Capcom has detailed its financial results for the nine month period ending December 2016, showing a year-on-year decline in both revenue and profits.
Sales were cited as $472 million, which is a drop of around six percent compared to 2015’s $503 million. Operating income was reported as $4.5 million, a fall of around 51 percent compared to the previous year. Capcom’s profits totalled $24 million over the nine month period. Year-on-year, this is a decline of just over 60 percent.
In its statement, Capcom said it began to refocus itself on VR during this time in light of “the successive releases of VR devices that are highly compatible with games … With an eye to creating a new market.” As part of this, Capcom has undergone some reorganisation and “strengthened its management structure” in order to reform its development division.
Capcom said its efforts in mixed media has allowed it to leverage “rich content assets” and “enhance its presence” while increasing “brand value by generating synergy with popular games.” In particular, the Monster Hunter Stories animated TV show was highlighted as key to this, along with Resident Evil: Voice of Gaia, a musical theater performance held in Japan.
In terms of games, the dip in year-on-year sales was attributed to a lack of a popular title like 2015’s Monster Hunter Generations (Monster Hunter X in Japan), which launched for 3DS and proved to be very popular.
Sales of Dead Rising 4, which was released for Xbox One and PC in December 2016, were described as “firm,” while Monster Hunter Stories‘ were said to be “soft.” Digital re-releases of Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 4 “performed steadily.”
Looking ahead, Capcom has said it “plans on an aggressive sales campaign” with the release of two major games: Resident Evil 7 Biohazard and Monster Hunter XX for 3DS.
Resident Evil 7 launched on January 24 and Capcom shipped 2.5 million copies of the game to retailers during its launch week. This figure is below the shipment numbers for Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 5, which may have contributed to the company’s share value taking a hit recently.