Capcom has reported “sluggish” results, with a 90% decrease in profit down from the same time last year, though the company still managed a profit; admittedly a mere 213 million yen, or roughly 2.4 million dollars.
Capcom blamed an unfavorable exchange rate, particularly as a result of “US and European markets shrinking under the stagnating economy.” However, the poor results may have some wide-ranging results for Capcom’s future release schedule. The company recently announced that they intend to increase the output of releases in their most popular franchises, and their financial report squarely places the “drastic decline” in profitability on the “increase of new flagship titles release from the same term of the previous year, when most sales were made of repeat titles.” This “resulted in higher game development costs.”
Lost Planet 2 and Ghost Trick (although the latter is yet to be released outside of Japan) were highlighted as poor performers in the face of steady sales from more established franchises such as Super Street Fighter IV, Monster Hunter Frontier Online and iPhone/iPod touch titles including Street Fighter IV and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
It seems likely that Capcom will indeed be going forward with a reliance on established franchises rather than new or riskier IP in the face of these results — expect the company to be watching the sales of the upcoming Dead Rising 2 very closely.