Capcom sales, profits tumble

Capcom's profits for the quarter ending June 30 were down 23 percent year-on-year to ¥775 million ($9.97 million), while its income was down 37.2 percent to ¥11.953 billion ($154 million), it announced today. This decline was due to the lack of new game releases in the period, Capcom said.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, which were both released during the firm's most recent fiscal quarter "basically achieved projected sales," the firm said. PSP title Monster Hunter Portable 3rd helped Capcom's bottom line with strong sales, though exact figures were not published.

Game sales were down 57 percent year-on-year, with sales in the three months to June 30 totalling ¥6.4 billion ($83 million) compared to ¥15 billion in the same period last year--a decline of 56.9 percent. Profits were down 76.5 percent to ¥419 million ($5.39 million) for the same period.

Capcom was buoyed by results from other areas of its business, however. Its mobile division, which includes social games on platforms such as Facebook, saw sales rise by a considerable 79.8 percent to ¥1.22 billion ($15.7 million) and saw profits rise by an astronomical 362.2 percent to ¥451 million ($5.8 million).

Its arcade business was also a rare bright spot, despite being seriously affected by the major earthquake that hit Japan in March. "Intense recovery efforts" meant that all of the 10 arcades that were affected by the earthquake had reopened by the end of April, the firm said. The current economic climate was also helping the arcades as they are deemed to be both "affordable" and "readily accessible" by the public, Capcom said.