Last week, Capcom announced that in the face of lower-than-expected sales and an evolving videogame market, they are re-evaluating their work-in-progress projects. This re-evaluation includes cancelling certain games that were already in development, although Capcom have not provided any specifics as to just what these games were.
What we do know now, is that most of these games were planned for release in 2014 and beyond. In a financial results Q&A, Capcom clarified:
“There were a few titles scheduled for the current fiscal year, but most of the cancelations were for releases planned in the fiscal year ending March 2015 and subsequent fiscal years. No titles that had already been announced were canceled.”
Regardless of these cancelled projects, Capcom say that developing console games will remain the core element of the company’s strategy. Declining sales will be partly offset by DLC sales, which will be one of Capcom’s focuses going forward.
“We believe that sales in the console and online category (downloadable content and other products) will continue to increase even if home video game packaged software sales decline,” the company reveals in the same Q&A. “Developing content for the home video game market will remain the core element of our strategy.”
For the ongoing fiscal year, Capcom have high expectations of Monster Hunter 4, which they expect will bring an improvement to profitability. Additionally, while not mentioned in their financial presentations, Capcom are also debuting a major new I.P. in Japan this year, titled Gaist Crusher.
