Though Konami’s been largely a passive observer in the video games space for the past few years, the few games they do put out rake in plenty money of them. And as you can imagine, low production costs and high sales of products has been a pretty successful combination for them. However, there’s been a little bit of a change to that of late.
In their most recent quarterly financial reports, Konami revealed that in spite of increased revenue, their overall profit for the quarter, and that they were now reducing their forecasts for the coming quarter “due to recognition of impairment loss for property, plant and equipment and goodwill amidst the increasingly competitive environment surrounding the sports business, looking to improve and strengthen our profit structure, and timing revision of product launches.”
Konami’s gaming division also saw a drop in profits, and this is what is particularly interesting. Konami states that the reason for this is “increase of production costs for new titles and research and development costs.” It is possible that Konami is simply pumping more money into the development of the few games they do normally put out – like Pro Evolution Soccer and Yu-Gi-Oh! – and that the approach of next-gen consoles is seeing them revamp their engines, but another possibility is that they’re simply making more games.
Recent reports have pegged Konami to be working on two new Silent Hill games, while Konami themselves recently also confirmed that they’re looking for ways to bring the franchise back, so it’s possible that’s some of what their expenditure is going into. This is just speculation though, but with next-gen approaching, it’s not hard to connect those dots either.
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