It have to be good being Capcom. At a time when a lot of the video games business is in a historic bout of brutal layoffs, studio closures, and different assorted cost-cutting measures that mysteriously appear to by no means contact the C-suite, the Resident Evil and Avenue Fighter maker is elevating salaries and, now, posting its seventh consecutive 12 months of file earnings and eleventh consecutive 12 months of working revenue development.
In a Capcom press launch earlier immediately, the corporate introduced that its internet gross sales within the fiscal 12 months ended March 31, 2024 totalled 152,410 million yen, or round $979 million (£784 million, a 21% year-on-year improve. The corporate’s myriad different revenue breakdowns—working and peculiar revenue and “internet revenue attributable to house owners of the guardian”—additionally noticed double-digit p.c will increase.
What’s chargeable for all of the moolah headed Capcom’s means? The corporate attributes its outcomes to its “core Digital Contents enterprise,” which is just about MBA-speak for video games. The company offered extra video games within the final monetary 12 months than it is ever offered earlier than: 45.89 million. Specifically, Capcom calls out Avenue Fighter 6, “which leads [Capcom’s] esports actions,” and the discharge of Dragon’s Dogma 2 as heavy hitters in its total outcomes.
Each of which, I am led to consider, are excellent video games, however Capcom’s given its largest earner brief shrift right here: The actual champion of its 2023/2024 monetary 12 months catalogue was none apart from Leon S Kennedy. In a presentation launched alongside its announcement, Capcom put out a chart of the monetary 12 months’s high videogame sellers. Resident Evil 4 pipped Avenue Fighter 6 to the publish with round 3.4 million gross sales within the monetary 12 months (making 7 million gross sales over its lifetime to date). SF6 fell simply wanting that, with 3.3 million gross sales.
Additionally, Monster Hunter: World continues chugging alongside because the world’s Tenth-or-so largest faith: It took up third place within the monetary 12 months with 2.8 million copies offered, making 25 million gross sales throughout its lifetime).
Lastly, shout to Dragon’s Dogma 2, the deeply idiosyncratic RPG that launched with barely any time within the monetary 12 months left, and which has nonetheless managed to be Capcom’s fourth largest vendor with 2.6 million copies offered. I suppose these microtransactions did not annoy folks an excessive amount of.
So, sure, Capcom’s had its greatest 12 months ever since final 12 months, which was its greatest 12 months ever because the 12 months earlier than that, and so forth and so forth. The corporate forecasts that its subsequent monetary 12 months—the one we’re in now—will see it promote 50 million items. An attention-grabbing prediction, on condition that the corporate is type of out of massively fashionable, universally beloved Resident Evils to remake. So, hey, let’s meet again right here this time subsequent 12 months to see if it made good on the promise.