PSP Was Konami's Big Platform For the First Quarter

Portable accounts for 40% of game sales thanks in large part to Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker.

2010-08-05 14:06 / Anoop Gantayat / Comments

Peace Walker helped Konami's earnings triple for the quarter.

Konami's supplemental earnings reports have a unique take on the word "genre." The company always issues breakdowns of game sales into such "genres" as "soccer," "baseball," "anime," "music," and "Metal Gear."

For this year's first quarter, covering April to June, the Metal Gear category saw a huge boost thanks, of course, to Peace Walker's release. In last year's first quarter, Konami sold 160,000 Metal Gear games. This year, that number leaped to 1.27 million.

Konami sold 4.62 million pieces of software over the first quarter, up from the 2.96 million of the same period last year. This breaks down as (last year's sales in parentheses):

Soccer: 1.36 million (last year: 0.86 million)
Baseball: 0.25 million (0.24 million)
Anime 0.30 million (0.30 million)
Music: 0.21 million (0.16 million)
Metal Gear: 1.27 million (0.16 million)
Other: 1.24 million (1.25 million)

Japan was Konami's biggest territory for the quarter, accounting for 2.44 million pieces of software. Europe came second with 1.08 million, with North America in third with 1.02 million.

During the first quarter last year, Wii was Konami's biggest platform, accounting for 28% of software sales. This year, Wii fell to 12%. PSP jumped from last year's 20% to 40%. PS3 also saw a gain, from 13% to 17%.

Platform-by-platform software sales breakdown. Last year's first quarter is at top. This year's first quarter is below.

Konami's supplemental report also includes an updated release list. Highlights include Castlevania Lords of Shadows, set for global release this Fall, and Metal Gear Arcade, set to begin domestic operation this Winter.

You can see more details on Konami's quarterly earnings report at the company's investors relation page. (Note: as of this writing, English versions of the press releases and reports are not available).