Bandai Namco announced its financial results today for the fiscal year that ended on March 31st 2008. Compared to the previous fiscal year, group sales were up slightly, totaling 460.4 billion yen ($4.43 billion USD). Thanks in no small part to the sale of company-owned property in the center of Tokyo, net profit increased by 8.4 billion yen ($80.75 million USD) to reach 32.6 billion yen ($313.40 million USD). For the current fiscal year ending on March 31st 2009, management is projecting a net profit of 22.5 billion yen (216.30 million USD) on sales of 470 billion yen ($4.52 billion USD).

Specifically, the company plans to reduce the number of games it releases every year in order to improve its profitability. Two years ago, the company published 109 titles. During the current fiscal year only 84 titles are scheduled to be released under the Bandai Namco label. Similar to its competition at home and abroad, Bandai Namco also aims to employ a multiplatform strategy with a strong emphasis on global distribution and user tastes.

Among the company's major titles for the current fiscal year are two Tales games, Tales of Vesperia for Xbox 360 and an untitled DS-based installment. Bandai Namco expects the former to sell 500,000 copies across Japan, North America and Pacific Asia, while the latter is projected to sell 400,000 copies in Japan and other Asia territories. Meanwhile, Super Robot Taisen Z for PlayStation 2 is expected to sell 500,000 copies in Japan. The upcoming PlayStation Portable remake of Super Robot Taisen A is not included in the list.

According to Japanese websites, the report in its initial form listed both, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as Tales of Vesperia's target platforms. The reference to PlayStation 3 has since been removed from the document, though.

• Geemu no Jouhou! Geemu no Hanashi