Kadokawa FY3/2023 Q4 Earnings release - Game Segment Cumulative Net Sales ¥30,351M (+55.72% YoY), Operating Profit ¥14,218M (+173.42% YoY): Elden Ring

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(They publish Dark Souls)
Link to slides: https://ssl4.eir-parts.net/doc/9468/ir_material_for_fiscal_ym7/134973/00.pdf

Link to 3rd Quarter FY3/2023 thread: https://www.installbaseforum.com/forums/threads/kadokawa-fy3-2023-q3-earnings-release-game-segment-cumulative-net-sales-¥23-416m-206-4-yoy-operating-profit-¥9-071m-2134-2-yoy-elden-ring.1351/

Link to 2nd Quarter FY3/2023 thread: https://www.installbaseforum.com/forums/threads/kadokawa-fy3-23-q2-earnings-release-game-segment-cumulative-net-sales-¥17-137m-255-1-yoy-operating-profit-¥7-592m-1118-6-yoy-elden-ring.1170/

Link to 1st Quarter FY3/2023 thread: https://www.installbaseforum.com/forums/threads/kadokawa-fy3-23-q1-earnings-release-game-segment-net-sales-¥12-582m-570-9-yoy-operating-profit-¥6-569m-infinity-yoy-driven-by-elden-ring.954/

Cumulative Net Sales ¥30,351M (+55.72% YoY)

Cumulative Operating Profit ¥14,218M (+173.42% YoY)

Q4 Net Sales ¥6,934M (-41.47% YoY)

Q4 Operating Income ¥5,147M (+7.36% YoY)

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Love to see the Elden Ring praise. The "record breaking blockbuster." Congrats to From.

Also, to the surprise of no one, they're expecting Armored Core VI to expand the franchise's audience.
 
The Eminence in Shadow's overperformance is quite interesting. Outside the shonen mainstays (One Piece and Dragon Ball), anime mobile games tend not to stick around that well but, Eminence has been appears high in the App Store rankings quite regularly. Only Blue Lock has been consistently better and that series was one of the biggest ones last year whereas Eminence doesn't seem to have ranked for the manga.
 
Looks like Elden Ring sales hit their peak a while ago, still massive for BN/From/Kadokawa

I wonder if it can get to 30m?
It did around 500k in it's last month this FY, 20m it's first full year and it still has a major DLC ahead for it. 30m is in the bag, the stretch will be 40m.
 
It did around 500k in it's last month this FY, 20m it's first full year and it still has a major DLC ahead for it. 30m is in the bag, the stretch will be 40m.
For sure the Soul Train has already been cryptically laughing all the way to the bank. However there's still plenty of more work to be done with post-launch support to keep the Miyazaki Money Show on the Road. Who knows they might even improve technical performance...but if you believe that, maybe you're an even bigger fool that I thought...hah... *press x* ...hehehe.
We achieved the numerical targets laid out in the current Mid-term Plan in the first fiscal year due to the huge success of ELDEN RING.
◼ We are examining new business objectives under the growth strategy. We plan to announce a new mid-term plan when we announce results for the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024.
  • - Achieving sustainable expansion in our key segments, particularly publication and animation
  • - Aiming to stabilize the performance in the game business, where results vary significantly, chiefly by extending the life of popular IP and expanding it to mobile games, and to achieve growth in the medium to long term
- Discontinuing unprofitable businesses and allocating resources to growth fields

Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2023 Financial Results May 11, 2023, page 4
Elden Ring equipped with Too High Poise Break, causing Mid-Term Plan Stagger. Kadokawa set to publish a new Strategy with the First Half March 2024 report late October / early November. Company is keen to point out that even if the Game Segment is down year-on-year, the rest of the company is forecasting an increase in sales & operating profit. (edit: typos)
  • Despite a decrease in sales and profit on the whole due to a reactionary fall in the sales of ELDEN RING, the total of the segments excluding the game segment are expected to post an increase in sales and profit.
    (net sales: +2.1%, operating profit: +11.8%)
Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2023 Financial Results May 11, 2023, page 7
The publication business is also doing well, however its notable how as with videogames the growth is coming from international markets, offsetting the decline within Japan itself.
'As for the sales of paper-based books and magazines, sales continued to grow in overseas business, particularly in North America and Asia, reflecting the popularity of Japanese IP. Domestically, the impact of the contracting market overall was significant, leading to reduced sales, despite an increase in the number of new publications and continual improvements to return rates.'

Summary of Consolidated Financial Results for the Year Ended March 31, 2023, page 2
In other words, there's a convergence of factors, beyond the huge success of Elden Ring, that has lead the entire company towards wanting to direct its efforts towards becoming a truly global multi-media company, which ties into the structural changes being proposed at the very top. While I understand the focus on the Financial Year Report & its forecast for the year ahead, worth putting into broader context of proposing structural changes to the Board of Directors on the same day, ahead of its 9th Annual General Shareholders Meeting June 22, 2023.
This is based on the previously announced IR news titled “Future Initiatives in Response to the Recommendations for Improvement from the Corporate Governance Inspection Committee” , which was resolved at the meeting of the Board of Directors on February 2, 2023, to the effect that the Company will transition to a Company with Nominating Committee, etc. from the current structure of a company with an Audit & Supervisory Committee, conditional upon the approval of the relevant proposal at the said general shareholders meeting. Details are as follows.
The Company has elected candidates from the aspects of both the promotion of Global Media Mix with Technology, which is the basic policy for the current Mid-term Plan, and the reinforcement of business supervision, including the prevention of corporate corruption.

Notice Regarding Election of Candidates for Directors After Transition to a Company with Nominating Committee, etc. May 11, 2023
Some heavyweight names being lined up to become Outside Directors. Speaking of historic votes, Patches, The New True Chairman needs your support in the newly improved OP (aka tidied up so its easier to parse, with background detail on the corruption investigation & the company's own internal report available). But which Patches is the First Among Equals?

Hiring more staff at FROM SOFTWARE is a welcome development, hopefully with an emphasis on a more balanced staff as its ENVIRONMENT is 86% men, 14% women for that romantic game Miyazaki hinted about wanting to make someday. Currently they're only at stage 2 of 6 for the Engineer & Planning Job Briefing Sessions as of 24th April & 8th May respectively. As such it has yet to update the company profile (349 staff as of May 2022). Aside from mid-career & English RECRUITING INFORMATION they have details on salaries for new graduates.
Monthly salary 260,000 yen (including flat housing allowance and fixed overtime)
Housing allowance is 30,000 yen and fixed overtime allowance is 11,000 yen (for 7.5 hours). Overtime in excess of the fixed amount will be paid additionally.
Commuting allowance (up to a maximum), short-distance allowance, or work-from-home allowance (based on company rules).
Work-from-home and short-distance allowances are not applicable during the probationary period.
Same amount for probationary period/university, junior college, and technical college graduates, and all job categories.

FROM SOFTWARE Recruiting Site - New Graduates - Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
While not updated to account for the latest Dark Souls franchise sales (31 million rather than the 33.4 million as of March 2022, page 4) or the explosive sales of Elden Ring this past year, its worth pointing out that under ENVIRONMENT you can see Net Sales 2017 - 2021 (億円, billion yen). While it doesn't clarify what these represent - Sales of “SEKIRO” exceeded forecast. (page 6)
2017: 38 億円
2018: 37 億円
2019: 65 億円
2020: 56 億円
2021: 61 億円​

[NSW] Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE <ADV> (Too Kyo Games/Spike Chunsoft) {2023.06.30}
[NSW] Natsu-Mon! 20th Century Summer Vacation (Millennium Kitchen/Toybox Inc/Spike Chunsoft) {2023.07.28}
[PS4/PS5/XB1/XBS/Steam] ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON <ACT> (FROM SOFTWARE) {2023.08.25}​
Even without the Elden Ring Overload, Kadokawa Nuclear Power Station generating some real strong Game Segment Energy in the second quarter, making Hot Hay by scoring a hat-trick from your Summer pay with a Too Kyo Starter, a Millennium Kitchen filled lunch Toybox before the whole Mecha Merc family gather round the Fires of Rubicon. Let the Last Cinders Burn Bright.
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Kotobukiya announced its planning a Armored Core 6 New Plastic Model Kit, no details just yet but it has a new Armored Core model kit out next month, plus a variety of ACV ones too.
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The OP had the wrong link for the slides when I thought it was correct (next time I should check the link), it should be showing the slides for FY3/2023 Q4 now.
 
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