Konami six-month profit falls 81.3%

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Nov 5, 2009 10:32 am PT

Konami's MGS4-less fiscal half-year creates substantial shortfall, as net income slips to $24 million on revenues of $1.26 billion.

A week ago, Konami laid out its earnings forecast for the first six months of its current fiscal year, saying it expects revenue to be down 22.5 percent to ¥113.9 billion ($1.26 billion), with profit falling 81.6 percent to ¥2.20 billion ($24 million). Today, the Japanese publisher reported its official numbers for the period, and as it turns out, not much has changed between then and now.

You tell 'em, Revolver!

As expected, Konami said that revenues for the period came in at ¥113.9 billion ($1.26 billion), down 22.5 percent from the ¥146.9 billion ($1.63 billion) it pulled in during the first six months of its previous fiscal year. That period, of course, was highlighted by the release of Kojima Production's top-rated Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which turned in a multiplatinum sales performance upon its debut in June 2008.

Net income during the period was actually slightly better than Konami projected last week. During the April-September window, the publisher's profit slipped 81.3 percent to ¥2.23 billion ($24.6 million), down from the MGS4-inflated ¥11.9 billion ($131 million) from the year-ago period.

The Japanese company's sports-game business led sales for the publisher during the period. Namely, Konami said that its Pro Evolution Soccer (known also as Winning Eleven) and Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu baseball franchises performed well, selling a respective 1.25 million units and 770,000 units across the various games in each series. The publisher also noted that the Metal Gear franchise sold an additional 360,000 units during the period.

Konami still expects to see marginal sales growth during its current fiscal year. The publisher reiterated its previous forecast of ¥310 billion ($3.43 billion) for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2010, compared to the ¥309.7 billion ($3.43 billion) it brought in during its previous fiscal year. Konami anticipates a 47.1 percent spike in net income, though, swelling to ¥16 billion ($176 million) from ¥10.8 billion ($119 million) last year.

76 Comments

  • Omaciel

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 2:20 pm PT

    JAGGERMASTER learn how to type dumb@ss

  • Omaciel

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 2:19 pm PT

    Jaggermaster is a f@g he must have an Xbox

  • Richardthe3rd

    Posted Nov 9, 2009 10:27 am PT

    You'd think with the recent 2d resurgence that Konami would be flaunting some remakes from that era. They had some pretty big names back then; Contra, Gradius, Castlevania of course, even some of the more obscure titles like Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

    Lets face it though, Konami has made some really bad decisions in the past decade. Their focus on rhythm based titles like DDR and their release severance from Treasure really hurt their IP library and disenfranchised some of their more loyal customers. MGS is popular, but it won't carry them alone.

  • Jaggermaster

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 9:36 pm PT

    MILK MILK MILK Metal Gear Solid the RCAPPYEST franchise ever made.

    Kojima is a JOKE.

    Suck it well guys it's MILK

  • jeffv541

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 8:37 pm PT

    @nezardm See I haven't played many of the silent hills, just #1 (read my review it's great) and I guess I played #2 and that one on PSP. I am not really into the whole atmosphere thing, it's creepy and depressing. Now Resident Evils 1, 2, Veronica, The Gamecube remakes, and 4 are good games. I think Silent hill (as decent as it might be/have been) is a weak IP next to some of Konamis classic heavy hitters like Contra and Castlevania. I can only hope that nobody screws up those two series worse than they already have... (cause we're all lost hope for silent hill)

  • nezardm

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 7:34 pm PT

    what in the world are you jeffv541 talking about???? they haven't made a decent SH games since SH3, its all been just down the hill garbage...

  • jeffv541

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 8:00 pm PT

    MGS and Silent Hill are okay, but they are feeble next to thee mighty Castlevania!!!

  • coldsauce09

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 5:56 pm PT

    konami should be just... KOJIMA.

  • Jack_n_Coke07

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 1:44 am PT

    I imagine their profits would fall quite drastically, considering they haven't even released any (known of) games as of late.

    Gamespot has some really bad revenue statements. At least cover a company that's released some games, like EA for example.

  • DiscGuru101

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 11:30 pm PT

    Silent Hill 4 the room? I dare anyone to start playing that game late one night, in the dark, with the sound up loud. You will be afraid. The Room gets a lot of hate but the premise is terrifying, unpredictable, and the monsters are horrific.

  • Glade_Gnarr

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 10:44 pm PT

    What has konami done this year?

  • cjasko94

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 6:16 pm PT

    MGS4 was the best game I've played this gen. -Twilight Princess I consider a 'last gen' game ported to the wii (as it was on the GameCube).

  • PumpkinBoogie

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 3:49 pm PT

    Ouch...that's a bit steep.

    Well, good thing that got do got some things like new Silent Hill game, a couple MGS titles, and ZOE3 on the horizon. Hell, just Kojima-san's work in itself will get them profits right back up in no time (when they're released), lol. But seriously though, I think Konami should consider with the new SH hopefully doing it in-house like they used to w/ 1-4 (ok, 4 may not have been great but at least it was theirs) stop letting these outsider Western developers doing their franchise. Konami is at the heart of what we know of as survival horror genre--letting anybody else do your material is like simply asking for failure. They need to take a page from Kojima-san and not let other developers touch their (original) properties.

  • HerbalVideogame

    Posted Nov 5, 2009 11:11 pm PT

    Why do I want to puke every time I read one of KittyHeart 's posts?

  • akiwak

    Posted Nov 5, 2009 10:21 pm PT

    They will return to big money once MG Rising is released, the next Castlevania will help keep the momentum then ZOE3 will take over after that.

  • Attoyou

    Posted Nov 5, 2009 9:07 pm PT

    @ bphan

    Even if they would Have Put it On Xbox360 , Their Profits would STILL Fall The NEXT Year.

    i Think One of the bigger companies should just buy Konami.

  • bigboss1203

    Posted Nov 5, 2009 8:07 pm PT

    @ Kittyheart and DRUGGIE. Silent Hill 4 was really akward and wtf a life bar? homecoming was Ok but like Druggie said it had little to no psychological element, ive never played origins. The first 3 are absolutely golden though.

  • bigboss1203

    Posted Nov 5, 2009 8:05 pm PT

    ouch. when MGS: Peace Walker comes out it will hopefully do better. I love Konami and i know they will bounce back

  • WTFitsPauL

    Posted Nov 5, 2009 7:13 pm PT

    No MGS, No Money

  • THE_DRUGGIE

    Posted Nov 5, 2009 6:44 pm PT

    @KittyHeart

    At least 4 was scary to some degree and retained the head games of the previous titles. When I played Origins I felt like I was being treated to a bunch of cheap "BOO!" scares and Homecoming just felt like and action-fest that lacked any kind of psychological drive whatsoever.

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