the MGS franchise and the PES franchise as well....and many other great games
Btw what happened to Castlevanias PR? Konami did such poor advertiseing for the game.. It was so hyped up at E3 and looked awsome.. Then it released without me even knowing about it.. It's been released for a few weeks now so it dosn't really make much sense for me to pick it up until its being sold USED or in bargain bin.. I really thought konami would atleast have some comercials on the tv or something for such a big IP like Castlevania.
MGS5 now plz.. For the next gen!! MGS4 is still the only game that i played thru and thru that was exclusive for ps3.. I didn't like GOW3 and played MAG but LAGged.. I will give my left nut for a MGS5 tho! Btw what kind of "Casino Games" does Konami make?
@ valdips3 If Konami ever releases an HD pack of MGS2 and 3 for PS3, I will nerdgasm until I wind up in a coma.
Hey Konami if you come across this post here's a few games i'd like to see revived on next Gen consoles Snatcher Zone of the Enders 3 Lifeforce an HD Remake of the Simpsons Arcade game policenauts Zombies ate my neighbors Mystical ninja Starring Goemon That's pretty much it for my list. Oh! and maybe like you did with Castlevania: lords of shadow you can maybe do the same for Contra lol.
Well @ I777I Capcom just posted a loss this year, last year Square posted a loss. So it's tough to say you are 100% right.
Now that you have made tons of money, Please make ZOE3 the last runner. And please make it 3D with move support. Thanks.
"Wow, and here I thought no one actually bought games for the PSP." Yeah, many people also think the PSP itself doesn't sell well (actually 62 million in five years). Plus, some think the Japanese market and its developers are in a bad shape. Evidently that's not quite true.
very good konami, i am happy for you, to celebrate let kojima make MGS5 or MGS2/MGS3 HD collection.
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