Despite having launched Monster Hunter 3G, which has sold over one million copies for the 3DS, Japanese publisher Capcom hasn’t seen the most lucrative year, as profits are down a staggering 52.6%.
According to Capcom’s financial results for the first nine months of its fiscal year, not only were profits down by a substantial margin, revenue also took a major hit of 29%. The company noted that much of this decline is due to a lack in online sales compared to the prior year which saw a “mass release of major consumer online titles.”
The firm elaborated in the release, noting the ever-increasing growth within the mobile market:
The video game industry enjoyed a lively year-end holiday shopping season with the market showing increased activity for the first time in a long while, owing to the release of popular software in addition to the launch of new mobile game consoles and the price reduction of some hardware.
Meanwhile, the trend of structural change washes over the video game industry, with the rapid growth of affordable and easily accessible social games attributable to the rise of mobile phones and smartphones.
Under these circumstances, Capcom enhanced the consumer online game business, which is our core business segment. At the same time, we endeavored to operate our business in line with changes in the market environment, taking in a social game company, which had been an affiliate of our US subsidiary, as our direct subsidiary in order to achieve Group agility, as well as focusing our business resources on boosting the mobile contents business.
With the heavy-hitting Resident Evil 6 on the not-too distant horizon, Capcom has some exciting projects worth looking forward to.
