The lights are on
Capcom surveyed their current financial situation this morning, revealing that their first quarter net income topped at $2.4 million – a drastic 90 percent drop from the same time last year. As reported by GameSpot, the discrepancy is accredited to the lackluster sales of Lost Planet 2, with Capcom representatives stating that it “underperformed its projection substantially.” Monster Hunter Tri and Ghost Trick were also described as “slow growing” and “struggling.”
The largest contributing factor, however, may be that Capcom simply had a very successful first quarter in 2009. Blockbuster releases such as Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV helped usher in a period of prosperity for the publisher early in the year.
This news is directly in line with Capcom’s recently announced shift in development strategy, which will facilitate and increase the number of top-tier titles released each year and result in quicker turnaround on projects. It’s the quintessential “not putting your eggs all in one basket,” approach – something more and more developers seem to be recognizing with an unforgiving economy making risks much less viable.
Hopefully Capcom’s next investor call will yield better numbers, as the publisher/developer duo has plenty of big-budget games on the docket for late 2010 and early 2011.
so less quality games then they where before?(besides street fighter and resident evil) This will make the sales drop even farther.
It's hard to expect Capcom to have the same success as they did last year. I remember Resident Evil 5 being everywhere, people couldn't wait to get their hands on it. Lost Planet 2 and Ghost Trick don't have that kind of name-power with gamers at all.
What game companies need to realize is that more and more people are becoming smarter with their money. For instance, if someone had to choose between RE5 and Lost Planet 2, most are going to go with the former. Some developer's get this and have been successful. Take for instance 3D Dot Heroes. Great game, only $40 bucks! Why in the crap would I spend $60 on a game I'm not sure about? Lost Planet 2 sounds good, but I'm saving those hard earned monies on something I know will be a great addition to my catalog.
For all these developer's being a business, many of them have no business sense. It's time to hire some forward thinkers rather than the same old ideas that have been rehashed time and time again. As a crappy singer once wrote, "Time's are a-changing," and it's time to adjust to the times folks.
This is depressing news, but Capcom shouldn't entirely shift away from new IP's. You can only destroy so many things with a rocket launcher or show Ryu charging up a Hadouken so many times.
No place else to go but up I suppose.
They have nothing to worry about. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken. They'll be back in no time.
I think capcom did so well last is because of the fact their two biggest games were sequels long overdue and Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter 4
were just great games.
I've always said quality over quantity. There are so many shitty games on the shelves already, Capcom, do you really need to put more out there and watch them fail. Build hype, build good games, good stories, build worlds that people are interested in and play well. Dont use this push strategy of more projects with less time---people don't have money to keep buying games...if you spaced them out, maybe people would be purchasing, but you are competing your own games against your own games...
And don't ruin the Street Fighter name (again) with more of the Alpha Beta Mega Super crap--leave good things well enough alone.
Capcom is going back to their guns this year, so I believe things will take a turnaround by same time next year. Dead Rising 2, MVC3, SF X Tekken, and Mega Man Universe. Bringing back the tried-and-true IPs will work, as long as the quality is there. I believe in you Capcom!
I never really liked any Capcom games except for Dead Rising so I'm kinda glad
That's a real huge bummer for Capcom. Lost Planet 2 was a pretty good game, but just got brutally hammered on by a lot of critics. Still makes me mad that a majority of the critics gave it low scores because they failed to adapt to a new button style.
They should be able to get back that money when Dead Rising 2 comes out, since it's not exclusive to one console this time.
thats a shame. Capcom puts out some stellar games, so i want them to do well (so they can put out for great games.)
I think Capcom needs some new talent to help them branch out. They've tried some new IP in the past few years, but most of them were duds. I never expected Dark Void to succeed, so that was no shocker, the Bionic Commando reboot failed, and what else have they come out with that's new?
It seems to me that Resident Evil and Street Fighter/MvC have been supporting the company for the past decade...
Dead Rising 2 should do well though, I'm excited for that. I also think they should revisit the Viewtiful Joe series (maybe an XBLA release?) and do some more artistic/bizarre games like Okami and Killer 7. I'm willing to risk the money on Capcom's indie-style games because they generally turn out well (except P.N.03, big fail there).
didnt they want to release more new games too? good luck with that.
Capcom will be just fine! They didn't make "as much" as the year before. The bottom line is that they're still posting profits...so they're not in the red in the traditional sense. Everybody take a chill-pill!
Lost Planet 2 was pretty awesome. I wish it was a bit more polished though so I could reccommend it more often.
I have to agree, they put out all their triple A titles out in a few short months last year, they should have spread them out more but whatever, it's their decision.
Hopefully with the line up for the end of this year and next year will increase their profits by 500% from what they received now.
Tooo bad for Capcom