Konami Corp. said Wednesday it returned to profitability in fiscal 2003 on strong overseas sales of soccer video games.
Net profit was 20.1 billion yen, compared with a net loss of 28.52 billion yen a year earlier. Revenue gained 8 percent to 273.41 billion yen.
The turnaround also was helped by an absence of extraordinary losses booked the previous year, when the company took a 47.6 billion yen charge to write down goodwill at its sports club business.
It shipped a record 24.7 million video games in fiscal 2003, up 4 percent.
"Pro Evolution Soccer 3" for Sony's PlayStation 2 and other soccer titles sold 2.31 million units in Europe.
The "Yu-Gi-Oh!" series also enjoyed strong video game and trading card sales worldwide, it said.
It said its casino business turned its first-ever profit, with shipments of slot machines in the U.S. more than doubling to 45 million units during the year. Revenue from the division grew to 11 billion yen from 8.2 billion yen a year earlier.
Konami, which also sells casino machines in Australia, said it aims to achieve between 15 percent and 20 percent market share in the U.S., up from around 5 percent.