Capcom sees an overall fall in sales but increase in profits

Capcom has released a report detailing its financial performance for the first three quarters of its 2017-2018 fiscal year.

For the period spanning April 1 to December 31, 2017, Capcom reported a year-over-year decrease in sales but, thanks to a strong showing from its ‘digital contents’ video game department, an overall jump in profits.

As a whole, Capcom reported net sales of ¥47.7 billion (~$436.8 million) for the 9 month period ending December 31, 2017, a 10.8 percent decrease year-over-year. Despite the fall in sales, Capcom saw ¥7 billion (~$64 million) in profits during that same period, marking a 36.9 percent increase from the ¥5.1 billion (~$46.8 million) reported last year. 

Capcom attributes that rise to solid performance from the digital contents department that houses its video game projects. Digital contents alone saw ¥30.8 billion (~$282.2 million) in sales in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, which represents an 8.5 percent increase year-over-year.

Profit in the digital contents department, however, rose 328 percent year-over-year, coming in at ¥6.3 billion (~$57.3 million) for the period.

Specifically, Capcom noted that the Japan-exclusive online game Monster Hunter Frontier Z gave a “solid performance” following a major update on its 10th anniversary, while the mobile game Monster Hunter Explore stayed its course and contributed to this year’s increase in profits.

On the console and PC game front, Capcom says that Resident Evil 7 biohazard, the Nintendo Switch release of Monster Hunter XX, and Ultra Street Fighter II The Final Challengers each offered strong performances this year while the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was described as having soft sales.

It is worth noting that this report only includes sales up to December 31 and, as such, the surge of shipments and digital sales from the recent release of Monster Hunter: World are not included in this roundup, but Capcom notes that it plans to keep that ball rolling through an “aggressive sales campaign” leading into the end of its fiscal year on March 31, 2018.