Konami today announced its financial results for the third quarter of the current fiscal year 2004/2005. For the first nine months, Japan's largest third party publisher reports a net profit of 10 billion yen ($97.07 million US) on sales of 195.5 billion yen ($1.9 billion US). While those numbers are lower than the ones Konami posted during the same period of the previous fiscal year, the company still remains optimistic as far as its outlook for the full fiscal year is concerned. According to the figures released today, Konami estimates sales of 275 billion yen ($2.67 billion US) and a net profit of 11 billion yen ($106.78 million US) for the 12 month period ending on March 31st.

In addition, to raw numbers, Konami also outlined its strategy for the calendar year 2005. From a business stand point, the most significant issue will be the re-integration of the four publically listed subsidiaries Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Konami Computer Entertainment Studio and Konami Online into the parent company. On the game front, the company is readying its PC-based online title Yu-Gi-Oh Online for a spring 2005 release in Japan. So far, Konami has sold 19 million units of software and now projects worldwide sales to reach 24.30 million units for the full fiscal year. For reference, during fiscal year 2003/2004, Konami sold 24.70 million copies.