Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes may have felt like it was only a demo, but selling it for $30 certainly helped publisher Konami’s bottom line — especially on PlayStation 4.
Konami reported the results of its first quarter of fiscal 2015 today, and it revealed that its tactical-espionage game performed three times better on PlayStation 4 than on the Xbox One. The game debuted March 18 and quickly drew criticism for its short length and steep price, but fans of the series, which has long had a strong association with the PlayStation brand, still bought it. That ended up having a positive effect on Konami’s financial performance.
Sales at the Japanese game maker were up 6.6 percent to $472.6 million. That helped the company reach a net income of $13.2 million, which is up 45.6 percent year-over-year.
Ground Zeroes didn’t just do well on PS4; that version accounted for more than 12 percent of all of Konami’s PC and console games sold last quarter. The Xbox One release made up 4 percent of the company’s total software sales. The company sold 570,000 copies of Metal Gear games throughout the three-month period.
Looking forward, Konami is anticipating that it will generate sales of $2.14 billion throughout fiscal 2015. That would represent growth of 1.1 percent compared to fiscal 2014.
While Metal Gear is performing well, Konami’s slate of PC and console games for the rest of fiscal 2015 probably won’t contribute as much to its bottom line. Instead, the company will rely on its popular pachinko machines in Japan, which saw a 400 percent resurgence in sales last quarter. The publisher will also continue to update and introduce smartphone games. Konami notes that its network of mobile players is growing thanks to iOS and Android releases like the puzzler Dragon Collection and Professional Baseball Dream Nine.
