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Namco Bandai posts healthy holiday quarter

Brendan Sinclair
By Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor

Publisher's profits up 15 percent for final three months of 2008, but full fiscal-year totals are slipping.

A company's health is oftentimes a matter of perspective, as evidenced today by Namco Bandai Games' third-quarter financial report. During that quarter--the three months ended December 31, 2008--the publisher's sales and profits were both up, showing growth despite a down economy. However, compare the company's first three quarters with the same nine-month period the year before, and sales and profits are down across the board.

High-profile guest characters like Darth Vader, Yoda, and the evil Gorton's fisherman helped sell Soulcalibur IV.

High-profile guest characters like Darth Vader, Yoda, and the evil Gorton's fisherman helped sell Soulcalibur IV.

For the holiday quarter, Namco Bandai reported sales of ¥124.85 billion ($1.38 billion), up a little over 2 percent from the same quarter the previous year. The publisher's net income was even better, with ¥7.74 billion ($85.41 million) representing a 15 percent year-over-year jump. Key releases during the quarter included the Japanese launches of Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 (multiplatform) and Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam Vs. Gundam for PSP.

As for Namco Bandai's fiscal year through December, sales dipped 6 percent year-over-year to ¥315.65 billion ($3.48 billion). The company's net profits for that span also declined, with the ¥9.02 billion ($99.55 million) down some 38 percent from the previous fiscal year's ¥14.71 billion ($162.37 million) nine-month take.

So far this fiscal year, the most successful Namco Bandai release has been Soulcalibur IV. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 fighting game has chalked up worldwide sales of 2.26 million. The next best-selling Namco Bandai game over that stretch is Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, which sold 730,000 copies throughout Europe and Asia. (Burst Limit was published in North America by Atari.) The remainder of the publisher's top five best-seller list was filled out by We Ski and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 (590,000 copies sold each) and Active Life Outdoor Challenge (550,000 sold).

Brendan Sinclair
By Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor

Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.

13 comments
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ffviiifreak
ffviiifreak

they obviously are showing that there western merger was wise to get them through this economic storm

MSG-Deathscythe
MSG-Deathscythe

can you release dynasty warriors: gundam in the u.s. already. please.

naruto7777
naruto7777

great well deserved for a fantastic game company

living_wmd_888
living_wmd_888

Nintendo and Namco are the only companies I've seen not posting horrific losses all over the place. Kudos to them, they're still two of the best game makers out there. I am disappointed that Tales of Vesperia didn't register though, that was the best RPG I've seen since FFXII. It didn't help that it was 360 exclusive and missed a lot of its Japanese audience, but I'd thought a lot of Americans had bought it to. I'm sad about Midway filing bankruptcy although hopefully they'll make use of the time they've bought and the great sales of MK vs. DC to get things together. On the other side of the coin, gotta admit there's some schadenfraude on my part over Actiblizzard posting huge losses even after spamming out multiple Guitar Heroes and Call of Dutys, and relying on the perpetual cash cow that is WoW. Modern Warfare 2... enough is enough. Within a couple of years, we'll see Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 3: Afghanistan 2 or some game of that ilk.

mcjakeqcool
mcjakeqcool

Hopefully Namco Bandai won't go the same way as midway, that would be just tragic. mcjakeqcool

red-orc
red-orc

Do we get some Addons, please?! The game's out for more than seven months and all we got are some childish X-mas-costumes. How bout some new online-modes or better equipement and weapons??

Pete5506
Pete5506

Good to see that the holidays went well

Chico_Azteca
Chico_Azteca

hey Namco, im waiting for Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2

nintendoboy16
nintendoboy16

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

corkyhookahking
corkyhookahking

are you serious Tekken, Soul Calibur, Any Gundam game, all the Naruto games. i dream of the day i work for them

nintendoboy16
nintendoboy16

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

XxSPAZxX
XxSPAZxX

Never heard of this company

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