Konami Marks New Record With 70% Profit Increase Driven by Games

Konami has announced its financial results for the 2023-24 fiscal year, and it looks like it’s been a year of record profits for the Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill publisher.

Per Konami’s official statement, the company raked in a 69.6% profit increase over the previous year, bringing in 59.2 billion yen in profits and 360.3 billion in overall revenue (the latter representing a 14.6% increase over last year).

According to Konami’s report, this rise was driven in large part by “record highs in the Digital Entertainment business”, i.e. PC, console, and mobile games, plus ancillary titles.

In the Digital Entertainment sector in particular, Konami reports revenues of 249.1 billion yen, representing a 16.7% increase on last year’s total.

Specifically, Konami says the launches of major projects like Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 and Silent Hill: The Short Message have contributed to its success (although it’s worth noting that The Short Message is a free-to-play game).

Konami also points to eFootball 2024, which was released as a major update to the ongoing eFootball live-service project back in September. At least it’s doing better than eFootball 2022, right?

Anime tie-in game Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel has also been received well, racking up 60 million downloads to date, according to Konami. Maybe all of this combined will finally convince the company to release another Castlevania game. We can but hope.

Konami also saw major leaps forward in the Amusement space this year, with a jump in revenue of 35.3% over last year (26.4 billion yen compared to 19.5 billion in 2023).

As you’ve probably guessed, “amusement” refers to pachislot and pachinko games, but it also encapsulates arcade games and even esports. 

The year has been rosy enough that Konami is predicting another increase in revenue for next year, forecasting a revenue figure of 380 billion yen and a further profit increase, albeit a rather modest one at 2.2%.

It’s also been a good enough year that Konami was able to raise salaries for its Japanese employees for the third year in a row. It’s nice to see that in an industry that might look to some like it’s losing its empathy for its workers.

Konami’s upcoming slate for the year includes the incoming Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, as well as Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake, both of which are currently scheduled for a 2024 release. Stay tuned for more on those and all other things Konami.