Capcom, the Japanese developer and publisher behind multi-million-selling game franchises like Street Fighter, Mega Man, Darkstalkers and Dead Rising, has raised its full-year financial forecasts as a result of the success of Monster Hunter Rise and the Resident Evil 3 remake.
Last May, the company, which has subsidiaries in North America, Europe, and Japan, announced that it expected net sales of $792.9 million, and both operating and ordinary income of $246.6 million, which were significantly higher that their results for the previous financial year. The updated forecasts now predict $890 million in net sales, $294.9 million in operating income and $290.1 million in ordinary income.
Capcom, founded as I.R.M. Corporation on May 30, 1979, by Kenzo Tsujimoto, credited the increase to its "recent success in proactively growing digital sales" for its games business, noting the sales of the Resident Evil 3 remake, which was released on April 3, 2020, and continued growth of back catalogue titles like Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, which was released in September 2019.
The company also reported that orders for Monster Hunter Rise, a forthcoming action RPG in the Monster Hunter series developed for the Nintendo Switch that will be released on March 26, "are off to a promising start." The unprecedented increase in digital games sales as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns have afforded Capcom record results in Q2 of the current financial year. On January 28, the company will release its Q3 results.
Capcom compiles a list, which it updates each quarter, of games that have sold more than one million copies. The Platinum Titles list contains over 100 video games. As of September 30, 2020, the top five titles sold were Monster Hunter World, released in January 2018 (16.4 million copies), Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, released in January 2017 (8.3 million copies), Resident Evil 5, released in March 2009 (7.7 million copies, Resident Evil 6, released in October 2012 (7.6 million copies), and Resident Evil 2 Remake, released in January 2019 (7.5 million copies).
Source: GamesIndustry