Bandai Namco's Q3 revenue rose 3.9% to $5.1bn
Publisher attributed drop in profits to comparison with Elden Ring launch, confirmed five titles have been cancelled
Bandai Namco has released its financial results for the nine months ending December 31, 2023, reporting a drop in sales in its Digital Entertainment segment and overall profit while its total net sales showed a slight increase.
The numbers
Net sales: ¥772 billion ($5.1 billion, up 3.9% year-on-year)
Profit: ¥84.4 billion ($560.9 million, down 28.5% year-on-year)
Digital entertainment sales: ¥263 billion ($1.7 billion, down 8.9% year-on-year)
The highlights
The publisher attributed its drop in profit to not having a title match the copies sold by Elden Ring last year, despite the popularity surrounding new releases like Armored Core 6 and Tekken 8 – both of which sold more than two million copies since launch.
"In addition to valuation losses related to new online game titles and other titles introduced this fiscal year, we recorded a loss on disposal due to a review of title organisation with a view to the next mid-term plan," it said.
In response to this, the games firm said it planned to strengthen its title portfolio and follow stricter quality control during development.
Bandai Namco also confirmed that "at least" five titles had been cancelled, as translated by VGC in a Q&A following the financial results.
When detailing the review of its development structure, the games firm said this will involve "narrowing down titles" and "changing the method of recording development expenses."
"Due to the longer development period for games, the time from investment to payback is also lengthening," it said.
"In addition to narrowing down titles, we are considering the best way to optimise our titles by classification, such as strategic worldwide titles and casual titles for light users."
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