Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is expected to be Capcom’s top selling title for the forthcoming fiscal year with 2.5 million units sold worldwide after it launches this winter. Sales projections exceed Street Fighter X Tekken (2 million), Dragon’s Dogma (1.5 million), and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (800,000). While those three games are developed internally at Capcom, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is in the hands of SOCOM developer Slant Six.
While Monster Hunter Portable 3rd was Capcom’s top selling game with 4.6 million units sold in Japan, Dead Rising 2 was Capcom’s biggest international hit with 2.2 million units sold worldwide and at the time it was also developed by an outside Western studio. Capcom attributes close oversight of overseas partners as the reason why Dead Rising 2 was a success. Shortly afterwards, Capcom acquired Blue Castle Games and turned it into Capcom Vancouver.
Another element of Capcom’s growth strategy is to make more overseas development partners. In addition to Slant Six, Ninja Theory is handling another key Capcom property, Devil May Cry, by working on DmC. When it comes to major releases, Capcom claims 90% of sales are overseas and only 10% are from Japan.
