Capcom lifted by Monster Hunter 4 sales

Japanese publisher and entertainment company Capcom has had its second financial quarter rescued by strong sales of Monster Hunter 4.

The hack-and-slash RPG was released in the publisher’s home country on September 14th, and has since sold three million copies on 3DS.

That, however, was about as much good news as there was for Capcom this period.

In its financial statement, the firm said console and PC versions of Resident Evil Revelations and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies on 3DS only “achieved projected sales”, with no figures included.

Meanwhile, Lost Planet 3, which was stunned by critics, did not met its expectations.

In the last quarter, Capcom’s profits dipped due to its scant release schedule. With little growth, the publisher has gradually been restructuring and bringing more projects in-house to be completed by its internal staff.

On the mobile front, Smurf’s Village has continued to generate income for the publisher. But this title remains Capcom’s only significant mobile success, and it admitted that its wider “mobile contents did not achieve expected level of sales”.

Capcom’s digital content business, which covers console, PC and mobile games, managed a sales increase of £238.4 million (37,510 million yen), up 7.2 per cent from the same term last year. But, the division’s operating profit actually fell seven per cent to £34.3 milion (5.4 billion yen).

For the six month period ended September 30, 2013 Capcom’s total net sales came to £338.4 million (53,234 million yen), up 16.9 per cent from the same term last year.

Earlier this month, Capcom confirmed to our sister publication MCV that that as much as half of its European staff could lose their jobs as a result of urgent “restructuring”.