fy-2009
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Capcom profits plummet in fiscal 2009, new strategy outlined
Capcom has released its annual report for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010, and there's a wealth of information for those willing to plumb its 102-page depths. Net sales for Capcom's fiscal 2009 were ¥66.8 billion ($779 million), down from ¥91.8 billion ($1.07 billion) in 2008. The company saw net income of ¥2.16 billion ($25 million), its lowest since 2004 (when it saw a loss of over ¥9 billion). This marks a very sharp contrast to the previous year, when Capcom recorded net income of ¥8 billion ($93 million), its highest earnings since 2000. Capcom cited the postponement of many major titles until the following fiscal year as the cause for the decline. Given those titles included the likes of Super Street Fighter 4, we'd say that's probably accurate. Capcom isn't losing heart though, and goes on to detail its new strategy of "Single Content Multiple Usage." The company plans to leverage its video game segment (which accounts for 65.9 percent of its business) to promote products in other forms of media. As illustrated in the image above, Capcom has already done this with the Resident Evil franchise, creating books, movies and music that revolve around the brand. Capcom hopes this will reduce risk and attract "customers obtained from other business segments" to the video games these products are based on. So, does watching Milla Jovovich kill movie zombies compel you to shoot the virtual ones?
Square Enix announces FY2009 results, revenue up 42%
Square Enix was riding high on the sales chocobo in its latest fiscal year results (ending March 31, 2010), with ¥192 billion ($2.07 billion) in revenue, up an impressive 42 percent from last year -- especially in this global economy. Profit was up over 50 percent, adding ¥9.5 billion ($102.7 million) to the guild bank. The top-selling games during the fiscal year were Final Fantasy XIII, Dragon Quest IX and The Batman's adventure in Arkham Asylum. Naturally, the company's games division brought in the big bucks with ¥109.9 billion ($1.18 billion) in sales, up 128 percent. Surprisingly, the mobile phone division, despite having high-profile games, including Final Fantasy I & II, saw revenues drop seven percent to ¥10.1 billion ($110 million), but operating income was up by eight percent to ¥4.6 billion ($49.7 million). Squeenix expects to have sales drop 17 percent this fiscal year to ¥160 billion ($1.73 billion), but profits to increase to ¥12 billion ($130 million).
PS3 proved profitable in last Sony fiscal year
The PS3 was a bright spot for Sony in its fiscal year 2009 (ending March 31, 2010). Thanks to a strong yen and a rise in PS3 hardware sales (you go Slim!), the console finally became profitable for Sony at the tail end of the fiscal year, according to Reuters (via adriasang); despite the Networked Products & Services division, which includes games, seeing a decline in overall product sales. The division operated at a loss of ¥83.1 billion ($895 million), a marginal improvement over the previous year's ¥87.4 billion ($941 million) deficit. Still, Sony forecasts ¥160 billion ($1.7 billion) in company-wide operating profits for the current fiscal year (April 2010 – March 2011). PS3 revenue is expected to increase this fiscal year from reduced manufacturing costs and a concerted effort to increase unit sales, following a strong showing last holiday season and a new and effective ad campaign. According to Sony, the company managed to ship 13 million consoles in its 2009 fiscal year, up from 10.1 million in fiscal 2008. Mainichi reports (via adriasang) that Sony expects to increase PS3 hardware sales to 15 million units this fiscal year. However, PSP and PS2 hardware sales have shown decline. PSP sales, which totaled 9.9 million hardware units and 44.4 million software units in fiscal 2009, fell from previous fiscal year totals of 14.4 million hardware units and 50.3 million software units. PS2 sales in fiscal 2009 saw less of a percentage decline, totaling 7.3 million units sold; compared to 7.9 million units sold the previous fiscal year. PS2 software, however, experienced a sharp decline in sales, managing only 35.7 million software units sold as compared to fiscal 2008's 83.5 million units total. Source - Sony Consolidated Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2010 [PDF] Source - PS3 Hardware Turns Profitable [andriasang.com]
Activision reports $113m in profits for 2009; 2010 game plan is predictable
Today Activision Blizzard reported the financial results of its December quarter and the entire 2009 calendar year. For the year, Activision recorded a net income of $113 million, a modest turnaround from the $107 million in net losses for the company in 2008. Led by sales of Modern Warfare 2, all signs -- at least, this one -- pointed to an outstanding Q4 for the publisher. However, figures released today indicate that Activision actually posted a $286 million net loss during the period. "Despite these challenging times, in 2010 we remain focused on expanding operating margins by growing our high-margin digital/online revenues, directing our resources to the largest and most profitable opportunities and realizing operational efficiencies globally," CEO Bobby Kotick said. "In calendar year 2010, we expect our net earnings and operating margin growth will be driven by our product slate that includes Blizzard Entertainment's Starcraft II and the World of Warcraft expansion pack, Cataclysm, as well as a diversified lineup based on Activision Publishing's best-selling franchises including Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, together with other well-known titles such as True Crime, Spider-Man and Bakugan." While few details were give about Activision's pending slate of sequels, spinoffs and possible reboots, Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, did share a few words about the next True Crime game. "We'll be releasing a game in the $4 billion action genre, based on our True Crime franchise," Griffith said. "The game blends intense Hollywood-style driving with martial arts combat and shootouts to deliver an Asian cinema-inspired action thriller. This is a big open-world action game that looks especially strong." Griffith also confirmed that a new 007 game is still in the works for 2010. Additionally, Activision noted that two new IPs are in development for its 2010 lineup and assured that additional DLC will continue to be released for Guitar Hero 5 (and presumably Band Hero), as well as for DJ Hero. The next installments in both music game franchises, Guitar Hero and DJ Hero, are due in "the back half of the year," according Griffith. Activision also announced that it has ceased developing new Guitar Hero games for the PlayStation 2 platform. Aw, shucks.
Ubisoft reports fiscal Q3 sales of $679 million, hints at unannounced titles
Sure, $679 million may sound like a lot of money (it sure does to us!), but when you're a company CEO reporting that number to investors and it's 2.7 percent lower than last year's equivalent time period ($697 million), it's not quite as impressive. And that's just what Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot had to do earlier today when the company reported its fiscal Q3 (October 1 through December 31) sales for 2009. Given the publisher's French HQ, we're not privy to the period's revenue until later this year. In discussing plans for the upcoming year, the company cited "at least seven franchise titles" being launched this year, calling out this morning's (finally) officially-announced Ghost Recon: Future Soldier among others, leaving one (presumably unannounced) title unmentioned. The publisher then indicates "at least two new brands (R.U.S.E. has already been announced)" will see the light of day in 2010 -- leaving one unannounced new brand. Getting murkier yet, it appears "at least 5 online games" will be heading to the information superhighway, though only three are mentioned (yep, you guessed it -- that means two have yet to be revealed). With GDC, PAX East, and E3 not too far off (already?!), there's still plenty of 2010 left for announcements.
Square Enix summons strong sales for first nine months of fiscal year
According to Square Enix's financial report covering the first nine months (ending this past December) of its fiscal year, the company is going to finish its annual business cycle with plenty of glistening gil. Overall, the company's profits are up 48 percent from the same period last year, and it forecasts a profit of ¥10 billion (which is far less shocking when converted to $112 million) for the fiscal year ending in March 2010. The company's games division saw limit breaker sales and profits during the period due to Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Batman: Arkham Asylum -- which it obtained as part of the Eidos buyout. Square Enix's games group saw sales of ¥72 billion ($806 million, a 97 percent increase over last year), along with a profit of ¥18 billion ($202 million, a 99 percent increase during the same time). Kupos to you, Square Enix.
Capcom Q3 2009 financials reveal monster sales of Monster Hunter Tri
If you're anything like us, you immediately tore into the recently released Capcom Q3 2009 financial report looking for the number of Mario Party Fushigi no Korokoro Catcher arcade machines the company sold in the last nine months of 2009 (80, in case you were wondering) only to find a wealth of information about the publisher's other games. For instance, worldwide sales (sell-in, not sell-through, mind you) of Bionic Commando crept over 700k, while Monster Hunter Tri moved 1.15 million in Japan alone -- we worry deeply for the monsters of Japan, being hunted relentlessly by all of those people. At this point in the post, we'd like to point out that these numbers are for the nine months ending December 31, 2009, and thusly don't reflect January's sales. Also, things are about to get really boring. The Japanese publisher is reporting a 5.9 percent increase in net sales for the nine month period, and boasts an 84.3 percent increase in "operating income compared to the same term in [Fiscal Year 2008]," which is to say sales increased by ¥49,987 million from the same time period last year (netting ¥1,731 million). Whew - glad we got through that! Capcom itself doesn't ruminate on the numbers too much either, saying "only a few flagship software titles were released from our home video game division, while both arcade operations and content expansion were weakening." Unfortunately for us, there's still no word on the US arrival of Mario Party Fushigi No Korokoro Catcher. Source -- Capcom 3rd Quarter Financial Results (warning: PDF) Source -- Capcom 3rd Quarter Financial Results press release
GameStop cuts profit forecast, still expects massive year
GameStop cut its profit forecast for this fiscal year, impacting the company with the same devastating force that a single snowflake has on the Gobi Desert. The retailer stated in its holiday sales report that revenue hit $2.86 billion, which was actually flat compared to last year. Putting this into perspective, Gamestop expects to have its "second highest earnings year" in its history for fiscal 2009, which places it behind last year's record-breaker. During the nine-week period ending January 2, 2010, new game sales were up four percent, while hardware declined eight percent, due to "recent console price cuts" and a decline in unit sales. Used products, the company's profit bread and butter, increased 10 percent. GameStop plans on having almost $700 million in cash when it ends its fiscal year later this month. [Via IndustryGamers]
Sony expects PSN to pull in 50 billion yen in FY 2009
Though yesterday's Sony investor's conference featured a concerning reference to the PSN's "new revenue stream from subscription," another slide from the presentation seems to indicate that the platform is already making money hand over fist. According to the slide (seen above), the company has set a lofty goal for the current fiscal year: It expects the PSN to bring in ¥50 billion (roughly $561 million) in revenue by the end of FY 2009. That's three times the amount of cash collected by the platform in the last fiscal year. Exactly how Sony plans to boost its revenues so drastically is outlined by other statistics on the slide. According to the company's calculations, the PSN currently has 33 million registered users, 1.4 million of which visit the PlayStation Store on a daily basis. We fall into the latter group -- but only because we can't stop window shopping for celebrities we can fling into oncoming traffic. We confess: It's one of our dirtiest, guiltiest pleasures. Source – "Media / Investor Conference - November 19th 2009" [PDF]
Microsoft sees first annual sales decline in its history for fiscal 2009
Microsoft's fiscal year 2009 just came to a close, and the new milestones for the company aren't too boast worthy. Year-over-year, the company saw a 3.2 percent decline in sales, its first drop in the company's history -- guess that third quarter report was a pretty good indication of things to come. Net profit, too, fell 17 percent to $14.57 billion. Looking at just the fourth quarter, sales fell 17 percent to $13.1 billion, and profits saw a pretty massive 29 percent drop, to $3.05 billion. Attributing to the decline were legal charges and severance claims from laid off employees, a referral of revenue from the Windows 7 Upgrade program, and of course overall drop in PC and server sales across the industry. So far the stock market has acted as you'd expect, and shares have dropped a notable eight percent. Despite all this gloom, let's not forget that the boys in Redmond are still pulling a profit -- and hey, cheer up Steve, you've got one helluva bright light for fiscal 2010.
Nintendough: Fiscal 2009 forecast raised again
Good news, everybody*! Nintendo expects to make even more money during its 2009 fiscal year than it had previously anticipated. And it had previously anticipated quite a bit.According to VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi and Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, Nintendo has raised its financial forecast for the six months ending Sept. 30, 2008, as well as its expectations for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. Thanks to phenomenal Wii and DS sales and improved foreign currency exchange rates, Nintendo now expects to shift 30.5 million DS units in the full fiscal year, along with 197 million DS games, 26.5 million Wiis and 186 million Wii games. Projected fiscal 2009 revenue? Two thousand billion Yen. That doesn't even sound like a real number!*Particularly those obsessed with the financial wellbeing of emotionally detached megacorporations.
