With the recent PlayStation Network break-in and a lack of major blockbuster content as of late from across the Pacific, it may come as a surprise to some that any company in Japan made money last year. But they did — a lot of them, in fact, as revealed in a financial results roundup published in this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine.
For the previous Japanese fiscal year (ending March 31), Nintendo posted net profits of 77.6 billion yen, or about $953 million, even though this in itself was down by nearly two-thirds from the year before. Profits at Sega parent outfit Sega Sammy Holdings totaled 41.5 billion yen ($510 million) thanks to their pachinko/slot-machine business; Konami made 12.9 billion yen ($158 million), and Capcom (headquarters pictured above) racked up 7.75 billion yen ($95.2 million).
“The game industry is at a transitional point right now, yet manny companies made an operating profit last year, something that many people might question,” said Nomura Securities senior analyst Yuta Sakurai. “Much of this is because publisher efforts to expand the game category, as seen in the social game genre, are starting to bear fruit, as well as the fact that the entertainment business outside of games is expanding according to plan.”
