If there were like, a generic entertainment section I'd put this there, but...

Malificus · 08-09-2008, 03:11 AM

Namco Bandai Reports 66% Drop in Q1 Profit - Anime News Network

Quote:

The American business magazine Forbes reports that Namco Bandai Holdings (the parent company of Sunrise, Bandai Visual, Bandai Entertainment, and Namco) announced on Wednesday a 66-percent drop in operating profit in the first quarter of the current fiscal year compared to last year. Namco Bandai blamed this drop in the April–June quarter on less business in Japanese arcades due to increasing gas prices, the launch of new game consoles, slowing business in its entertainment franchises, and lower toy sales. However, the company says that this year's earnings guidance remains unchanged.

In the music/video areas of the company that include anime, Namco Bandai recorded a operatng loss of 234 million yen (US$2.1 million), compared to an operating profit of 1.1 billion yen (US$10 million) in the same quarter last year. Namco Bandai president Takeo Takasu attributed the loss to a slump in DVD sales, as the Namco Bandai group companies waited for the end of the high-definition disc format war before shifting more resources to Blu-ray Disc. The format war effectively ended in February.

Namco Bandai was formed in 2005 as a result of a merger between Namco and Bandai.

Source: Gunota Headlines

Wow. I hope there aren't many long term reprocussions, since Namco Bandai is one of my favorite companies as of late for well, pretty much all of their child companies.

ysabel · 08-09-2008, 03:36 AM

Wow, I didn't realise the dvd format war could have had such an effect on video sales/production. I was expecting them to more or less blame torrent sites or the likes where people can get the same thing for free without buying DVDs.

Malificus · 08-09-2008, 01:17 PM

The dvd thing I don't think could have really been avoided. It was probably better to stay out of the format war, then to get in on the wrong format.