Bandai Namco H1 sales rise above expectations
Publisher raises forecasts for fiscal year following continued success in 2022
Bandai Namco has released its financial results for the first half of the financial year ending on March 31, 2023, reporting healthy growth across the board.
The numbers
Net sales: ¥477 billion ($3.2 billion, up 21.3% year-on-year)
Profit: ¥66.5 billion ($453 million, up 68.4% year-on-year)
Digital entertainment sales: ¥193 billion ($1,3 billion, up 29.6% year-on-year)
The highlights
Looking at results for the first half of FY2023, sales were on the rise compared to the company's previous projections. Sales reached ¥477 billion ($3.2 billion), a 11.1% rise compared to what was expected during Q1, and a 21.3% increase compared to FY2022.
Sales particularly grew in Europe for Bandai Namco during H1, reaching ¥45 billion ($307 million), a 74.5% increase year-on-year. Meanwhile, sales in the Americas were up 53.7% to ¥52 billion ($354 million), and sales in Japan grew 13.7% to ¥335 billion ($2.3 billion).
Looking specifically at Bandai Namco's Digital Entertainment segment, which includes games, sales rose 29.6% compared to last year, reaching ¥193 billion ($1,3 billion).
Within that segment, home video games represented ¥85.1 billion ($580 million, a 52% rise year-on-year) while "network content" represented ¥94 billion ($641 million, just shy of a 9% increase compared to last year).
A lot of the growth experienced during H1 in the home video games category could be due to the release of Elden Ring in February, and its continued success, which Bandai Namco Europe CEO Arnaud Muller told us earlier this year was "just the beginning" of a strong line-up of titles from Japan.
Bandai Namco has revised its projections for the full fiscal year, now expecting sales to reach ¥940 billion ($6.4 billion), an increase of 5.7% over FY2022. It previously had estimated ¥880 billion ($6 billion) in sales for the fiscal year.
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