Today Konami revealed its financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2020, related to the period between April 1 and June 30, 2019.
As you can see below, all relevant profit figures are in the black, showing a slight decrease year-on-year.
Revenue also saw a small drop from the same quarter last year.
Moving on to the segments, we notice that the Digital Entertainment business (which includes games) is the biggest contributor to both revenue and profit. It’s also the only business segment which boasted an improvement in profits.
The press release included a breakdown of the performance of the gaming business. We learn that Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution for Nintendo Switch performed “strongly” in Japan. There is also a mention that the Digital Entertainment business performed strongly as a whole.
“In the entertainment market, future development of game contents is expected through the functional enhancement of various devices, including mobile devices and video game consoles, and the standardization of next generation communication systems.
In conjunction with the changing times, the preference for enriching daily life through full and abundant experiences in personal spending has been strengthened. In the game industry, new experiences through game content are being offered in various ways, including eSports, which is regarded as a form of sports competition and is becoming well-known to a wide range of users and attracting more and more fans.
Under such circumstances, as for mobile games in the Digital Entertainment segment Yu-Gi-Oh! DUEL LINKS has led our revenue in the global market. In addition, Winning Eleven 2019 (known overseas as PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2019), which has surpassed 200 million downloads around the world, continued to perform strongly.
In the domestic market, PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL SPIRITS A (Ace) has continued to perform well and various other titles such as JIKKYOU PAWAFURU PUROYAKYU also continued to perform strongly. Furthermore, our new titles, DANKIRA!!! – Boys, be DANCING! and J.League Club Championship were released in this quarter. As part of our continued active efforts in eSports, we hosted the “eJ.LEAGUE Winning Eleven 2019 Season” in cooperation with the Japan Professional Football League (J.LEAGUE) with our mobile game Winning Eleven 2019 as the competition title.
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As for computer and video games, the three titles of ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION series were released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Konami Group’s founding. In addition, the match-type card game, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution, was released in Japan and it has continued to perform strongly.
As for the baseball titles, the latest title in the JIKKYOU PAWAFURU PUROYAKYU series, which marks 25th anniversary, was released for the Nintendo Switch and it has received favorable reviews from many players.
As for the existing titles, myClub, the online mode of Winning Eleven 2019 (known overseas as PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2019), has also continued to receive favorable reviews. As part of our continued active efforts in eSports, we hosted the final round for the world championship “PES LEAGUE WORLD TOUR 2019” for Winning Eleven 2019 (known overseas as PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2019). Furthermore, an outline on the “eBASEBALL Pro League” season in 2019 was disclosed and is attracting a lot of attention. “
We also get more information about the outlook for the segment.
“With the spread of entertainment offered through networks, the available means of providing games continue to diversify. Opportunities to reach an even greater audience for games are increasing. Against this background, we intend to develop ways of playing games that match the characteristics of each device.
As for mobile games, we are eagerly working on the release of LOVEPLUS EVERY, the latest title in the LOVEPLUS series, based on customer feedback we received during closed testing. In addition, we would be co-hosting the tournament with all 40 clubs in J1 and J2 leagues, “eJ.LEAGUE Winning Eleven 2019 season,” whose competition title is the mobile game, WINNING ELEVEN 2019 (known overseas as PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2019), that we organize in cooperation with the Japan Professional Football League (J.LEAGUE).
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As for computer and video games, we will release the latest title in the PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL SPIRITS series, PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL SPIRITS 2019, for the first time in four years and also Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution for the regions in Europe, America and Asia. In addition, eFootball Winning Eleven 2020 (known overseas as eFootball PES 2020), the latest title in the Winning Eleven series as well as CONTRA ROGUE CORPS, the latest title in the Contra series, and PC Engine mini are intended to be released.
As part of our continued active efforts in eSports, the Winning Eleven series were selected as a Culture Program at the 74th national Sports Festival, “Iki Iki Ibaraki Yume Kokutai.” Now the representatives in each prefecture was decided, and the final round is held. As for the “eBASEBALL Pro League”, which will be organized along with the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), players for each team will be decided through an edraft conference as we build up to an exciting 2019 season.
In the entertainment market, the preference for enriching daily life through full and abundant experiences has been strengthened. We will continue to create and provide our current and future customers with game content that offer valuable time.”
Below you can check out the slates of games that the publisher plans to release in the near future.
If you want to compare, you can check out the results for the previous quarter, released in May.
