Bandai Namco's game sales up 55% year-on-year during Q1 FY2023
The company sold 11.4 million units across four games during the quarter
Bandai Namco has released its financial results for the first quarter (April to June 2022) of the fiscal year ending in March 2023, reporting healthy growth across the board.
The numbers
- Net sales: ¥216 billion ($1.62 billion), up 21.5% year-on-year
- Operating profit: ¥44.4 billion ($334 million), up 64.3% year-on-year
- Net sales in the digital entertainment segment: ¥89.6 billion ($674 million), up 34% year-on-year
- Operating profit in the digital entertainment segment: ¥29.4 billion ($221 million), up 48% year-on-year
The highlights
Looking more precisely at Bandai Namco's Digital Business segment, sales for home video games represented ¥40.5 billion ($304 million) during Q1 FY2023, a 54.5% increase year-on-year. However, the company is anticipating to achieve ¥140 billion ($1.05 billion) in sales by the end of the fiscal year, which would represent a 19.7% drop compared to the previous fiscal year.
Bandai Namco sold 11.4 million units across four titles released during the quarter, versus 10 million during the same quarter the year before, across 14 games.
For the full fiscal year, Bandai Namco is expecting sales to reach ¥880 billion ($6.62 billion) across the whole business, which would be a slight 1% drop year-on-year, while operating profit should reach ¥100 billion ($752 million), a 20% decrease compared to FY2022.
However, the company revised its projections for the six months ending on September 30, 2022 upwards. Bandai Namco noted that each of its businesses "quickly promoted various measures to adapt to changes in lifestyles and preferences of customers" during Q1, which led to solid performances across its digital business, toys, and amusement segments.
"Profits also increased significantly due to strong repeat sales of home video games, which have high profit margins," the company added. As a result of this strong Q1, net sales during Q2 are now expected to reach ¥430 billion ($3.23 billion) instead of ¥400 billion ($3 billion), with the revision "reflecting the significant progress in actual results and recent market environment for the first quarter."
Earlier this year, Bandai Namco invested $130 million to build its own "IP metaverse."