Konami six-month profit falls 81.3%

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.

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.