Kadokawa, the parent company of Elden Ring developer From Software, has released its financial results for the 2023-24 fiscal year, and sales and profits are both down in the gaming sphere.
Since Kadokawa is a massive corporation, it's got its fingers in a lot of pies, and gaming is just one of them; other sectors in which Kadokawa is involved include animation and film, education, and publication, to name but a few.
In the world of gaming, however, Kadokawa's operating profit is down 44.1% compared to last year, with the company raking in 7.95 billion yen in operating profit this year (compared to 14.22 billion last year).
Kadokawa says that its operating profit for gaming declined across the fiscal year "due to lower sales", but that one particular game managed to exceed expectations.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, a From Software-developed game, contributed "more greatly than expected in the domestic market", according to Kadokawa, meaning it sold well in the company's home country of Japan.
That's despite the fact that Armored Core 6 publisher Bandai Namco reported late last year that the game had been unable to keep up with the sales of Elden Ring, although that's hardly a fair comparison given the incredible performance of the latter.
Kadokawa also reports that Spike Chunsoft's sales increased throughout the year, largely due to the release of its games Master Detective Archives: Rain Code and Shiren the Wanderer 6: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island.
It's also worth noting that, according to an additional Kadokawa financial document, From Software employees are being given stock options that will yield rewards over the next four years.
It's likely this is being done so as to keep the team that made Elden Ring together; Kadokawa will hardly want to lose its star squad.
Indeed, this has been factored into Kadokawa's predictions for the next fiscal year; the company says it expects profits to decline due to the aforementioned stock option expenses, even with Elden Ring DLC on the horizon.
You can check out Kadokawa's full financial rundown, which also includes a breakdown of financials for other areas in the conglomerate, right here if you wish.
