Representatives from Japanese-headquartered Namco have posted the company’s financial results for the nine months to December 31st, 2004. During this period, the company’s revenue fell slightly from its 2003 figure of ¥134.6 billion ($1.28bn) to ¥132.0 billion ($1.26bn), while operating profit also fell from ¥14.7 billion ($140m) to ¥10.8 billion ($103m). Net profit, though, was static at ¥6.6 billion ($63m).
During this nine month period, the company has seen strong sales from its Japanese coin-op business, particularly
Tekken 5 and its new LCD screen equipped Pachislot machines. Regarding the company’s home video game business, the best Japanese sellers, in what has been a relatively quiet year for the company, were
Ace Combat 5 and
Tales of Rebirth. New portable titles
Ridge Racers and
Mr Driller: Drill Spirits also surpassed sales targets.
Within the U.S., though sales of
Ace Combat 5 and
Street Racing Syndicate were apparently strong, niche titles
Taiko Drum Master and the critically acclaimed
Katamari Damacy were singled out as surpassing sales targets that were presumably fairly modest in nature.
The company’s location based arcade and theme park business saw sales decline by 3.7 percent, versus a forecast of flat growth. They fell the most in North America, where sales declined by 10.8 percent, compared to a target of 4.0 percent decrease.
Nonetheless, for the full year to March 2005, the company is keeping its existing projections of revenue of ¥188 billion ($1.80bn) and net profit of ¥8.5 billion ($81m).
