Investor Relations

I will next break our results down by segment. The Digital Entertainment segment booked net sales of ¥82.8 billion (-19.3 billion) and operating income of ¥13.0 billion (-¥13.5 billion). In HD Games, we launched “OCTOPATH TRAVELER,” a brand new IP, and “SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER,” the final chapter of the rebooted TOMB RAIDER trilogy. The MMO sub-segment saw both net sales and operating income decline versus the previous year, when the latest “FINAL FANTASY XIV” expansion pack was launched. In the Games for Smart Devices/PC Browsers sub-segment, many of the titles launched in FY2018/3 underperformed versus our expectations, so we were unable to add to sales generated by our earlier titles. This and a decline in licensing income resulted in a decline in both net sales and operating income. The Amusement segment booked net sales of ¥20.5 billion (-¥600 million) and operating income of ¥700 million (-¥1.7 billion). While arcade operations were solid, no new machines were launched, resulting in lower net sales and operating income YoY. In the Publication segment, sales of printed comic books declined YoY. However, sales of digital publications grew, resulting in YoY growth in both net sales and operating income. Net sales and operating income were also both down YoY in the Merchandising segment, which had benefitted a year earlier from the release of products such as merchandise based on characters in our IP portfolio. This concludes my overview of our 1H FY2019/3 results.