Konami’s revenue growth led by mobile games

Konami just released its financial results for the nine-month period ended December 31st, with revenue reaching ¥178.7bn (£1.14bn), a nine per cent increase year-on-year, and operating profit surging 30.2 per cent compared to the same period last year, hitting ¥38.5bn (£0.24bn).

Digital entertainment is the business segment which saw the most growth, a 21.7 per cent increase year-on-year to reach ¥89.7bn (£0.57bn) in revenue, while the ‘Gaming & Systems’ segment saw a slight 1.1 per cent decrease to hit ¥20.7bn (£0.13nb).

Digital growth was led by mobile games, Konami revealed, with 2014’s Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu and 2015’s Professional Baseball Spirits A continuing “to deliver solid performance,” the report reads. Mobile title Winning Eleven Card Collection (PES Card Collection) also performed really well, with over 80m downloads as of January, while Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links hit the 60m downloads in December. 

Digital console and PC games were also credited for the growth, with Konami saying that PES 2018 and Super Bomberman R “continued to drive solid performance.”

The Japanese firm has revised its expectations for the full year ending in March 2018 and now expects revenue to hit ¥240m (£1.53bn) instead of initial expectations of ¥245bn (£1.56bn).

Konami’s PES 2018 did quite well in Japan, taking No.1 in the charts on launch week, but failed to impress in the UK. The next Konami title to launch is Metal Gear Survive, but can the franchise thrives without Kojima?