Konami nearly doubles nine-month sales, profit

Konami has performed solidly throughout the first half of its in-progress fiscal year, and that trend has continued into the back half. Today, the Japanese publisher issued a stellar nine-month report for April-December 2010 reporting period, announcing revenues of ¥188.3 billion ($2.3 billion), up 98.6 percent from a year prior. Profit saw near-equal percentage gains, spiking 96.6 percent to ¥16.54 billion ($203 million).

Unfortunately, Konami offered little color on the individual games that lifted sales. As part of its digital entertainment business, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker for the PSP was named as a sales leader, despite heavy piracy on the system. Other top games given the "strong sales" label by the publisher were Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 and romance sim Love Plus+, as well as mobile phone title Dragon Collection.

The games also performed well enough to offset a number of unspecified delays. "Consolidated results for the three quarters saw each of our business segments roughly meet their earnings forecast, despite the postponement of several titles," the publisher said.

Rather than break out sales figures for individual titles, the publisher did provide sales statistics for certain genres and franchises. The top performer was its "Soccer" genre, which logged sales of 6.56 million during the period. Konami went on to tout the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise, stating that series sales topped 68.8 million units through December.

The Metal Gear franchise also added 1.68 million units to its overall tally during the April-December months. Konami also reiterated that Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D will arrive for the 3DS this year.

In the sweeping "Other" category, Konami sold 6.33 million units, presumably some of which were of the Castlevania reboot Lords of Shadow. All said, Konami sold 18.49 million games during the nine-month period, up from 15.53 million games during the same period a year ago.