Capcom's fortunes rise on the back of games like Monster Hunter X

Capcom reports today that it's seen an uptick in both sales and profits over the past nine months, driven primarily by sales of games -- most notably, the latest Monster Hunter game.

According to its most recent earnings report, Capcom saw profits of 7 billion yen (roughly $59 million USD) on 57 billion yen (~$480.1 million USD) in the nine months ending December 31, 2015.

That's more profit and significantly more sales than the company saw in the same period a year prior, when it reported 6.5 billion yen in profit on 47.8 billion yen in sales, and the company attributes the rise in profits primarily to strong performance in its Digital Contents business, the division responsible for Capcom's console and mobile game production.

Capcom reports Monster Hunter X for the 3DS was a standout success for the division, surpassing sales expectations and selling over 3 million units since its release in Japan (only) at the end of November. The company's Digital Contents business was also buoyed by strong sales of free-to-play mobile game Monster Hunter Explore and the PC/PlayStation console online game Dragon's Dogma Online. 

The company's Amusement Equipments arm, which encompasses its pachinko and pachislots operations, also did a notable bit of business for Capcom. Its Resident Evil 6-themed pachislot machine continued to sell well, driving an 87 percent uptick in sales and a 3.8 percent rise in profits over the latter nine months of 2015. 

The performance of Capcom's other divisions, including Arcade Operations (think: arcades and cafes) and Other Businesses (sales of guidebooks, tchotchkes, etc.) were down year-over-year, and despite the overall rise in fortunes Capcom is sticking to its previous forecast to end the year with a profit of 7.7 billion yen ($63 million).