Namco has posted its financial results for the fiscal year 2003/2004. The company reported sales of 172.59 billion yen ($1.53 billion US) and a net profit of 7.55 billion yen ($66.79 million US). Its most popular title during the 12 months ending on March 31st was the multiplatform fighting game Soul Calibur II. With its fourth installment, the Taiko no Tatsujin series has reached sales of two million copies. Sales of the two GameCube RPGs, Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos: Owaranai Tsubasa to Ushinawareta Umi, among others, however did not live up to expectations.

For the current fiscal year ending ending on March 31st 2005, Namco predicts sales of 188 billion yen ($1.66 billion US) and a net profit of 8.5 billion yen ($75.19 million US). In order to achieve these projections the company plans to release 103 titles (compared to 53 titles during the previous fiscal year) and ship 18.80 million copies of software (compared to 16 million copies during the 12 months which ended on March 31st). Among those titles will also be launch titles for both Sony Computer Entertainment's PSP and the Nintendo DS. The two handhelds will be available in Japan in late 2004. At last week's E3, Namco demonstrated an enhanced version of Tales of Eternia for PSP.

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