It was good while it lasted for Konami. The company has just lost the exclusive rights to the Japanese professional baseball player trademark. This meant that other video game makers in Japan had to cap in hand to Konami asking for a sub-license, something they were loath to do. The newly-formed Japanese Professional Baseball Player Association announced that it now owns the rights to all the professional baseball player trademarks (portraits and names) in Japan. In the future any firms wishing to get the rights to the names and likenesses of baseball players will have to contact the association.
"Spikers Battle" for Spring 2001
Sega's R&D subsidiary "Amusement Vision" announced that it will release a new sequel to the "Spike Out" series in Spring 2001. The game will be called "Spikers Battle". Cabinets can be linked allowing up to four players to compete against each other. Each cabinet is for one player and runs on one NAOMI board. The game will also feature four new
characters.
Konami Results: Domestic Market Covers Overseas Losses
On November 21, Konami announced its results for the half-year ending September 30. Sales for the period were JPY74.4 billion (down 5%) and net profit JPY11.6 billion (down 17%). The good news in the announcement was the superb performance of Konami's Creative Products division. This division is responsible for the "Yugio Duel Monsters" card game that is enjoying a prolonged boom in Japan, thanks to tie-ins with TV programs
and boys comics. Sales of the Creative Products division rose 70%.
Furthermore, Konami's share of the domestic consumer games market was the largest at 17.3% (5.5 million games sold), thanks to games such as "Yugio Duel Monsters III" for Color Game Boy , "Powerful Baseball" for Nintendo 64 and "Dance Dance Revolution 3" for PlayStation. On the other hand, the arcade machine division suffered a drop in revenue as the music game boom that Konami pioneered started to slow down and the arcade industry worldwide turned south.
The other dark cloud on the horizon was the poor performance of Konami overseas. In the consumer division, Konami's only big overseas title was "Nightmare Creature 2" based on the license agreement with Universal Interactive Studios. In the USA, sales were JPY1.8 billion and losses JPY2.5 billion. In Europe, sales amounted to JPY2.2 billion and losses
totalled JPYPY200 million. In Asia (excl. Japan), sales were JPY800 million with profit of JPY60 million. Konami clearly had a torrid time overseas in the first half, particularly in the USA.
Konami had been hoping for good holiday sales of upcoming titles based on licenses from the sports channel "ESPN" and from Universal such as "Grinch". However, release dates of these games have been put back from end November to December and there are doubts as to whether Konami will gain maximum benefit from the Christmas sales rush. Konami is forecasting record profits of JPY19 billion for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2001. In the second half of the year, Konami plans to ship 58 consumer game titles, including sports and music titles where Konami is strong, as well as licensed titles such as "Grinch". The Creative Products division will launch a new card game series as well as mobile phone games and character goods. In the arcade products division, hopes rest on "The Shinjuku Cop 24 Hrs", the gun game using sensors. The game was shown at the JAMMA Show.
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John RyanManjiro Works
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