Namco Bandai suffered a loss of 11.7 billion yen (£81.04m / $129.05m) during the nine months ended December 31, compared to a 9.02 billion yen (£62.5m / $99.5m) profit for the same period last year.
Net sales declined 10.4 per cent to 282 billion yen (£1.95b / $3.11b), while operating income plummeted 76.3 per cent to 4.7 billion yen (£32.55m / $51.84m).
“The Bandai Namco group generally faced an uphill battle in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 2010, during which market conditions for the group remained severe, despite steady results achieved in sales of long-established character toys in the Toys and Hobby business and arcade game machines in the Game Contents business,” the firm said.
“In the Game Contents business in particular, sales fell below projections given weak market conditions for most of major home game software titles except Tekken 6, the largest title released in the current fiscal year, leading to weak results for the segment.”
The company now expects to report a full year loss of 31 billion yen (£214.7m / $341.93m) compared to a previously forecast profit of 8.5 billion yen (£58.9m / $93.8m). Its sales projection was also lowered, from 400 billion yen (£2.77b / $4.4b) to 380 billion yen (£2.6bn / $4.2b).
Citing "present conditions that include the current severe business climate and declining profitability", Namco Bandai today also announced plans to implement a ““group restart plan” that will lead to the loss of around 630 staff, representing approximately ten per cent of its workforce.