Namco has released its financial figures for the first six months of the current fiscal year today. Compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, sales declined by 2% to 81.9 billion yen ($787.73 million US). Operating profit was down by 44% to reach 4.4 billion yen ($42.32 million US). For the full fiscal year however, Namco still projects a record operating profit of 15.2 billion yen ($146.20 million US) on sales of 188 billion yen ($1.81 billion US). While the arcade division has posted another impressive round of numbers, the home game division has been struggling. While Soul Calibur II has remained popular in North America, the Monolith Soft-developed Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Boese has only sold 280,000 copies in Japan, compared to previous estimates speaking of 450,000 copies. During today's press conference, president Kyuushirou Takagi mentioned that Namco will ship 700,000 copies of Tales of Rebirth, its third major RPG release this year following Xenosaga Episode II and the PlayStation 2 version of Tales of Symphonia. The first PlayStation 2 installment of the Tales series, Tales of Destiny 2 sold 850,000 copies in Japan two years ago.

Tales of Rebirth will be available in Japan on December 16th for 6,800 yen ($65.40 US).

• Official Namco Website