PES, MGS:PW, Castlevania sales praised

Japanese publisher Konami has praised PES 2011, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Castlevania Lords of Shadow for selling well over the last year.

In its report for the financial year ending 31st March, Konami said it enjoyed "solid" sales of video games with contributions from PES 2011, PlayStation Portable game Peace Walker and action game Castlevania Lords of Shadow.

PES 2011 launched in October 2010 to improved review scores. Eurogamer's PES 2011 review turned up a 7/10.

Peace Walker launched in June 2010 to an 8/10 from Eurogamer's Metal Gear Solid review.

And Castlevania Lords of Shadow, a 3D action game reboot from Spanish developer MercurySteam, enjoyed an 8/10 review score.

"Soccer" was Konami's biggest video game category for the year. It sold 7.51 million units in the genre.

The Metal Gear category, considered its own genre, shifted 1.92 million units.

The PlayStation 3 was Konami's biggest platform, accounting for 27 per cent of all game sales. PSP was second. The Xbox 360 accounted for 11 per cent of sales.

Konami saw net sales of 258 billion yen, down from last year's 262.1 billion yen, but operating income was up, from 18.7 billion yen to 20.8 billion.

Looking forward, Konami revealed plans to support Sony's PlayStation Portable successor the Next Generation Portable and the Nintendo 3DS with a raft of games.

It pegged Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights 3DS for a global summer 2011 launch. Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3DS, Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, Neverdead and Silent Hill: Downpour are all down for global FY2012 launches.

Hudson, which Konami purchased earlier this year, will focus on social network games.