Dark Souls II has done alright for publisher Namco Bandai and developer From Software, shifting a chunky 1.2 million copies to masochistic gamers everywhere. That’s great for Namco’s games department… and Namco as a whole, considering the rest of its business didn’t do so great over the last 12 months.
As Gamasutra’s Mark Rose writes, Namco Bandai’s recent profits amounted to $US246.6 million, which while a lot of cash, is actually 22.6 per cent less than what it pulled in the year before. In terms of pure revenue, games contributed $829.1 million (an increase of $US4.8 million) and along with Dark Souls II, was helped by God Eater 2 and Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z, which sold 700,000 and 620,000 copies respectively.
So where’s Namco Bandai taking the hit? Amusement machines, apparently. It’s also predicting a drop of 14 per cent in its games business this year, despite the success of From Software’s punishing RPG. I guess that means there isn’t a third game in the pipeline just yet…
Dark Souls II helps Namco Bandai’s game business stay healthy [Gamasutra]
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4 responses to “Dark Souls II One Of The Few Positives For Namco Bandai’s Bottom Line”
At least they can operate on realistic sales targets rather than aiming for 6 million copies of everything.
Comes back to what Jim Sterling was saying with a realistic budget for a niche title.
Problem is that they tried that for Dark Souls 2, aiming for more copies sold by uping the advertisement budget.
Only if Project Beast (also rumoured to be Demon’s Souls II) is just a rumour.
Interestingly, the last FOUR retail games I’ve bought were all published by Namco Bandai.
(Dark Souls II, Earth Defense Force 2025, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z, Armored Core: Verdict Day)