Konami Group - Company History

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Financial history 1992–2026 — revenue, cost structure, balance sheet, cash flow and key ratios, year by year →

Founded 1969
Founder Kozuki Kagemasa
Founding location 大阪府
Core business at founding Jukebox repair and rental
Listed 1984
President Higashio Kimihiko President since 2020 (age 66, as of 2026)
Current priority New product development · Overseas expansion Operating the established series and expanding gaming in North America
Founding
In March 1969 Kozuki Kagemasa (上月景正) started a jukebox repair and rental business in Osaka. In March 1973 he set up Konami Industry Co., Ltd. and moved across into manufacturing amusement machines, and when Scramble and Frogger landed in North America in 1981 the company turned into an export-oriented developer. It placed local companies in the United States in 1982 and in Britain and Germany in 1984, and in October of that year it listed on the new second section of the Osaka Securities Exchange. In 1985 it entered development of software for the Family Computer and sent out Gradius, Castlevania and Contra. The electronics skills the repair trade had given it were loaded in turn onto manufacturing, onto exporting and onto software development, and the shape of the business changed with each move.
The Decision
Rather than put out sequels, Konami has carried the same works across into a form that keeps being paid for. In the first half of the 2010s it moved the shape of its earnings from outright home console sales to free-to-play mobile games paid for by items. Kozuki Takuya (上月拓也) became president in June 2012 and put existing series such as Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu and Yu-Gi-Oh! onto mobile. Consolidated revenue shrank from $2.5B (¥297bn) in FY07 to $2.2B (¥218bn) in FY13, but segment profit in the Digital Entertainment business grew 2.6-fold, from $159.7M (¥17bn) in FY14 to $396.7M (¥44bn) in FY18. In 2015 Kojima Hideo (小島秀夫), who had led Metal Gear, left the structure together with Kojima Productions (小島プロダクション), the in-house studio, and the development set-up for large titles was dissolved. Moving resources onto products that keep being paid for, even at the cost of revenue, is what produced an earnings structure in which revenue falls and profit rises.
Today
Most of the profit is generated by a handful of series that have run for a quarter of a century. In the year to March 2026 consolidated revenue was $3.1B (¥494bn), operating profit $859.3M (¥136bn) and net profit $632.3M (¥100bn), all records. In the preceding year to March 2025, Digital Entertainment accounted for $2.0B (¥305bn) of segment revenue, 72 per cent of the total, followed by Sports at $322.1M (¥48bn), Gaming & Systems at $285.3M (¥43bn) and Amusement at $174.4M (¥26bn); of business profit of $765.1M (¥115bn), Digital Entertainment generated $660.9M (¥99bn). The content is Yu-Gi-Oh!, Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu and eFootball, and Yu-Gi-Oh! began with the release of a paper trading card game in February 1999. A cycle in which the operating revenue of the established series pays for the development of new titles is what keeps all four businesses in profit.
Competition
On home consoles Konami follows other companies' standards; in arcades and casinos it builds its own cabinets. In 1983 Nintendo created the structure of a cheap console with software sold separately, and from 1985 Konami turned to supplying software for it. Its position of putting out products on machines made by Nintendo or Sony has not changed since. Among the same third-party publishers, Capcom turned in 2017 to its in-house RE ENGINE and to digital distribution, cutting the development cost of large titles and raising the margin on outright sales. What Konami chose instead was operated series and gaming machines for casinos. In the latter, licence regulation works as a barrier to entry, and once a share has been taken it is hard for a competitor to move in. Keeping its distance from the development race over large titles is what left Konami two steady sources of earnings — the operation of its series, and a regulated market.

Timeline

1969–2006From the arcade to the living room: opening world markets with intellectual property

  1. 1969Kozuki Kagemasa starts a jukebox repair and rental business in Osaka
  2. 1973Konami Industry Co., Ltd. established; amusement machine manufacture begins
  3. 1978Full entry into the arcade game market
  4. 1981Scramble and Frogger become hits in North America
  5. 1982Konami of America established in the United States
  6. 1984Konami Ltd established in Britain; Konami GmbH in Germany
  7. 1984Listed on the new second section of the Osaka Securities Exchange
  8. 1985Yie Ar Kung-Fu, the first Famicom title, released
  9. 1988Designated to the first sections of the Tokyo and Osaka exchanges
  10. 1991Renamed Konami
  11. 1993Head office moved from Osaka to Minato-ku, Tokyo
  12. 1995Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu series launched on PlayStation
  13. 1997Konami Gaming, Inc. established in Las Vegas
  14. 1998Metal Gear Solid released on PlayStation; over 7m copies sold worldwide
  15. 1999Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game Duel Monsters Vol.1 released
  16. 1999Listed on the London Stock Exchange
  17. 2001Fitness operator People acquired by friendly tender offer; stake taken in Hudson
  18. 2002Listed on the New York Stock Exchange
  19. 2005New gaming-machine building completed in Las Vegas
  20. 2006Digital Entertainment split off; Konami becomes a pure holding company

2007–2020The mobile shift: turning the profit structure and recasting the axis of earnings

  1. 2007Head office moved to Tokyo Midtown
  2. 2012Hudson absorbed by merger into Konami Digital Entertainment
  3. 2012Kozuki Takuya becomes president and representative director
  4. 2013Mobile Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu begins service
  5. 2013Land acquired in Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
  6. 2015Reorganisation into a development-headquarters structure announced
  7. 2015Kojima Hideo leaves the new structure
  8. 2015Second Las Vegas plant completed, raising gaming capacity
  9. 2015Renamed Konami Holdings
  10. 2019Konami Creative Center Ginza goes into operation
  11. 2020esports Ginza studio begins operating as an esports facility
  12. 2020eBASEBALL Professional League finals held jointly with NPB
  13. 2020Higashio Kimihiko becomes president and representative director

2021–2025Digital Entertainment carries the profit, and the records fall

  1. 2021Digital Entertainment posts record revenue and business profit; Gaming returns to profit
  2. 2022Konami Tokyo Studio opens in GINZA SIX
  3. 2022Renamed Konami Group
  4. 2022Construction begins on Konami Creative Front Tokyo Bay in Ariake
  5. 2023Konami Osaka Studio opens in Umeda, Osaka
  6. 2024FY23 consolidated revenue ¥360.3bn, net profit ¥59.1bn
  7. 2025FY24 consolidated revenue ¥421.6bn and net profit ¥74.6bn — a record
  8. 2025Konami Arcade Games established to reorganise the amusement business

Founding Story

1969–2006From the arcade to the living room: opening world markets with intellectual property

Konami spent its first three and a half decades moving between businesses without ever letting go of the engineering underneath them: jukebox repair became amusement machines, amusement machines became arcade hits in North America, and arcade development became a catalogue of console franchises. Revenue climbed from $177.6M (¥23bn) at the start of the 1990s to $2.3B (¥262bn) by the year the company split itself into a holding structure — and by then it was also carrying fitness clubs and casino cabinets, with the question of which of the three would actually pay still open.

A games maker born out of a jukebox repair shop

In March 1969 Kozuki Kagemasa (上月景正) started a jukebox repair and rental business in Osaka[1]. Drawing on the electronics skills the repair trade had given him, he established Konami Industry Co., Ltd. in 1973 and began manufacturing amusement machines[2]. From the late 1970s the company moved into arcade game development, and in 1981 Scramble and Frogger became hits in the North American market[3], winning Konami an international name as an arcade game maker. In 1982 it set up the US subsidiary Konami of America[4], and in 1984 it placed bases in Britain and Germany as well[5], giving itself a sales organisation abroad. A little over a decade after its founding it had built a footing in the North American market, and it had turned from a domestic maker of amusement machines into an export-oriented development company.

In 1984 Konami listed on the new second section of the Osaka Securities Exchange[6], and in 1988 it was designated to the first sections of both the Tokyo and Osaka Securities Exchanges[7]. Alongside the listing it accelerated development of titles for the Family Computer, beginning with Gradius in 1985[8] and going on to send out hit series in Castlevania (1986)[9], Ganbare Goemon and Contra. The development strength built up in the arcades was carried across to home consoles, and Konami secured its position as a third-party publisher on Nintendo's platform. The funds raised by the listing went into development investment, and the body of intellectual property accumulated in the late 1980s became the asset that would support later platform shifts. With success in the home console market, Konami's earnings base widened from the arcade alone to multiple platforms.

<em>Metal Gear Solid</em> past seven million copies, and the PlayStation generation taking its IP global

Through the 1990s Konami grew its revenue by supporting the PlayStation platform. Around 1995 it launched Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu and Winning Eleven, cementing its standing in sports games[10], and Metal Gear Solid, released in January 1998 under director Kojima Hideo (小島秀夫)[11], became a hit that sold more than seven million copies worldwide[12]. Its fusion of cinematic staging with stealth action widened the expressive range of games and made Konami's name known around the world. The spread of the PlayStation and the internationalisation of Konami's own titles came together, and the moment was the turning point at which the share of revenue earned overseas began to rise. Holding series in both sports games and action games raised the stability of earnings in the home console business.

In 1991 the company changed its name from Konami Industry to Konami[13], signalling a turn into an entertainment company beyond the frame of “industry”. In 1993 it moved its head office from Osaka to Minato-ku, Tokyo[14], placing its base for communication and for recruitment in the capital region. In 1997 it established Konami Gaming, Inc. in Las Vegas, Nevada, entering the business of gaming machines for casinos[15]. The idea of carrying arcade technology across into casino equipment is one instance of Konami's habit of reusing technology it already holds in a new regulated market. The Gaming & Systems business would later grow into a stable source of group earnings, and as its share of the North American casino market widened it became the pillar supporting profit outside Digital Entertainment.

Fitness and casinos: diversification into three unlike businesses at once

From the late 1990s into the early 2000s Konami moved to diversify its businesses. It listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1999[16] and on the New York Stock Exchange in 2002[17], widening its access to overseas capital markets. In February 2001 it took the major fitness club operator People (now Konami Sports) as a subsidiary through a friendly tender offer[18], stepping into a business area outside digital. In August of the same year it took an equity stake in Hudson[19], bringing in game titles such as Momotaro Dentetsu as its own intellectual property. It was a period of combining fundraising through overseas listings with M&A to widen the range of the business, planting a footing at the same time in three areas of quite different character — games, fitness and casinos — with the aim of spreading its sources of earnings.

In 2005 it completed a new building for gaming machines in Las Vegas[20], giving it a North American base for developing and manufacturing casino cabinets. In March 2006 it split off the Digital Entertainment business into a new company, Konami Digital Entertainment, and Konami itself became a pure holding company[21]. Introducing a structure of business-specific subsidiaries was intended to manage games, sports and gaming — businesses of quite different character — independently of one another, and to raise the speed of managerial decisions. Under the holding company the profit and loss of each business became separately visible, and the decisions on allocating resources were visible through it as well. This separation would also support the organisational flexibility Konami needed when it later moved towards mobile.

2007–2020The mobile shift: turning the profit structure and recasting the axis of earnings

The decade after the holding-company split was spent answering the question the diversification had left open. Konami moved the axis of its earnings from home consoles onto free-to-play mobile games, and the answer came back in an unusual shape: revenue fell while profit rose. The same years also showed how far apart the three businesses stood — a mobile margin that kept climbing, fitness clubs that spent years near break-even, and casino cabinets that earned quietly behind a barrier of licence regulation.

Revenue fell and profit rose: the switch to a free-to-play model

In the first half of the 2010s Konami moved to shift the axis of its earnings from home console games to mobile games. As smartphones spread, mobile games on the free-to-play (F2P) model — free to start, paid for by items — were growing. Konami put existing popular titles such as Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links onto mobile. Unlike the one-off revenue of a packaged sale, the F2P model generates continuing payment income, so the margin on a hit title exceeded that of a home console game. The strategy of taking series whose names had been made in home consoles into the mobile market supported the recasting of the profit structure, creating a cycle in which payment revenue grew while the cost of acquiring new customers was held down.

In June 2012 Kozuki Takuya (上月拓也), son of the founder, became president and representative director[22] and took personal command of the mobile shift. In March of the same year Hudson was absorbed by merger[23], consolidating game titles such as Momotaro Dentetsu. In October 2015 the company was renamed Konami Holdings[24], marking its standing as a holding company. Segment profit in the Digital Entertainment business grew 2.6-fold, from $159.7M (¥17bn) in FY14 to $396.7M (¥44bn) in FY18. Consolidated revenue shrank from $2.5B (¥297bn) in FY07 to $2.2B (¥218bn) in FY13, then came back to $2.4B (¥263bn) in FY18. A structure emerged in which profit grew even as revenue shrank, and the move to mobile changed the very shape of the earnings. The decision to redirect home console development resources to mobile showed up in the numbers as an improvement in margin.

Chronic losses in health services, a locked-in North American share in gaming

The health services business (later Sports), built around fitness clubs, had been expected to be a pillar of the diversification, but its earnings kept running hard. In FY08 health services recorded revenue of $868.1M (¥90bn) and a business loss of $79.4M (¥8bn), and in FY10 it was still $28.5M (¥3bn) in the red. A facilities-operating business carries heavy fixed costs in rent and wages, so earnings swing with the number of users. In FY11 it finally turned to a profit of $35.1M (¥3bn), and in FY16 it posted $38.6M (¥4bn), but this came nowhere near the margin of the Digital Entertainment business. Improving the earnings of a facilities business took time on two fronts — renewing the equipment and winning members — and its contribution to profit growth across the group was limited.

The Gaming & Systems business, by contrast, held steady earnings centred on the North American casino market. It recorded business profit of $22.9M (¥3bn) in FY07 and $82.7M (¥7bn) in FY11, and in 2015 it completed a second plant in Las Vegas[25], raising production capacity. Because licence regulation acts as a barrier to entry for casino cabinets, once a share has been taken it is hard for competitors to move in. The three businesses — Digital Entertainment, Sports and Gaming — had different earnings characteristics, and the combination of mobile's high margin, the low margin of the Sports business and the steady income of Gaming shaped Konami's business portfolio. With the source of profit concentrated in Digital Entertainment, Gaming served as a cushion against the business cycle.

Consolidating development in Ginza, and what the attached esports arena meant

In 2013 Konami acquired land in Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo[26], and in December 2019 the Konami Creative Center Ginza went into operation[27]. The building housed game development studios together with esports Ginza studio, a dedicated esports facility, uniting content production and esports in one place. Konami's development sites had until then been scattered across the Kobe Technical Center and the Tokyo Technical Center in Zama, and physical distance stood in the way of co-operation between teams and of decision-making. Consolidating in Ginza raised both the co-operation among developers and the company's power to recruit, and the central location also worked in its favour for collaboration with outside creators and business partners. Bringing the sites together was a measure that faced two problems at the same time: improving development efficiency and securing able people.

In January 2020 Konami held the e-Climax Series and e-Japan Series of the eBASEBALL Professional League jointly with Nippon Professional Baseball[28], marking a full entry into the esports business. In April 2020 Higashio Kimihiko (東尾公彦), the first president from outside the founding family, took office[29], setting out a policy of taking on challenges without being bound by existing frames and speaking of a plan to redefine the amusement arcade as an esports centre. Recasting existing amusement facilities as esports venues was one answer to the falling profitability of a store-based business, and can be called a strategy of raising the drawing power of the facilities by running tournaments using the company's own titles. With visitor numbers at amusement facilities continuing to fall, holding esports tournaments was an attempt to create a new reason to come.

Read the full history in Japanese →

Notes

  1. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  2. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  3. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  4. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  5. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  6. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  7. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  8. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  9. ファミ通.com (Famitsu.com), 26 September 2020↩
  10. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  11. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  12. コナミグループ 公式発表 (Konami Group official announcement)↩
  13. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  14. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  15. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  16. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  17. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  18. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  19. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  20. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  21. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  22. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  23. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  24. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  25. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  26. gamebiz, 2017↩
  27. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  28. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩
  29. コナミグループ 有価証券報告書【沿革】 (Konami Group, annual securities report, corporate-history section)↩

References & sources

  1. Konami Group Corporation (annual securities reports), including the corporate-history section and the consolidated filing for the year ended March 2015; company yearbook for the consolidated year ended March 1999; and Konami Group official announcements and results materials.
  2. Famitsu (Kadokawa Game Linkage): 26 Sep 2020 on the day Castlevania was released; 25 Apr 2022 on the day the Famicom version of Gradius was released.
  3. gamebiz: 2017; 10 Mar 2023 on Sensor Tower data putting worldwide 2022 revenue for Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel above US$130m.

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