Metal Gear Franchise Sales Top 49 Million as Konami Profits Increase
The pachinko business falters while traditional games see a bump in revenue.
Konami has released its earnings report for its first fiscal quarter, which ended on June 30, and while revenue dropped slightly, it also saw a jump in profits.
Revenue for the quarter was 49.4 billion yen (about $481.5 million), down 3.5 percent from what the company generated during the same period last year. Operating profit, though, was up 9.1 billion yen ($88.7 million)--up 40.2 percent year-over-year.
This comes despite the company's pachislot business taking a big hit, earning 88.2 percent less in revenue than last year and actually losing money for the quarter. Konami can thank its Health and Fitness category and, to a larger extent, its Digital Entertainment segment (which covers console and mobile games) for turning a profit.
Digital Entertainment revenue was up 5.6 percent to 25.2 billion yen ($245.5 million), with profit up 34.3 percent to 8.7 billion yen ($84.7 million). Most of the new games contributing to this were limited to Japan; games like Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu 2016 (the latest in Konami's Power Pro baseball series) were only released in Konami's native country. Its one international release was the UEFA Euro 2016 update for PES 2016, which was given away for free as an apology for issues with the game's rosters. Other worldwide contributors were mobile games Star Wars: Force Collection and PES Club Manager.
Konami had little to share regarding upcoming projects, including what that recent Metal Gear Solid V listing on Amazon might be, if anything. It did reveal that the Metal Gear franchise had now sold 49.2 million units.
It also spoke briefly about that Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater pachislot game that's sure to frustrate fans with how good its remastered cinematics look. With its pachislot and pachinko business struggling this quarter, Konami indicated one of the things it intends to do is leverage its "original contents, including accumulated expertise in the Digital Entertainment business." That may suggest this Snake Eater machine is not a one-off in terms of using a big Konami franchise as the basis for a pachislot machine.
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