Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Capcom Announces "Special Loss" Along With Changes In Development Practices
Capcom today disclosed significant revisions to their earning forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013. The publisher attributes a "special loss" of 7.2 billion yen.
The explanation for missing targets leans heavily on a failure to properly market their titles and a "decline in quality due to excessive outsourcing." Additionally, the losses are due to cancelation of titles that were outsourced overseas and a failure to adapt to perceived demand for DLC. Moving forward, Capcom plans to bring more development in-house.
Both of these points seem to run counter to consumer sentiment about recent titles. Resident Evil 6, which received mixed reviews (Metacritic 67 - 74), was developed internally at Capcom. Devil May Cry (Metacritic 85 - 86), which was handled by UK developer Ninja Theory, was lauded by critics. 2012's Dragon's Dogma (Metacritic 75 - 78), which is seeing a major expansion next week, was developed in-house.
With regard to DLC, Capcom has been heavily criticized for its approach to on-disk content, specifically with regard to 2012's Street Fighter x Tekken, which included every paid add-on character in the retail product, but locked behind a paywall.
Despite the newly announced loss, Capcom announced that sales of Resident Evil 6 and Devil May Cry are running close to revised projections issued in December 2012.
The publisher's fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, yielded net income of 2.9 billion yen (currently valued at approximately $29.5 million).
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
