MGS4 boosts Konami income

Konami has reported a 90 per cent increase in net income for the six months ended September 30th – due to strong sales of Metal Gear Solid 4 for PS3.

Net income for the period stood at 12 billion yen ($124 million) compared to 6.3 billion yen for the same period a year prior.

Metal Gear Solid helped drive a ten per cent increase in revenues to 146 billion yen. Operating profit was up 75 percent to 22.8 billion yen.

The MGS franchise sold over four million units during the six months, growing the share of PS3 sales for Konami overall.

PS3 grew from making up one per cent of Konami’s total sales for the previous year up to 38 percent in 2008.

For April-September 2008, the rest of the unit sales share was as follows: PS2, 18 per cent; Wii, 17 per cent; PSP 11 per cent; DS 11 per cent; Xbox 360, three per cent; PC, 1 per cent.

The company said it will be focusing primarily on the North American and European video game software markets "where growth is more stable than in the mature domestic Japan market."

For the full fiscal year ending March 2009, Konami expects net income of 26 billion yen, net revenues of 330 billion yen and operating income of 45 billion yen.