Sony Corp, Sega Corp and other Japanese video-game makers are optimistic that the US war against terrorism won't hurt their sales and may even help, as consumers stay home more and look to entertain themselves.
"Sales of home entertainment are likely to grow as people tend not to go out as often as they did," Sega President Hideki Sato told Bloomberg News after an industry trade show Friday in Tokyo. "It might not be true that the slowdown in the [US] economy will hit home entertainment sales."
While there were worries that Sept. 11's terrorist attacks will push the already slowing US economy into recession, Sony, Sega and Microsoft Corp have left unchanged their game-software shipment and profit targets.
The US, the largest market with more than a 30 percent share in the US$20 billion global video-game industry, is headed into a holiday shopping season that accounts for more than a third of annual sales for game makers. Shares of Sega, Capcom Corp, Konami Corp and Namco Co rebounded to pre-attack levels on expectations US sales will be strong in the weeks ahead.
Namco, creator of Pac-Man, will release its Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies fighter-flight simulation game next week in the US, as scheduled. Konami will release its Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty next month in the US, as scheduled, without images of the World Trade Center that it removed after the New York landmark was destroyed by terrorists.
Shares of game software developers were mixed yesterday. Sony shares fell 4.2 percent. Shares of Sega shares dipped 0.8 percent, while Capcom shares rose 5.4 percent. Konami shares gained 1.3 percent.
Nintendo, the second-largest video-game maker after Sony, maintained the shipment target for its GameCube console that will debut in the US on Nov. 18, at 700,000 on the release day.
"We expect no impact on our business," said Yasuhiro Minagawa, a Nintendo spokesman. "People tend to move to entertainment in-house."
The Kyoto-based company plans to sell 400,000 more GameCubes by the end of this year.
People are canceling their air travel plans in the US toward the Christmas season, said Minagawa.
Sony Chief Executive Nobuyuki Idei earlier this month said the largest video-game maker is on course to meet its original target of shipping 20 million PlayStation2 game systems in its fiscal year that began April 1. Sony expects its video-game business to stay on course, even after cutting its overall profit forecast for its current business year by 89 percent.
Makoto Sakuma, who oversees ?100 billion in Japanese equities at Asahi Life Asset Management Co, said he reduced his Sony holdings earlier this year and doesn't expect the company's game business to meet projections.
"I'm not optimistic about the game industry, as I don't think it can escape the impact of waning consumer confidence in the US," Sakuma said.
Sales of video-game systems and software fell 20 percent from a year earlier in the week ended Sept. 15, ConsoleWire.com's Web site reported, citing market research company NPD Group Inc. More recent reports said sales rose 6 percent and 13 percent, respectively, in the weeks ended Sept. 22 and Sept. 29.
Officials at Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo Co, the second-largest video-game maker, couldn't be reached for comment on their sales outlook.
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