Metal Gear Franchise Sales Top 49 Million, Konami Profits Increase

Konami just released its business earnings for the first fiscal quarter, which ended on June 30th. Although their revenue did experience a slight drop, there was a notable jump in their profits.

Revenue for this quarter was 49.4 billion yen (about $481.5 million), down 3.5 percent from what the company made 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.

Despite the company’s pachislot business taking a big hit, earning 88.2% percent less in revenue than last year, thus losing money for the quarter. However, the figures above come despite this downdraft to the company’s earnings. For this, 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 decent 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). However, most of the new games that lent sales to these figures were limited to Japan.  Games like Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu 2016 (the latest in Konami’s Power Pro baseball series) were a solely Japanese release.