Namco Bandai posts $312m loss

Publisher Namco Bandai has reported a $312m loss for the fiscal year ending March 31st 2010, a sharp dip from the $126m profit reported in the year before. Revenues hit $4.1bn, down 11 per cent year-on-year.

Its video games operations saw revenues of $1.5bn but suffered an operating loss of $73m – the biggest amongst of the company’s divisions. Income fell across both Europe and North America.

In contrast, its Toys and Games operations returned an operating income of $116m.

The company’s best performing title was Xbox 360 and PS3 fighter Tekken 6, which sold 1.84m units across home consoles and a further half a million copies on PSP.

Kids’ licence Ben 10 was also a star performer, with Ben 10 Alien Force topping 1m sales and its sequel rapidly approaching that milestone.

Surprisingly it was the PSP that delivered the strongest results for the firm, with a total of 5.48m unit sales across Namco Bandai’s 22 separate titles for Sony’s handheld. Its 12 Wii releases shifted 5.21m units and the DS, on which there were 35 separate releases, shifted 4.22m units.

Namco Bandai expects its next financial year to deliver a $48m profit and sales of $4.3bn.