Konami budgets for 14 new games by 2015

Konami is budgeting for the development of seven major console titles this year, and expects to see the same number of titles released by the third quarter of 2015, it announced today during its financial briefing reported on by analyst David Gibson.

The company released its consolidated fiscal results today for the nine months ending Dec. 31, 2013, confirming its digital entertainment sales over this period was split between consumer games and social networking titles by 25 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

According to the game company, titles including Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 and various app content for mobile devices that distributed overseas, including Star Wars: Force Collection, saw a steady growth in users and sales. Compared to the same period last year however, digital entertainment saw a drop by 11.1 percent from 80.6 billion yen to 70.6 billion yen.

"As for computer and video games," Konami states in its report, "we will focus our efforts on continued global development utilizing the production know-how of the Konami Group, while also continuing the production of content for selected 9 existing titles, and continue to strive towards producing hit titles by leveraging existing content.

"Based on this strategy, we plan to release the latest title in the Metal Gear series, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, worldwide with multiple platforms including the next-generation consoles, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. In addition, we intend to release new games in the popular series Professional Baseball Spirits 2014 and New Loveplus Plus."

Konami-developed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 and Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes are slated for a 2014 launch.