Japanese publisher Namco has doubled its profit projections for the first half of its fiscal year and increased its full-year projections, mostly thanks to the strong performance of Soul Calibur II in overseas markets.

The company now expects to post a net profit of 3.2 billion Yen (€25 million) for the first half of the year, which is more than twice its original estimate of 1.5 billion Yen (€11.8 million), while its full year projections are up to 6.6 billion Yen (€51.7m) from an original target of 5.8 billion (€45.4m).

Soul Calibur II is the main reason for this boost to the company's results, with the game selling very strongly in the USA and Europe - particularly the GameCube version, which is thought to have outsold both other versions of the game in most overseas markets.

Source@