Capcom’s net income falls 53.6%

The strategic postponement” of major titles and a drastic overhaul of the business” were blamed as the key reasons behind its poor financials.

The publisher saw net income for the nine months ending December 31st 2001 fall 52.6 per cent to 3,242m. Operating income fell 47.2 per cent to 6,744m while net sales fell 29 per cent to 50,270m.

3DS outing Monster Hunter Tri G sold over a million copies while Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Dead Rising 2: Off The Record were described as faring fairly well overseas”

Net sales at its consumer online games division fell 41.3 per cent to 31,721m and operating income dropped 54.1 per cent to 5,943m.

The video game industry enjoyed a lively year-end holiday shopping season with the market showing increased activity for the first time in a long while, owing to the release of popular software in addition to the launch of new mobile game consoles and the price reduction of some hardware,” the publisher claimed.

Meanwhile, the trend of structural change washes over the video game industry, with the rapid growth of affordable and easily accessible social games attributable to the rise of mobile phones and smartphones.

Under these circumstances, Capcom enhanced the consumer online game business, which is our core business segment. At the same time, we endeavored to operate our business in line with changes in the market environment, taking in a social game company, which had been an affiliate of our US subsidiary, as our direct subsidiary in order to achieve Group agility, as well as focusing our business resources on boosting the mobile contents business.”