As announced, Koei Tecmo achieved an operating profit lower than expected and also down sharply compared to the previous financial year (170 million euros compared to 233 million euros), this due to lower sales than expected in the entire catalog (new releases and back catalog, console games and smartphone games), without forgetting the postponement of a game to the next fiscal year as well as the increase in payroll and advertising costs intended for smartphone releases. THE balance sheet is however far from being shameful, as evidenced by a turnover up 8% and a net profit which exceeds 200 million euros, an annual increase of 9%.
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Rise of the Ronin starts better than Nioh
Koei Tecmo recognizes that all the titles released over the last 12 months have not achieved the objectives without identifying the main underperformances. In fact, Koei Tecmo has sold 410,000 copies of Fate/Samurai Remnant, 180,000 copies of Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening, 120,000 copies of Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg and 60,000 copies of Winning Post 10 2024. Mobile side , Nobunaga's Ambition: Shutsujin has generated interesting revenues in the augmented reality sector still dominated by Pokémon GO.
But the focus is on Rise of the Ronin, its biggest cartridge released at the very end of the fiscal year on PlayStation 5. Without revealing any figures, which it cannot do without the agreement of its publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment, Koei Tecmo, however, reveals that the start of Team Ninja's open world game surpasses that of Nioh games. As a reminder, the first Nioh reached its first million sales in two weeks. For its part, Nioh 2 needed two months to sell its first million.
Strengthened AAA capacity
Without knowing if Rise of the Ronin has achieved its objectives or not, Koei Tecmo is in any case pleased with this launch which received a critical reception “ generally favorable » and above all a very good reception from the players, the publisher evoking a high satisfaction rate, while recognizing the criticisms made by the media on the lack of new features of the open world and the visual quality, which does not does not prevent you from renewing your confidence in your in-house technology Katana Engine. As the house's first major open-world production, Rise of the Ronin has moreover “ raised the level of our development, technology and management “, we can read. Koei Tecmo does not intend to stop there, however. Still aiming to one day reach 5 million sales with one of its new licenses, the publisher announces that it has founded a brand new AAA studio which is already working on a first project. This new team will strengthen those of Team Ninja and Omega Force, which were until now the only ones to have experience of large productions on consoles.
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