Dark Souls sells 1.19 million

Dark Souls pushed Namco Bandai to its strongest fiscal year since 2008, the publisher revealed today in its financial results for the year ended March 31.

From Software's action role-playing game was the company's top game of the year, selling 1.19 million copies in North America and Europe (Namco Bandai did not handle the game's Japanese release). Shortly after the game's launch, it was reported to have shipped 1.5 million copies worldwide.

Beyond Dark Souls, Namco Bandai's most successful launch of the year was Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, which sold 1.07 million copies. The reboot of the dogfighting series did substantially better than its console predecessor, 2007's Xbox 360-exclusive Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, which sold 700,000 copies worldwide. Namco Bandai's other top sellers this year included the Japanese-only launches of One Piece: Pirate Warriors (940,000 sold) and Tales of Xillia (770,000 sold). Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi was next in line with 700,000 sold, while SoulCalibur V managed to move 690,000 copies.

For the full year, Namco Bandai posted revenues of ¥454.2 billion ($5.7 billion), up 15 percent and its best sales total since the fiscal year ended in March of 2008. The company's net profits were also up, with a ¥19.3 billion ($241.8 million) haul that was also Namco Bandai's best performance of the last four years, and 10 times the previous year's net profits.

The just-underway fiscal year is expected to prove slightly more challenging for the publisher, as Namco Bandai has forecast that sales and profits will both suffer single-digit percentage drops for the year ending March 31, 2013. The publisher's announced lineup of titles for the year includes Dark Souls for the PC, the international release of One Piece: Pirate Warriors, the sci-fi first-person shooter Inversion, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Dragon Ball Z for the Kinect.