Capcom bucks market trend with massive revenue increase
Japanese software publisher Capcom has revealed its financial statement for the third quarter ended December 31st, bucking the current downward turn of the software market with a quadruple increase in year-on-year profits.
Capcom has released its financial statement for the third quarter ended December 31st, revealing that the publisher has bucked the downward turn of the software market with a quadruple increase in year-on-year profits.
Net sales for the three month period were posted at Yen 47.9 billion (EURO 337.6 million), an increase of 13 per cent compared to Q3 2004. Net income for rose by 418 per cent, leaping from Yen 1.4 billion (EURO 10 million) to Yen 7.4 billion (EURO 52.3 million).
Sales for the quarter were considerably improved by the phenomenal success of Resident Evil 4, which Capcom states has sold more than 3 million copies as of the end of January - bringing total sales for the Resident Evil franchise to more than 30 million.
Mega Man Battle Network 6 for the GBA provided the publisher with another strong revenue source and the company also revealed sales in excess of 500,000 for its Monster Hunter PSP title, which "performed significantly beyond our projection and became a smash hit," according to a company statement.
Whilst software sales have obviously made a significant contribution to the company's exceptional Q3 results, the company also attributes its success to a recovering Japanese economy which, according to Capcom, "grew from a levelled-off state and followed a smooth recovery track, supported by steady capital investments, the rapid rise in stock prices at the year-end, and increased consumer spending that resulted from improved income and employment situations."
The addition of a number of substantial tax breaks has also affected the publisher's bottom line figures. That said, there is little cause for debate over the fact that the company has performed exceptionally well during a period where a number of major publishers have failed to meet projected revenues as the industry deals with the latest hardware transition, and the resulting short-term softening of the consumer software market.
Moving forward, Capcom has stated that it will continue to pursue a multiplatform publishing strategy (including all three next-generation games consoles and the current handheld platforms), and is also attempting to capitalise on its character-related licensing business through publication, toys and content distribution on mobile phones.