Despite "lackluster" sales of Resident Evil 6 during Capcom's third fiscal quarter, the company still saw healthy revenue and profit growth thanks to better-than-expected amusement machine sales.
Resident Evil 6 sold 4.8 million copies in the third quarter ended December 31, 2012. Capcom says that the title has lost momentum, and is therefore not fulfilling "its role as a driver of sales expansion." It's already been forced to lower its financial forecast for the current fiscal year as a result.
Other titles helped to partially make up this failure. Dragon's Dogma has now sold 1.25 million units, while Monster Hunter 3 Tri-G is enjoying steady growth, says the company. Elsewhere, Monster Hunter 3 Tri-G HD Ver. for the Nintendo Wii U is also selling well for Capcom.
But it was Capcom's amusement machines business that really helped the company out during this third quarter, thanks to sales from its Resident Evil 5 pachislo machine, which it says made a sizable contribution to earnings. Mario Party Kurukuru! Carnival and Monster Hunter Medal Hunting also offered help with steady sales.
Elsewhere, Capcom's mobile business is also holding its own. The Smurf's Village continues to record strong demand, while the newly-released Smurf Life is "off to a good start."
For the nine month period ended December 31, 2012, Capcom's digital content business, which contains its console, mobile and social games businesses, recorded revenues of 49.7 billion yen ($536.1 million), up 39.2 percent year-over-year, and operating income of 7.3 billion yen ($78.6 million), up 0.2 percent year-over-year.
Notably, Capcom's Amusement Equipments business recorded revenue of 12.8 billion yen ($138.3 million), up 248.9 percent year-over-year, and operating income of 3.7 billion yen ($39.8 million), up from just 20 million yen ($216,000) year-over-year.
Overall, Capcom posted revenue of 72.7 billion yen ($780.5 million), up from 50.3 billion yen ($539.7 million) year-over-year, and profits of 6.6 billion yen ($71.3 million), more than double the 3.2 billion yen ($34.8 million) it made during the same period in the previous fiscal year.
I hate this 'manager' view of things: 'the title has lost momentum...', '... not fulfilling its role as a driver of sales expansion.' I can't even imagine a developer saying such expressions. Gosh, it may suck to work in a huge game company like Capcom. It's all about the freakin' $.
The irony of it all is the reason they make money; to make more games, to make money, to make more games etc., ad nauseam. If Capcom just stuck to one game and focused all their energy into it, perhaps it would surpass mediocre or below-average reviews.
This is what happens when you drive all your most talented designers and staff to leave the company and bring hundreds (600 according to rumors!?!) of people in to work on one game with an absurdly bloated budget. You wind up with a way too expensive game that's not any good anyway.
What the hell? Damn near 5 million copies sold is considered bad? How much did that monstrosity of a game cost? I'm horrified to learn it did that well because its not a good game. But they actually expected it to do better?
So now we can expect some rumbling about quality and quantity of RE titles. A shame it takes something like this for them to care.