Capcom full-year sales rise to $782.9m
Solid performance from Resident Evil VII helps offset underperformance of Dead Rising 4
Japanese publisher Capcom has released its full-year financial results, showing growth almost across the board and overall net sales of more than ¥87.17bn ($782.9m).
That marks an increase of 13.2% when compared to the previous fiscal year, with similar rises shown by its various forms of income. For the 12 months ended March 31st, 2017, operating income was up 13.5% year-on-year to ¥13.65bn ($122.5m), while ordinary income rose 10.9% to ¥12.59bn ($113m). Finally net income showed a 14.6% lift, reported as ¥8.88bn ($79.7m).
As usual, the publisher's digital content business - which includes its video games and mobile titles - provided the bulk of this revenue, with net sales up 11.7% year-on-year to ¥58.7bn ($527.1m) (up 11.7%). Operating income for this part of the business was the only sour note in Capcom's financials, down 8.8% year-on-year to ¥11.09bn ($99.6m).
A "solid performance" from Resident Evil VII and a "promising start" for Monster Hunter XX were cited as key sales drivers for Capcom, as well as decent performances by re-releases of earlier Resident Evil games. However, the publisher noted that both Dead Rising 4 and Monster Hunter Stories, a 3DS title aimed at younger players, underperformed.
Recognising the rise of virtual and augmented reality, as well as the strong response to Resident Evil VII's VR feature, Capcom noted that it has "carried out reorganisation and strengthened its management structure" over the past year to adapt to this new technology.
The firm is also keen to grow its mobile business and "reviewed its development framework and operation methods" in to establish how it could better approach the smartphone market. The result was Toraware no Parauma, a romance game for iOS and Android, reached top of paid charts in App Store.
Capcom's arcade business is also faring well, with the firm noting that "signs of recovery to our industry are becoming evident" - partly thanks to the Japanese government relaxing regulations on night-time entry into arcades back in June 2016.
The firm's community-based arcade marketing to win back customers and attract new ones local to each establishment seems to have paid off, with net sales at ¥9.52bn ($85.5m), up 5.2% since last year, and operating income at ¥752m ($6.75m), up 7.5%.
The publisher also detailed performances from its amusements equipment business, led by pachinko and pachislo machines. The launch of a new Monster Hunter machine and a collaboration with Nintendo on a Mario Party-themed pachinko range helped drive net sales to ¥16.86bn ($151.4m) - up 26.3% year-on-year - while operating income was reported as ¥5.1m ($45.8m), up 81.6%.
However, Capcom notes that this market "faces some uncertainty due to the recent revision in the pachislo model certification method and the strengthening of applicable regulations".
Finally, its merchandise and licensing business saw net sales of ¥2.08bn ($18.7m), almost flat when compared to the previous year. But operating income for this division rose 89.8% to ¥969m ($8.7m).
Over the past year, Capcom has also experiment with more non-games projects using its brands, including the Monster Hunter Stories animated series, a Resident Evil musical theatre production, and the latest Resident Evil film.
Looking forward, the firm is confident it will see another year of growth, predicting net sales of ¥93bn ($835.7m) and operating income of ¥14.5bn ($130.2m) for the year ending March 31st, 2018. To accomplish this, it plans to "focus efforts on expanding digital download sales, which promise higher profitability, in order to diversify its profit structure".