Capcom has to be in the West

Less than 15 per cent of Capcom’s total sales now stem from the Japanese market – a stark reminder if one was ever needed of the Western-facing shifting power in the modern games market.

When asked by MCV about Capcom’s Western aspirations, new COO David Reeves stated: 88 per cent of the games business is in the US and Europe combined, while 12 to 15 per cent is in Japan. So the concentration has to be in the West.”

Despite this strongly worded Western pledge, Reeves also points out that the rapid growth of digital distribution in more technologically affluent countries means that Capcom must be cautious in its investment.

What you can’t do is set up huge operations in all these European countries when you know that within five or six years time we will be in the digital era,” So it has to be a very balanced approach – a similar approach to what some of the Japanese firms have taken so far. It has taken Square Enix a while to expand, for instance.

A lot of those successes rely on the localisation of those titles and managing that well – something I saw can be very valuable in my time at Sony.”

To read MCV’s full interview with David Reeves, click here.