SpaceDrake
Member
From Andriasang, lock if a duplicate thread.
Tecmo-Koei's given their first investor briefing since acquiring Gust, and they've gone ahead and said just why they did that:
http://andriasang.com/con0zc/tecmo_koei_earnings_slides/
Now, compared to a lot of companies, those are somewhat smallish numbers - at current exchange rates that's about $6 million in operating profit on $15 million-ish in sales.
But that kind of profit margin is absolutely bonkers, no matter what the volume is. Clearly keeping things lean (the core Gust development staff is only around 15 to 20 people) and working on constantly iterating and improving product has paid off for Gust in spades.
For those who need a reminder, Gust is the company responsible for the Atelier and Ar Tonelico series of games; their third Playstation 3 Atelier offering is coming out in America in a few weeks.
For now it sounds like T-K will just let Gust keep doin' their thing, since messing with them would probably screw up their profit margins. They have another PS3 Atelier project landing this June, and then nothing announced after that (though Gust traditionally plays releases close to the chest, so anything currently in the works won't be revealed for a while).
In other T-K news, there'll be more Dead or Alive (surprise), they're keen on more teamups like Pokemon x Nobunaga, and apparently their download business is doing really well for itself. Also they more or less confirm they'll be releasing WiiU software. Ninja Gaiden is conspicuously subdued aside from a mention on one slide. :x
Still, great news for Gust, and hopefully T-K lets them continue to do their own thing and doesn't try to flog their brands too hard.
As an aside: as an old Gust hand I can't help but notice the talk of "franchises", like they're talking about more than just Atelier or Surge Concerto (and Namco likely owns the ArTon IP in part, so I doubt we'll see any more use of that name). I actually wonder if T-K wants to reach into the back-catalog and dust off a few of Gust's "experimental era" IPs, see if they'll do better this time around? It might be cool to see another shot taken at Noir Yeux Noire (黒い瞳のノア or Robin Lloyd (ロビン・ロイドの冒険.
Tecmo-Koei's given their first investor briefing since acquiring Gust, and they've gone ahead and said just why they did that:
http://andriasang.com/con0zc/tecmo_koei_earnings_slides/
Surge Concerto ciel nosurge represents Gust's first game as a Tecmo Koei subsidiary. It was briefly mentioned in Tecmo Koei's earnings briefing yesterday, with the company [saying] that it's performing well through repeat orders.
Perhaps more important than actual sales figures, the company said that the game is forming a new user group that differs from Tecmo Koei's traditional fan-base.
Gust has a high 35% profit margin, Tecmo Koei revealed during the briefing. Recent figures include 486 million yen operating profit on 1,251 million yen sales.
Now, compared to a lot of companies, those are somewhat smallish numbers - at current exchange rates that's about $6 million in operating profit on $15 million-ish in sales.
But that kind of profit margin is absolutely bonkers, no matter what the volume is. Clearly keeping things lean (the core Gust development staff is only around 15 to 20 people) and working on constantly iterating and improving product has paid off for Gust in spades.
For those who need a reminder, Gust is the company responsible for the Atelier and Ar Tonelico series of games; their third Playstation 3 Atelier offering is coming out in America in a few weeks.
For now it sounds like T-K will just let Gust keep doin' their thing, since messing with them would probably screw up their profit margins. They have another PS3 Atelier project landing this June, and then nothing announced after that (though Gust traditionally plays releases close to the chest, so anything currently in the works won't be revealed for a while).
In other T-K news, there'll be more Dead or Alive (surprise), they're keen on more teamups like Pokemon x Nobunaga, and apparently their download business is doing really well for itself. Also they more or less confirm they'll be releasing WiiU software. Ninja Gaiden is conspicuously subdued aside from a mention on one slide. :x
Still, great news for Gust, and hopefully T-K lets them continue to do their own thing and doesn't try to flog their brands too hard.
As an aside: as an old Gust hand I can't help but notice the talk of "franchises", like they're talking about more than just Atelier or Surge Concerto (and Namco likely owns the ArTon IP in part, so I doubt we'll see any more use of that name). I actually wonder if T-K wants to reach into the back-catalog and dust off a few of Gust's "experimental era" IPs, see if they'll do better this time around? It might be cool to see another shot taken at Noir Yeux Noire (黒い瞳のノア or Robin Lloyd (ロビン・ロイドの冒険.