Konami's half-year fiscal report

[Xelinis]

- net revenues were up from 113.9 billion yen to 115.8 billion yen
- operating income was up from 4.6 billion yen to 8.1 billion yen
- positive results attributed to Winning Eleven, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker and Love Plus
- "Digital Entertainment" division saw 53.1 billion yen in sales and 4.6 billion yen in operating income
- solid performance from Powerful Pro Baseball 2010 as well
- LovePlus + is considered a "social phenomenon level" success
- 10.05 million pieces of software sold
- soccer titles saw 3.44 million units moved alone
- Japan was Konami's biggest region, with 4.34 million units
- Europe was second with 3.42 million
- North America was third with 2.18 million units
- Wii accounted for 12% of sales
- DS accounted for 14% of sales

Overall, Konami's figures are pretty solid right now. Let's hope this means that they'll at least consider being a bit less conservative with a certain game series.

[skymansxeno]

I'm assuming you put this up because if the future of Konami is looking good so is Suikoden? Well at any rate, good news in tough times.

[Xelinis]

I'm assuming you put this up because if the future of Konami is looking good so is Suikoden?

Not necessarily good, but definitely a bit less bad.

[Rooks]

Yeah, thanks for reporting this. There are a couple of things to consider though: This is good news for Konami, as well as Hideyo Kojima, who is now the head honcho of development at Konami. Kojima has never been a fan of RPGs -or so he has said- so this could mean he is less interested in revival of the Suikoden series. On the other hand, I doubt Kojima likes games of the "Love+" genre either, so this could be proof that he is willing to fund development outside his own interests. In a sense, we have yet to see whether Kojima wants to streamline Konami development into specific areas and genres, or whether he will keep the broad-based approach the previous executives had.

In spite of the disappointed fan base, FF XIII has sold nearly 5 million copies, and the launch of FF XIV MMO is going well so far. This has been a banner year for Square as well. Capcom is still reaping the spoils from Resident Evil 5, as well as the latest film in the series, and Street Fighter IV was a hit, despite allegations of performance enhancing drug use by Chun-Li's thighs. So, Konami's two biggest Japanese rivals are also not doing too bad either.

Konami might want to play it safe and go with what they know will sell, i.e. Castlevania and the like, and not try to revive Suikoden. Although, another strategy might be to take advantage of RPG fan frustration at Square for games like FF XIII and Star Ocean IV, in order to offer a satisfying RPG experience with a new Suikoden title. I guess only time will tell.

[LanceHeart]

Just some food for thought on the state of JRPGs on PS3 and Wii: Most remotely good RPGs released in Japan, whether they be new IPs or old, all sold at or above 100K copies prior to FFXIII coming out. Wii JRPGs have yet to take off, but it seems like established titles are what sell on the system.

Then there's handhelds, which have taken over Japan's RPG race.