Capcom Needs Big Changes

Capcom's least profitable year since 2010

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Capcom Needs Big Changes
Capcom's 2013 was its least profitable since 2010. In fact you have to go back to fiscal 2004 to find some really good news.

The company has announced updated 2013 figures that state a year-on-year rise in revenues from ¥82 billion ($820 million) to ¥94 billion ($940 million). So, how is that bad news?

Here: it's "Digital Contents Business" aka console, PC and mobile titles had more than a 50% drop in profits year on year to $31 million.

While 14 million units of games and related software were sold only titles managed to sell more than one million units.

DmC: Devil May Cry sold 1.15 million worldwide against against a projected two million units.

Resident Evil 6 sold 4.9 million units against the seen million units it was expected to sell.

Dragon’s Dogma managed an above expectation 1.3 million units but that was still not enough to generate much needed profits.

On the upside, however, However, GamesIndustry reports that, "The company's online content was one of the few aspects of the business to show healthy growth, increasing 45.9 per cent to ¥22.9 billion ($229m). By March 2014, that is expected to increase a further 22.3 per cent, reaching ¥28 billion."

So, what to do? Well, COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto said that, "I regret to say that, up to now, we had few plans for the full-scale implementation of DLC.

"From here on out, we need to focus on the long-term provision of content starting at the earliest stages of development. Furthermore, in terms of user response, if the additional related content we are providing continually to users online is deemed uninteresting from the start, there will be no ongoing business to pursue. This means that, more than ever before, the creation of underlying content is the key to success."

Time for Japanese gaming from Nintendo to Capcom and Square to think ahead?

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Comments

ergo 10 Sep 2013 22:07
1/1
Yes, "think ahead" into a blackhole of a la carte gaming, where they intentionally hold back content to sell to you later...can't wait.
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