Enslaved sells 460,000, Namco Bandai returns to profit

Following Sony, Konami, Electronic Arts, Square Enix, and THQ, Namco Bandai became the latest game company to post earnings results this week. For the nine months ending December 31, 2010, the publisher and toy maker reported net sales of ¥288 billion ($3.5 billion), up from ¥282.8 billion ($3.4 billion) the year prior. Net income--aka profit--was ¥3.7 billion ($45.3 million), way up from the ¥11.7 billion loss ($143.3 million) the company posted the year prior.

In terms of games, the company's best-selling title for the current fiscal year remains Tekken 6. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 fighting game sold 1.08 million copies during the nine months ending December 31, more than double Namco Bandai's highest profile new release, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Despite solid marks from critics, the action adventure, loosely inspired by the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West, sold just 460,000 units on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 after shipping in October.

Other best sellers called out by Namco Bandai were Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, with 490,000 units in nine-month sales, Gods Eater Burst with 460,000 units, and Gundam Musou 3, with 430,000 units. The company released 64 new titles during the nine-month period selling a total of 13.8 million units of software. Overall software sales were 21.8 million units for the time frame.