Xbox 360 fighting game's tardiness hurts 2005's earnings; 2006 profits and revenues projected to decline.
Today, Tecmo reported its consolidated results for the 2005 fiscal year ended December 31, 2005, and the company managed to pull in more money for the year but less profit. The company's net sales were up 4.3 billion yen ($36 million) to 12.2 billion yen ($103 million) compared to the same period last year. However, its operating income fell 327 million yen ($2.76 million) to 850 million yen ($7.17 million), and its net profit plunged 817 million yen ($6.89 million) down to 617 million yen ($5.21 million).
Though the company also runs pachinko and mobile operations in Japan, Tecmo attributed the shortcoming in earnings mainly to its gaming operations, with an untimely delay of an anticipated game being the main culprit.
Originally scheduled for a simultaneous release with the launch of the Xbox 360 in North America on November 22, Dead or Alive 4 faced multiple delays and did not arrive on shelves until December 29, making most of its sales slip into FY2006. Tecmo shipped 700,000 copies of DOA4 in its first two months in retail.
The fighting game wasn't the only source of blame, though. Titles such as Tokobot (PSP) and Monster Farm 5 (PlayStation 2) performed well below predictions.
Looking ahead, Tecmo plans to release a total of 13 game titles this year, which is seven less than in 2005.
While Tecmo's core operation has been console games up until now, the company plans to reorganize and balance its business structure between its pachinko/pachislot software, online game, and mobile content divisions in the future. With mobile and online divisions, Tecmo plans to strengthen its ties with game service providers and expand from a game publisher to a content provider.
For FY2006, Tecmo forecasts sales of 11.8 billion yen ($99.6 million, down 3.8 percent) and net profit of 550 million yen ($46 million, down 10.8 percent).
Well about the only two a main series I like of Tecmo at the moment are the what you western guys refer to as Fatal Frame and the Ninja Gaiden series. Never liked DOA (Virtua Fighters have always benn miles ahead of comp there in balance and gameplay). Anyhow I hope they will continue to deliver some cool original titles for next gen consoles besides their already established series...
That would kick ass to bring back Tecmo Bowl. DoA 4 was a great game but not much of a step up from DoA 3. But still a good solid game. I have seen a lot of used copies of this game in game stores.
they (meaning Tecmo's primary division: Team Ninja) can alleviate some of this if they wouldn't concentrate so much on just one system. oh, and the delay didn't help matters much either.
Whoever thinks that Tecmo never creates for the PS2, must have been sleeping. Did you guys forget about Fatal Frame 1 & 2 or Monster Rancher? I can go on and on. Stop being ignorant sony fanboys.
Are half the people the post on here all halfwits? Tecmo makes games for PS2. Please get some education before posting replies to what you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. thx
quit wasting time with doa and doaxbv and make ninja gaiden.....won't be any problems with profits then....
Tecmo will do much much better if they didnt make their best games exclusively for XBOX/XBOX 360. By producing a less-powerful graphically ninja-gaiden and DOA on PS2, they will definately earn a lot more. Just look at EA. Too bad Tecmo signed exclusive deals with Microsoft. I wonder how much Microsoft pay them though?
"Tecmo works too much for Microsoft. It's almost as if Microsoft bought them.... They never work for Sony or Nintendo... which SUCKS! Well.. their problem." Traceplant you stupid n00b ... :| Team Ninja has already announced a game for the ds...
Maybe Tecmo should put out games on a system that is actually popular in Japan, where it's based? doa volleyball would have been a huge hit on the PS2, and after seeing Rumble Roses for the PS2, I think it could have handled VB as well.
70000 wtf thats impossible cuz ppl are suckings dicks trying getting that game of course iam not the one :)
It only looks bad on paper, and the whole industry is supose to go through a decline this year, so DO4 won't show up for 2005 profits, but will be a nice padding for 2006 looses.
Historically, the DOA 4 Missing Japanese XBOX 360 Launch will be marked as the turning point in: a) The 360's chances to win in Japan, b) Tecmo's entire Q4 hopes dashed, and c) the second-to-last Team Ninja game from the original members...that team will NOT stick around for this battered version of once-proud Tecmo. Itagaki should head to Sega. Not a bad match.
Tecmo only shipped 70,000 copies of DOA4 in its first two months in retail? Man, that is very low, even with only half a million or so 360's sold worldwide around Dec 29. Sad to hear they're moving away from console games.
Team ninjas reputation is such that their studio might be large enough to support development for two games at one time. i wouldn't be surprised to see them announce a new NG game this E3. as for tecmo, it seems that most of their efforts are based toward the Japanese market. Microsoft gives Tecmo as much attention as they can, and Tecmo loves it because they are one of the few developers who Microsoft is courting in japan. i get the feeling that more and more developers are going to try and get state side connections to start shipping over more of their games, thats if the studios here don't lock them out.
DOA 4 will be multiplatinum whenever the XBox 360 will actually start selling. The shortages....
Tecmo works too much for Microsoft. It's almost as if Microsoft bought them.... They never work for Sony or Nintendo... which SUCKS! Well.. their problem.
This is the part where Team Ninja adds a wicked layer of polish and extra online modes to a PS3 version of DOA 4 -- easy enough to accomplish by late summer -- and has it ready for US launch, thus improving their fortunes in 2006.
It would cost Tecmo too much money to make games for Sony. Since Microsoft basically publishes their hit titles and fork over tons of cash to keep them exclusive that would be money Tecmo would lose if they tried going multi-platform. Some companies don't get all kinds of cash for going exclusive, like SquareEnix, hence it doesn't hurt them to go multi-platform because sony doesn't publish any of Square's games. But since Microsoft is so closely tied to Tecmo, it's not fesable to make their hit titles (DOA and Ninja Gaiden) on multiple systems.
You know this has no reflection on Team Ninja. Tecmo's other crap just plain stinks.... they would sell millions with the Tecmo Bowl name.... even without the NFL license. And where the heck is the Ninja Gaiden Collection? That would be hugh!
""radiocreed Tecmo should have given some love to the PS2 over the last 2 years, it could have boosted their revenues by a lot."" Gallop Racer 8: Live Horse Racing (PS2) Nov 24, 2005 Fatal Frame III: The Tormented (PS2) 7.6 Nov 8, 2005 Trapt (PS2) 6.9 Nov 1, 2005 They released 3 games in november alone for the ps2...does anybody actually check on the things they say?
Tecmo should have given some love to the PS2 over the last 2 years, it could have boosted their revenues by a lot.
""stncldrwg That's what happens when you make games for only 1 system 99% of the time."" What the hell are you talking about? They make games for every system and the article even says a PSP game and PS2 game didn't sell well either. That's 3 different platforms already. What the hell are you smoking?
Uhh no, it happens when a hot game is delayed. The game will have high sales reflected in Q1 06
I'm sure they sold at least 50,000 of those copies they shipped, because everybody I know that has a 360 has it.
Tokobot was disappointing. Then again, so are Tecmo's numbers. Profitable, but just not growing.
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