Konami has released a revised financial forecast for the financial year ending March 2023 to its shareholders. The document revealed that Konami expects to have an operating profit of just over half of what was originally forecasted.
Konami predicted in May 2022 that the company would have an operating profit of 76,500 billion yen ($600 million~) but has revised its forecast to say the company expects to now make 42,500 billion yen ($330 million~) in operating profit for the fiscal year. This is a 44.4% reduction in forecasted operating profit.
Konami did not provide robust reasoning for the reduction, simply saying it is due to “factors including revision of the profit plan for some titles in the Digital Entertainment business.”
The Japanese entertainment company has provided very sparse offerings this year. Konami’s biggest release this year was eFootball 2023, the rebranded Pro Evolution Soccer. The latest instalment of Konami’s football simulation game hasn’t experienced significant success. When compared to the game’s biggest competitor FIFA 23, it’s not much of a contest. If you compare the two games on their active player bases, FIFA has ten times more players than eFootball on Steam.
Konami is in the midst of its big Silent Hill revitalization project, with three major Silent Hill titles coming in the near future. However, none of these titles has a firm release date yet.
Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake is likely the title that has garnered the most attention thus far. The Polish development team is best known for their own series Layers of Fear and has promised fans of Silent Hill 2 that they’ll be taking a “safe approach” with any changes made to the original.
The next mainline instalment of the franchise has also been announced. Silent Hill f is being developed by Taiwanese outfit NeoBards Entertainment which previously worked on Resident Evil Resistance, the online component of the Resident Evil 3 remake. The game is being written by Ryukishi 07, author of the When They Cry visual novel series.
Lastly, we have Silent Hill: Townfall which is being developed by Scottish developer No Code, the studio behind Stories Untold. Annapurna Interactive will be co-producing the game which is intended to launch a Silent Hill spin-off anthology series.
Konami may not be having the best financial year, but perhaps its fortunes are looking up with the wealth of Silent Hill instalments on the way.