Konami, Namco, SquareEnix Financial Results

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out a slew of end-of-year financial results from Japanese games companies. Read on for info on Square's excellent and Enix's disappointing results, and find out quite how Konami managed to lose 230 million dollars this year...

Perhaps the most surprising results were Konami's loss of 28 billion yen (230 million dollars) for the year, but this was because of the devaluation of a fitness club business (Konami Sports) purchased in 2001 - sales were up 12 percent elsewhere, with Yu-Gi-Oh a high point.

Looking elsewhere, Namco's results were good, with a net profit of 4 billion yen (33 million dollars), partly due to a surprise hit for Taiko No Tatsujin, a drumming game that comes complete with a Japanese taiko drum controller, which has sold over 500,000 copies in Japan.

As for SquareEnix, they reported largely separate financial results for the two halves of the company, due to the recent merger, but Enix had a sharp fall in profits, whereas Square's were a record high. Enix's relatively poor results were blamed on disappointing sales of Star Ocean:Till The End Of Time, which is yet to launch in the US, but was nevertheless expected to do better in Japan, where it's sold a very respectable 500,000 but has already dropped out of the Top 30.

Finally, in a followup to our earlier story, Nintendo's profits came out, and were indeed hit by the sales slowdown and a strong yen, but still managed to reach a group net profit of some 67.3 billion yen (560 million dollars).

Wow even with DDR

[Drakon]

I'd think that being the only fitness places with DDR machines would sell millions!
I'm shocked and saddened...
If they open a DDR Fitness place here I'll be the first to sign up

Re:Wow even with DDR

[robbway]

Something like 90% or more of all DDR software/hardware upgrades are illegal pirate copies. All of the Japanese ones in the US are either license violations (for sale and use in Japan only according to agreement) or pirate copies which also violate the license. Konami loses major bucks on arcade DDR.

Home sales are much better. However, DDR is a diminishing market in Japan, and has always been a rather fringe market in the US. So DDR would not be enough to pull Konami up.

Yu-gi-oh! Is logically their hottest thing now, and the way they're whoring it, it'll be over with in less than a year. Maybe they should make Yugi Yugi Revolution Oh! while there's still time.

Re:Wow even with DDR

[Guppy06]

" I'd think that being the only fitness places with DDR machines would sell millions!"

It probably would have if it weren't for the Stasi trainers.

Wow..

[Rudy Rodarte]

Well, hopefully this year will turn out better for everyone(Gamers and Companies alike). Zelda will be on this year's balance sheet and, hopefully the new Gameboy deal for the gamecube will stir up some purchasing.
As for Konami, I didnt know they had fitness club interests. Imagine if all the gamers you knew were all buff?
Thinks for a moment..
Heheh I got some ideas. First, network everything up and have a little card that stores your workout. You insert your card in each machine and work out as usual. Each rep or set is worth some point value. These points add up to stuff in games. Then go home, reap the rewards of you workout on the game. Need more rations for Snake? Bench 175. Need more health, so some sets of 225. Enable the Konami code by running a mile under 6 minutes on the treadmill.
Of course it can be hacked with this simple implementation, but hey, just an idea.

Re:Wow..

[ZeiramMR]

I'm not certain, but Konami might be tied into fitness club interests via their more physically demanding rhythm games (like Dance Dance Revolution)?

What was the point of Square and Enix joining up?

[Ayanami Rei]

I smell a little AOL/Time Warner in this. Someone tell me I'm completely off-base.

Re:What was the point of Square and Enix joining u

[Synic]

Square and Enix at least are the same business sector, whereas AOL is an ISP and Time Warner a monstrous media company. The idea for AOL was to harness the content that Time Warner generates for its other business groups and offer something to its users that non-AOL users could not access. SquareEnix is probably more akin to Sega looking to merge with another company right now. After Square bled so much money on the Final Fantasy film they were looking for a way to bolster their flagging profits to recoup t

+1 informative.

[Ayanami Rei]

::bows::

Hey, titles coming to Gamecube and GBA... count me in.

can't they just...

[TomSawyer]

Can't Konami just press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, and start a new year with 10 times their usual earnings?

I know, I know, even I'm groaning at that one.

Get rich quick...

[An'Desha Danin]

So, it really comes down to two ways to make money in the Japanese game market:

a) The Nintendo Option: Miyamoto, Zelda, handheld monopoly.

b) The Square Option: Hehe, boobies.