Japanese publisher anticipates earnings to fall to $1.63 billion in April-Sept. period due to back-loaded release schedule, tough comparison against MGS4.

Konami continues to feel the impact of 2008’s success in 2009. Reporting on its first-quarter earnings in August, the publisher attributed the 94 percent plummet in profits in large part to the top-rated Metal Gear Solid 4, which lit up the sales charts upon its debut for the PlayStation 3 in June 2008. With Konami expected to report its six-month financial earnings later this week, the publisher has said that it is again projects poor year-over-year comparisons.

Snake? Fix this.

For the April-September period, Konami said it expects revenues to come in at ¥113.9 billion ($1.26 billion). That figure represents a 22.5 percent drop from the same period in 2008, when MGS4 had lifted the publisher’s revenues to ¥146.9 billion ($1.63 billion) for the six-month period. Konami is also forecasting that net income during the period took a nosedive, falling 81.6 percent to ¥2.2 billion ($24 million).

Despite the expected double-digit drop in revenue during the publisher’s first six months, Konami still expects to see marginal sales growth during its current fiscal year. The publisher reiterated its previous forecast of ¥310 billion ($3.43 billion) for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2010, compared to the ¥309.7 billion ($3.43 billion) it brought in during its previous fiscal year. Konami anticipates a noticeable rise in net income, swelling to ¥16 billion ($117 million) from ¥10.8 billion ($120 million) last year.

Konami note the discrepancy is “mainly due to factors such as the fact that main titles released by our Digital Entertainment segment for the current fiscal year were not scheduled to be released until the second half of the year while in the same period last year major titles, in particular, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, had already been released.”

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