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Tecmo Koei stock sinks on game delays, earnings cut

Publisher's share price drops nearly 10% following Quantum Theory delay; earnings forecast lowered by 97% due to poor Samurai Warriors 3 sales; Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll also reportedly delayed.

Following earnings reports from Capcom, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Namco Bandai, Tecmo Koei today reported its finances for the quarter ending December 31, 2009.

According to a Yahoo Japan report, the year-old company reported a loss of ¥1.84 billion ($20.3 million) for the three-month period, mostly due to slower-than-expected sales of Samurai Warriors 3 in Japan. (Exclusive to Nintendo's console, the latest installment in Koei's long-running action franchise is due out in Europe and North America later this year.) The poor holiday quarter caused Tecmo Koei to drastically lower its full-year profit forecast by 97 percent from ¥7.4 billion ($81.8 million) to just ¥200 million ($2.2 million).

Quantum Theory will remain theoretical a while longer, it seems.

Quantum Theory will remain theoretical a while longer, it seems.

The downward adjustment's impact was exacerbated by two reported game delays. The AFX news service reports (via CNBC) that the Gears of War-like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 action game Quantum Theory has been pushed into Tecmo Koei's next fiscal year, which begins April 1. Meanwhile, Japanese gaming specialty site Andriasang reports that the company has also postponed the PS3-exclusive action role-playing game Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll until later in the year.

The combination of poor earnings and game delays sent Tecmo Koei's stock south. On the Nikkei market in Tokyo, the company's share price ended the day down 9.5 percent to ¥630 ($6.96).

49 Comments

  • -expletive-

    Posted Feb 5, 2010 5:02 pm GMT

    And I almost accepted a job from Koei 5 years ago.... looks like I made the right choice to choose otherwise

  • ColonelGuile

    Posted Feb 4, 2010 11:40 am GMT

    I knew this was going to happen... and this is what happens when you try to go platform exclusive after having success on the PS2 and XBOX. Samurai Warriors was born on the other consoles. What did you expect when putting such a game on the Wii? Foolishness.

    Whoever suggested that SW3 be exclusive to Wii should be fired and then whipped for every total number of gamers who owned a PS3 and 360 that expected SW3 to go multiplatform. Remember KOEI, your fans are on the next-gen consoles. Just because the Wii community is massive does not mean everyone will buy the next SW title.

  • Hanzoadam

    Posted Feb 4, 2010 9:57 am GMT

    @Njhayabusa They are actually releasing a new Doa but its not doa5 PSP version of DOA its DOA xtreme volleyball with out the volleyball

    Anyway that quantum Theory sure doesn't look like gears of war

  • njhayabusa

    Posted Feb 4, 2010 6:04 am GMT

    They need DOA 5

  • stolenidentity

    Posted Feb 4, 2010 12:55 am GMT

    3 ideas for Koei:

    1. Tecmo is on your side, why don't you use the DOA guys to make an arcade fighter for the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series?

    2. Make a Total War style RTS with either the Dynasty or Samurai brand.

    3. If you want to stick to the hack and slash formula, atleast make military tactics mean something. Look at gameplay from Kingdom Under Fire for the original Xbox for example.

    These ideas seem totally possible to me and could revive the series. The three kingdoms/sengoku jidai concepts deserve more respect than the almost yearly rehash of DW/SW+Xtreme/Empires.

  • MuddVader

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 11:23 pm GMT

    Gears/Prince of Persia?

  • 5Jedi5diah5

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 7:57 pm GMT

    bring on Gears on ps3 man!!!! wooo...

  • 5Jedi5diah5

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 7:45 pm GMT

    lol...time to PUL up ur socks!http://www.gamespot.com/news/6249244.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;13#preview

  • Ladiesman17

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 7:41 pm GMT

    Developers from Japan, never, release their game for the PCs, yet they make a "rip-off" games that have an indirect root from PCs & the engine (Gears of War from EPIC using Unreal engine), I hope these companies go bankrupt... and what.. with that cover system that was lame..

  • AngelCage-2

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 1:18 pm GMT

    If they want money: Make a new Fatal Frame for PS3/360 and a PSP vesion and there you have it: A truckload of cash just in their pockets!

  • Muteki_X

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 9:45 am GMT

    I wish Koei would give us a PTO, Naval Ops, or Warship Gunner for the next gen systems. I've been waiting for another one of those since Warship Gunner 2.

  • jadefury27

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 9:25 am GMT

    they'll make up for the delay with another 5 doa: beach blast games...
    rather than a sequel for doa 4. ooooh! how about another ninja gaiden remake? part 2 is less than a year old, isn't it about time for a remix to that?

  • shadowkiller11

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 9:22 am GMT

    I don't think Quantum Theory will help alot, it looks unoriginal and just a eastern take on mechanics thats getting alittle mundane now. Ony real appeal i saw was it being an exclusive so fanboys will lap it up but now its on 360 which already has its own game with the same conventions but we already know its good. So i don't think it will sell that great too bad their a decent company with some of their games.

  • gordos24

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 8:55 am GMT

    god dammit Quantum Theory seems like a good game.Oh well we will wait longer for it

  • majere613

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 7:41 am GMT

    Hmm. Those of us saying Tecmo should have taken Square's offer rather than going with Koei will be getting out the sheet music and getting ready to perform the I-Told-You-So Symphony, methinks.
    The truth might just be that without Itagaki at the helm of Team Ninja, the spark has gone.

  • lamprey263

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 6:15 am GMT

    They're a decent gaming company, and though they make a lot of crap they have some really awesome titles, I don't know what really goes wrong with them though as a company but they need something to help them. Probably making games in a timely fashion and releasing them on a regular basis would help them a lot.

    They have some real gems there like the Ninja Gaiden games, I loved the 2nd one especially, the Dead or Alive games, the Fatal Frame series, which I'm rather surprised they gave the publishing rights of the last game over to Nintendo who won't publish it outside Japan, but as far as things go with Nintendo at least they're working on the next Metroid game... anyhow, that's mostly Tecmo stuff, from Koei's side of things they really have nothing but loads of crap, however I still find myself playing the Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors games from time to time, they're actually kind of fun.

  • biokrysty

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 5:48 am GMT

    don' know what to say

  • player_leo

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 5:25 am GMT

    Releasing Fatel Frame 4 would help.

  • bmaon

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 5:14 am GMT

    Anyone putting this at the Wii's door as the main reason (including the company, if they do, which I don't think is the case) is full of it. Samurai Warriors is a series in decline - SW1 sold over 1 million in Japan on the PS2 in 2004, SW2 sold already 570k in 2006, and since then (in the spirit of music games such as GH), the company has done everything to dilute the franchise. Samurai Warriors 3 has sold so far over 250k and is still selling. So if its sales are not as expected (even though they are more than Famitsu expected), how much did the company expect it to sell in that same period? Let's say an unrealistic 500k? That would be another 250k games. 250k x $20 (the company's estimated cut per game) is $5 million. Yet the full yearly profit forecast was lowered from 82 million dollars to 2 million dollars. What does such a sum have to do with 5 million dollars less sales? Nothing much. Same case with the 20 million dollars loss, 5 million is not that much out of it, especially since they were looking to profit, not break even.
    And if they expected anything more than 500k of sales (no matter the platform), what can I say.

  • Hizakii

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 4:19 am GMT

    About time, the days of samurai/dynasty warriors has ended, they have got to come up with something else other than that.

  • OJdaLIONKing

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 3:56 am GMT

    Well, as far as this fiscal year, this is what seems to be happening with wii exclusive third party games (madworld, darkside chronicles, etc). I think developers are finally learning their lesson and releasing their games on the other systems. Although Quantum Theory definitely looks almost exactly like Gears, it also looks a lot faster paced, and personally I think more Gears is a good thing, especially if this game is multiplatform.

  • coldsauce09

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 2:08 am GMT

    this what happens if gear of war sell good in japan they copy it. same goes for western rpgs

  • magicalclick

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 1:10 am GMT

    Well, no DOA and NG3, there won't be any love for them. Especially a big celebrety left Tecmo before the merger.

  • Sepewrath

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 1:00 am GMT

    Damn, 97%, they are in trouble. But they haven't been putting out the highest quality software and things aren't looking much better with Quantum Theory. I don't think making SW3 multiplat would have helped them much, if at all. The 360 doesn't do much in Japan and its probably not exactly a cakewalk working simultaneously on the Wii and PS3.

  • Magatsu23

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 12:42 am GMT

    i´d like a polished Samurai Warriors 3 for the XBOX360/PS3. but since this is koei, i can only wish.

  • thedarkoracle

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 12:34 am GMT

    Tecmo-Koei, you never should have made SW3 an exclusive. If you went multi-platform, perhaps you would have at least made even. I hope you'll look at your sales figures and consider releasing it for the other two consoles...

  • DaGamingDude

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 11:58 pm GMT

    wow this is seriously a big loss .. and yes dead or alive is there top game and it can shorten the loss a little bit. BUT that will not be enough (¥1.84 billion) billion is over million you know...

  • Bangerman15

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 10:52 pm GMT

    dead or alive... i mean seriously it's their best game.

    ive been waiting for a 5th for awhile now.

  • KratosKratos

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 10:35 pm GMT

    yo if samurai warriors 3 came out for the Ps2 i would have bought it with the QUICKNESS. I AINT GOT NO WII!!!

  • DEATH775

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 9:46 pm GMT

    Where is Dead or Alive 5? I'll buy it on the release day one. It'll definitely raise up there earnings.

  • Gen007

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 9:25 pm GMT

    man is it me or quantum theory just not impressive at all. It looks like a bad gears of war ps2 port. Things are not looking good for them. What i want DOA5 give that and ill buy it day one.

  • BetardxFoosier

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 9:22 pm GMT

    The Dynasty Warriors games are good to play when you're pissed off: it's a good stress reliever, for me at least.

  • SolanOcard

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 9:17 pm GMT

    I am not at all surprised. I stopped buying Koei games because they stopped making the ones I liked (or at least releasing them in North America).

    They shouldn't be putting all their eggs in 1 (or 2 or 3) baskets, and round out their line up by remaking some classics. my suggestions:

    Unchartered Waters
    Ghengis Khan
    Inindo
    Gemfire
    Liberty or Death
    Pacific Theater of Operation
    even Aerobiz!

    I am glad they brought back Nobunaga's ambition... although I am still playing the SNES version more than I play anything koei released in the last 5 years.

  • shii666

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 9:01 pm GMT

    If KOEI planned on cleaning up their games, then perhaps I would care. (I liked every single one of their games up until DW 4, aside from the latest Nobunaga's Ambition, which I also liked) But until then, KOEI...

  • Aurey

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 8:45 pm GMT

    Serves them right! We don't want Samurai or Dinasty Warriors, for god's sake!!

    Where are DOA5, Metroid OM, Ninja Gaiden 3, DOAX3, Fatal Frame 4 or something like that. Of course, for some of those games it remains to be seen if Team Ninja is still capable of doing their thing without Itagaki (no, Sigma 2 doesn't prove anything at all). I don't have much hope, though, just look at Resident Evil and Devil May Cry after their creators left Capcom.

  • Zero5000X

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 8:18 pm GMT

    Tecmo would have been better off selling out to Square Enix when they had the chance instead of merging with Koei.

  • Rottenwood

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 7:45 pm GMT

    Curses! They can't possibly end the Dynasty Warriors franchise! The next edition was going to have a new kind of horse with brown hair!

  • Trogeton

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 7:37 pm GMT

    just let us know when the release is.. not that it keeps getting delayed

  • yixingtpot posted Feb 2, 2010 6:33 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    yixingtpot

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 6:33 pm GMT (hide)

    going into this gen i imagined Fatal Frame HD and how amazing that would be, guess it's never going to happen, EVER.

    Thanks Wii60 dvd players for destroying gaming.

  • SDBusDriver1979

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 6:33 pm GMT

    They have been dead in my heart ever since Itagaki left them and now their stocks are too.

  • Asagea_888

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 5:55 pm GMT

    Koei simply cannot rely on the same old Dynasty Warriors formula being released every year. Either they need to evolve the series into something better or put it to pasture and develop a new IP that hopefully isn't another Warriors clone or spin-off.

  • wonzan

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 5:43 pm GMT

    WOW a 97percent drop in expected profits?! That is crazy!!! Does this mean that the generally lacklustre quality of Koei'sgames........is going to get worse!?!?!

  • lc-kv

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 5:41 pm GMT

    97%?! ...and with Square Enix building up revenue... lets see if you can avoid them a second time...

    fan of DoA and Ninja Gaiden but just can't get interested in Quantum also a sucker for those Warriors games... but I don't own a Wii...

  • mariostar0001

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 5:38 pm GMT

    I hate it when games are delayed, it makes saving up for them pointless when you have to wait until next year, when you've likely already spent the money.

  • Jhoalot

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 5:36 pm GMT

    Again man...! Keep TBA until one week to be released the game.

  • jinzo9988

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 5:24 pm GMT

    Someone over at Koei needs to take the largest, heaviest, metal baseball bat they can find and beat the living hell out of the Warriors series. These. Games. SUCK.

    You know what... don't kill the Warriors series. Kill that stupid 10 year old engine and move the Warriors series onto the Ninja Gaiden 2 engine. Ninja Gaiden 2 drew a ton of guys on screen in one of the final levels, has a great combat system, is challenging, has enemies that don't stand there waiting to be hit like tackling dummies, has a draw distance better than 100 meters, and doesn't have square grid-like maps to run around in.

  • childe_roland

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 5:20 pm GMT

    I don't know what these guys are thinking, they need to pull their heads out of the sands and take a look around. Judging by the next batch of games their stock will sink even lower, I smell a merger or acquisition, EA you out there?

  • Ivory-Dynamite

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 5:00 pm GMT

    Sounds like somebody just got fired.I guess its also a pit fall of having console exclusives

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