Resident Evil and Street Fighter publisher Capcom has reported its first-quarter fiscal results for the period ended June 30. The quarter did not go so well, as Capcom reported net income decreasing by 90.4% to 213 million yen and sales dipped 2.4% to 19.04 billion yen. Operating income also fell 72.6% to 1 billion yen.
Looking specifically at the consumer games division, Capcom said the group posted a 6% sales increase to 14.99 billion yen, while operating income dropped over 62% to 1.78 billion yen. Capcom pinned much of the decline on the sequel to Lost Planet, which tanked badly.
"Super Street Fighter IV (for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) and the online exclusive title Monster Hunter Frontier Online (for PC, Xbox 360) showed steady growth. However, overall sales remained stagnant due to weak performances of some titles: Lost Planet 2 (for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360), one of our featured products, underperformed its projection substantially," Capcom explained, adding, "Monster Hunter Tri (for Wii) grew at sluggish pace; newly-released Ghost Trick (for Nintendo DS) struggled.
On the positive side, Capcom seems encouraged by its mobile and iPhone games lineup. "The market for mobile phone games is growing rapidly. In order to expand our business, we started distributing Resident Evil 4 iPad edition, and the number of downloads of the software has been increasing gradually," the publisher noted. "In addition, those games released for iPhone/iPod touch in the previous term, namely Street Fighter IV and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, achieved their projected sales. The resulting net sales was 680 million yen, and the operating income was 97 million yen."
Capcom's not off to a great start in its new fiscal year; last year the company saw profits drop 72%. The publisher is well aware that it needs to step up its game, and recently Capcom indicated that it would be increasing the frequency of its top franchise releases. Let's hope the turnaround strategy works.
1 Comments
July 29, 2010
Memo to Capcom: Focus and Playtest often! Focus and Playtest often! Focus and Playtest often! Focus and Playtest often! Focus and Playtest often! Focus and Playtest often!