Faced with an increasingly competitive videogames market, Capcom have had to lower the sales forecasts yet again for two of their major titles—Resident Evil 6 and DmC Devil May Cry. Here are their new estimates of how many copies they’ve moved as of March 31st, 2013:
Resident Evil 6 – 4.9 million (down from 5 mil., originally 7 mil.)
DmC Devil May Cry – 1.2 million (down from 1.5 mil., originally 2 mil.)
In light of these events, Capcom have attempted to figure out just what has led to their games not meeting their sales targets. Here are the conclusions they’ve arrived at:
- Delayed response to the expanding digital contents market
- Decline in quality due to excessive outsourcing
- Insufficient coordination between marketing and game development divisions in overseas markets
Capcom’s countermeasures to these issues are as follows:
1. Strengthening their digital business:
- Increase in and promotion of DLC (downloadable content)
2. Raising the quality of their games, moving more development in-house:
- Work-in-progress games re-evaluated
- Certain titles discontinued due to “inability to respond to market needs”
- Certain titles outsourced overseas discontinued due to not being compatible with current business strategy
3. Improve global coordination between development and marketing divisions
Capcom have reported a 7.2 billion yen “special loss” resulting from re-evaluating in-development titles that they feel are not in line with current market conditions and taking the appropriate measures against them.
Capcom’s major titles for the year ahead are Lost Planet 3, Resident Evil Revelations on PC/consoles, and Monster Hunter 4. The publisher also mentions other unspecified major titles, which will presumably be revealed at a later date.
