By 
In a recent financial report, Bandai Namco said that they have increased their full year revenue forecast from 500,000 million yen to 520,000 million yen for the fiscal year ending March 2015. The reason? Namco’s performance for the first half of their fiscal year, owing in part to the success of Yo-kai Watch.
While Yo-kai Watch is a Level 5 property and the games are developed and published by them, Bandai Namco is the company in charge of selling merchandise based on the series. Yo-kai Watch merch netted Namco 22.5 billion yen in net sales. By March 31st, 2015, Namco expect that figure to increase to 40 billion yen.
Meanwhile, products in the Mobile Suit Gundam, Kamen Rider Gaim, Power Rangers and Aikatsu franchises sold favourably as well. Meanwhile, smartphone apps such as JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Shooter and One Piece: Treasure Cruise contributed to Namco’s revenue as well. In total, Namco expect their Toys and Hobby business to bring in 131.5 billion yen by the end of March 2015.
In the realm of actual videogames, the Yo-kai Watch games themselves are performing rather well. Yo-kai Watch 2 has shipped 3 million units in Japan between its Head and Founder versions, and Level 5 will release a third Headliner version this Fall.
