Capcoms Western dilemma

Publisher Capcom has revealed the poor performance of recent releases Dark Void and Bionic Commando have lead to a strategic re-think of its Western aspirations.

Speaking to The Financial Times, president Haruhiro Tsujimoto revealed that Dark Void has sold just 520k copies since its release – well below Capcom’s initial 2m forecast, Bionic Command also fell short, hitting 700k when its original target was 1.5m.

The only Western-developed game to meet expectations was digital release Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix.

As a group, the new titles where development was led from abroad didn’t do so well,” he admitted, reiterating its statement made earlier this year that going forwards it will keep development of new IP or riskier projects in Japan.

However, there ware mixed messages coming out of the Capcom camp. The whole point of increasing its Western outsourcing was to better the company’s sales performance in Europe.

The firm accused its own Xbox 360 hit Dead Rising of feeling too Japanese” earlier this year, and new US and European David Reeves last month emphasized the growing portion of global sales originating from Europe.