GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Low Lost Planet 2 sales cause Capcom to cut outlook

"Large shortfall" in sales of sci-fi shooter force Japanese publisher to slash six month profit forecast by 1.2 billion yen, a drop of 41.4%.

224 Comments

Compared to its well-reviewed elder sibling, Lost Planet 2 was a critical flop, averaging just 68 out of 100 on Metacritic and receiving just 5.5 out of 10 from GameSpot. Today, Capcom announced the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and (soon) PC game was also a commercial failure--so much so that the Japanese publisher is revising down its earnings for its entire fiscal year.

Lost Planet 2's slow sales left a bad taste in Capcom's mouth.
Lost Planet 2's slow sales left a bad taste in Capcom's mouth.

"Capcom has been unable to offset the large shortfall in sales relative to the plan for the flagship title Lost Planet 2 that was released overseas in the fiscal year's first quarter," the company said in a statement. Other reasons for the revision included the delay of Dead Rising 2 and the continuing weakness of the American dollar against the yen.

As a result, the company is lowering its earnings estimates for the six months ended September 30 by ¥4.8 billion ($57.4 million) to ¥40.5 billion ($484.6 million), a decrease of 10.6 percent. Profit projections were trimmed by ¥1.2 billion ($14.4 million) to ¥1.7 billion ($20.3 million), a 41.4 percent decrease to what it took in turning the same period in 2009.

For the full fiscal year, the Osaka, Japan-based company lopped off ¥4.0 billion ($47.9 million) from its revenue guidance and is now predicting annual sales of ¥91.0 billion ($1.08 billion). Some ¥1.5 billion ($18.0 million) was shaved off the profit forecast, which now stands at ¥6.5 billion ($77.8 million).

Set 10 years after the original, Lost Planet 2 picks up in the wake of substantial terraforming on EDN III that replaced the frigid tundra with large swaths of lush forests. Its campaign follows the protagonist and three non-player characters through six chapters, each of which features multiple outcomes that hinge on the actions of players.

For more on the title, check out GameSpot's review of the Lost Planet 2.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.
This video has an invalid file format.
00:00:00
Sorry, but you can't access this content!
Please enter your date of birth to view this video

By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 224 comments about this story
224 Comments  RefreshSorted By 
GameSpot has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to toxic conduct in comments. Any abusive, racist, sexist, threatening, bullying, vulgar, and otherwise objectionable behavior will result in moderation and/or account termination. Please keep your discussion civil.

Avatar image for Talus057
Talus057

358

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 46

User Lists: 0

@jarvool publisher =/= developer developers have been jumping ships back and forth for the better part of the decade. publishers are to blame for everything wrong with the industry. i kind of wish some rich developer would start his or her own publishing company, by developers & for developers. I am tired of publishers that think they have a say in the development process so they can cut development wherever and however they please. All non-indie titles that flopped between 1998 and 2010 are due to the flaws of their publishers. Stardock's CEO said it best; too many people in the industry want to be rockstars and are not interested in business. So instead of making a game they make costly cinematics and spend more time on unimportant things that could arguably be just as good in a completely different direction. But I have a feeling the hardware companies lobby to the publishers to get them to push the hardware requirement which increases the time of development, such as when flagship games like this get their time cut by 6 - 12 months and end up lacking content that gives them bad reviews and impacts sales immensely. This happens a lot, on practically every other flagship mainstream title. If these things didn't happen we would still have games like tribes and xenogears today. Maybe the OSI team would still be making MMOs but instead we are forced to buy Clone Clones while they blame their inadequacy on the nonexistent issue of piracy. The truth is that piracy is not the enemy nearly as much as they are to themselves. In short; Publishers FTL.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Maim00
Maim00

34

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

What? No mention of pirates and how they are destroying the industry?

Upvote • 
Avatar image for XboxGuy1537
XboxGuy1537

2360

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 31

User Lists: 0

Lost Planet 2 was mediocre....

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Freethinker101
Freethinker101

139

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@colonel-snake Thanks for the interesting reply dude. Your right DR2 does feel unfinished on the PS3, but I still enjoy it. I suppose I have much love for Capcom as they regularly feed my Zombie addiction and for this I will always forgive them.....

Upvote • 
Avatar image for jarvool
jarvool

33

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Doesn't surprise me that the game didn't sell well, it wasn't reviewed well. Developers and publishers need to understand people don't want to pay $60 for unpolished garbage. I'd rather have a game delayed for 6-10months than have it play like crap. I was looking forward to LP2 until I found out about all the issues. Didn't Capcom make the Breath of Fire series? If they could release a quality breath of fire game that would probably shake things up for them. Theres a lot of mediocre JRPG's coming out these days. Even the big names like FF13 are getting mixed reviews from people. A good delivery in this field could help them big time, not to mention it has brand power with a lot of old school gamers. Ultimately, I think Inafune said it best when he claimed japanese developers are 5 years behind in games. I grew up loving JRPG's and japanese developers in general were my favourite. Unfortunately, they seem to have not grown along with me. Most Japanese stories these days are so trite and childlike I can't bare to listen to them. Thats really unfortunate since story is one of the main reasons I play games. I also find that their game mechanics are either very dated or very different and cumbersome. For example not being able to walk forward while shooting/knifing in RE5 was just silly... Not to say all japanese developed game are bad these days, or that all western games are good. I've just noticed these trends in genres of my personal taste.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for scorpgul
scorpgul

526

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Not a surprise at all. The controls for lost planet 2 was among the worst ever in gaming history

Upvote • 
Avatar image for shaun_ofda_dead
shaun_ofda_dead

697

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

so does this mean we aren't gonna see a sequel to haunting grounds? i never played lp2, but i did just buy the first one for 5 dollars at my local record exchange. its a fun game, but not worth much more than the 5 dollars i spent on it. seriously though, why send over a game like monster hunter? or revise an actual good series like onimusha instead of rehashing dmc and re?

Upvote • 
Avatar image for jorgeurantia
jorgeurantia

81

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 1

THAT IS WHATYOU PRODUCE BY BEING S OVERCRITICVALL ON GAMES 5.5 IS MESS, U CAT USE THAT RATE IF U WANT TOPROTCT THESE INDUSTRY. TRY TO KEEP IT UP , CRITICS, PEPLE, MAKE THESE GUYS EARN THOSE BILLION YENS SO WE CAN HAVE MORE ANDMORE GAMES AND THEY D'NT GO BUNKRUPT AND BYEBYE GAMES. please.-

Upvote • 
Avatar image for spOOoOOn
spOOoOOn

486

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 4

User Lists: 0

@shkar Well.. actually be as good as halo maybe?

Upvote • 
Avatar image for shkar
shkar

571

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

for what is worth I and my friend really enjoyed beating this game in a great Co-OP experience and really liked the game,,,, I don't know what these great games need to be commercially as successful as lame titles like HALO ......

Upvote • 
Avatar image for IronShard360
IronShard360

126

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

i think they should release the unfinished resident evil games like resi 4, before it was the game we know it to be now. just go back to those original concepts and finish it off. i know id buy it lol

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Headpopper333
Headpopper333

924

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Dead Rising 2 will pick up the slack, game is amazingly addictive ;)

Upvote • 
Avatar image for CrimzonPsycho
CrimzonPsycho

2203

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

I found the game to be pretty bad...I liked number 1 ALOT but idk for some reason I Hated this one....:( I just got it a few days ago and am already selling it after playing it abit

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Charliesix
Charliesix

166

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

I can't believe Capcom makes $1 billion in revenue a year. It's just one game company and it makes that much in sales?! According to Wikipedia, Capcom has about 1,930 employees. If you divide $1 billion by 1930, you get about $518,000 per employee! Maybe no one got super rich off of Lost Planet 2, but an $80 million profit forecast is still pretty great.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for bigdg85
bigdg85

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

the story for it was really hard to follow, i had no connection to it at all. also the checkpoint's and lack of a skip button during cutscenes was really frustrating.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for RSM-HQ
RSM-HQ

11670

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 94

User Lists: 1

What would help Capcom is making a HD edition on Resident Evil 4. Put it on XBLA & PSN and watch it sell, sell, sell.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for dz99ls
dz99ls

429

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 50

User Lists: 6

Low lost planet sales are due to the fact they runied they game. Good im glad

Upvote • 
Avatar image for t0taldj
t0taldj

1397

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

No **** it left a bad taste in Capcom's mouth. LP2 was poorly made, it was an unfinished product. Just wait and see how the new DmC fails

Upvote • 
Avatar image for mykel77
mykel77

213

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 19

User Lists: 0

hey im all for changes but when your deliberately trying to mix a bunch of styles into a game it doesnt work. they tried to focus too much on multiplayer thinkin everyone likes that. But capcom has like zero experience in that field they arent bungie, or epic. Most capcom games are single player or fighter 1-1. then here comes lost planet and it was like playing 3 different games with the main focus on multi why i have no clue. when all we wanted was a great story, gameplay and solid package. we got a multiplayer lackluster game with zero story and bland everything. stick to what you know, expand and be creative but dont forget your target audience.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Ladiesman17
Ladiesman17

1280

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

crappy games one after another. last year Bionic Commando. this year Dark Void & Lost Planet 2 :? what the heck.. with lamey parade every month..

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Axel450
Axel450

50

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Just bring MegaMan Legends to the Psp and we'll be fine, right? Or, we could always just MAKE A BATTLE NETWORK COLLECTION.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for revanknight
revanknight

321

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 0

That has a tendency to happen when you put quantity before quality.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for BillyColeman
BillyColeman

907

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 114

User Lists: 0

hey crapcom o i mean capcom you want real cash bring out monster hunter frontier for the xbox360 n stop keeping it in japan now thats a good plan ooooooo.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Frost259
Frost259

199

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Lost Planet 2 was just a bad game, GameInformer gave it a good review cuz Gstop wanted it to sell, but really Lost Planet 1 wasn't a great game either. Really play it again, it had a lot of old gameplay concepts and really wasn't that great.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for lock445
lock445

399

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 7

User Lists: 0

Bad game=bad sales... what is there not to understand about that?

Upvote • 
Avatar image for PokemonBoy92
PokemonBoy92

188

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 0

You know i have to say Lost Planet 2 was sorta a let down for me it was fun but the first when was way better! I played the first one about 3-4 times... But I found myself after beating Lost Planet 2 just trading it back in the GameStop! IDK maybe it was just me but...

Upvote • 
Avatar image for dRuGGeRnaUt
dRuGGeRnaUt

1637

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I don't know, the past couple years, capcom has done nothing to make me really pay attention to them. RE5 was a big let down, having not played any RE since re3, i found it not even within the same world, or gametype. I don't know, fighting games dont interest me anymore, (maybe in the arcade), and the rest of their line-up doesn't interest me either. Dead Rising 2 doesnt(i know its a good game, just didnt like it or the first), and neither does ANOTHER fake RE game. Here's hoping they pull it together and stop relying on their name and legacy to carry them through.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for fadersdream
fadersdream

3154

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 6

User Lists: 0

@TerrorRizzing i agree. the first game came out when the console was new, and compared to ps2 and xbox titles it was pretty sharp. but when i played it two years later it was clunky and cheesy and tried too hard to be like arcade quarter muncher.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for fadersdream
fadersdream

3154

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 6

User Lists: 0

if you don't release games, and especially good games, throughout the majority of the year then you don't make money.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Hanzoadam
Hanzoadam

6576

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 73

User Lists: 0

To be honest I enjoyed it

Upvote • 
Avatar image for spOOoOOn
spOOoOOn

486

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 4

User Lists: 0

Well that kind of happens if you don't actually improve the sequel...

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Printul_Noptii
Printul_Noptii

2155

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 17

User Lists: 0

Well I will buy Lost Plenet 2 for the PC day one ^^ don't know why so many reviewer said its that bad, its actually pretty solid and fun, just look at the player related ratings !

Upvote • 
Avatar image for MEDzZ3RO
MEDzZ3RO

2396

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@jubino Marvel VS Capcom 3 and Dead Rising 2 will save their arse.As would a Resident Evil 4 remake or Resident Evil 6.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for jubino
jubino

6265

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 11

User Lists: 0

They've been making pretty mediocre games for a while now. They need to shake things up a lot. They're lucky zombies are so popular. Valve has already proven they can do zombies better, so it's only a matter of time until Capcom goes under completely.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for granasaberx
granasaberx

28

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

Upvote • 
Avatar image for NEO101010
NEO101010

26

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

Lost planet 2 and dark void were the games that capcome must shame because creating them !!!!

Upvote • 
Avatar image for fightmusician
fightmusician

161

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

The demo for this game that came out way back was amazing. It was sad when I read the Gamespot review and found out it was a not as good as I was hoping. Hopefully they have better luck next time.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Xplode_77
Xplode_77

3518

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 1

Capcom rocks! That sucks they Lost so much (pun intended)

Upvote • 
Avatar image for SuperMegaMaster
SuperMegaMaster

418

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Too bad! maybe next time they will succeed..

Upvote • 
Avatar image for TerrorRizzing
TerrorRizzing

4232

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 0

the first one sucked too, but now that there are many games to play on the new consoles nobody bought the sequel. Just look at the reception the first one got on pc. They try to make it seem like low review scores are what made the game not sell well, no its just that the series sucks.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Elgranpimp
Elgranpimp

102

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 8

User Lists: 0

Maybe I am one of the very few people that actually enjoyed LP2 and didn't feel that it merited the scores that it got. I'm not saying that the game deserved a 9 but I think it was definitely better than a 5.5. What it needs to fix for LP3 Story: It just needs one. Period. And if there is character customization then show their faces in the cutscenes. When I unlocked the GoW dudes their mouths wouldn't move. grrr. Monsters: More of them. Much more of them. I want to have multiple approaches to each boss. Just like the salamander (fight on its back, inside of his stomach, etc.) Less snow pirates. We all know that fighting them are the least fun parts of the game. Grappling Hook: Fix it!!! If I jump I should still be able to use it in mid air. And making it a little longer wouldn't hurt either. Slot Machine: remove this. Use a purchase system. Controls: I didn't think these were bad but apparently a lot of other people do so you might want to revisit. Maybe they were referencing the frequent knockbacks. I never had too much trouble with this but I guess many people did. Matchmaking: I thought that most of the menus were easy except for these ones. Just revisit so that it looks more like a Halo or CoD system. Anyways, I hope that we still see a LP3 in the future because it has been an interesting series with lots of potential. I would really like to see it pulled off correctly. If that takes the franchise moving from Capcom to another publisher then so be it.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Rupee23
Rupee23

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

<< LINK REMOVED >> While they're at it, they should let us jump mid-air as many times as we want, and what's the point of it taking multiple bullets to kill something? One bullet should be more fun. Also, being completely invincible would be nice.


It's called gameplay design, they limit you on purpose, not because they don't know how to develop games. The old Castlevania games did this too.


You consumers and publishers are effecitively collaborating to bring down respectable developers.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Trogeton
Trogeton

2776

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 45

User Lists: 0

well duh you could have asked anyone who has been having a 360 for over 3 years that this game would do poor in sales.. I mean the 1st one was lame, slow paced and simple campaign so nothing new here

Upvote • 
Avatar image for StiffZombie
StiffZombie

861

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I never saw this coming. I had though LP 2 was going to be insane based off the years old demo. Oh well.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for doom1649
doom1649

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

And this is how the new DMC will turn out

Upvote • 
Avatar image for zo70
zo70

221

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Sounds like the Same amount of money the Playstation move is Losing

Upvote • 
Avatar image for Tzunoy
Tzunoy

202

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Have Capcom opened their eyes to see How horrible is this game? I mean wtf??? Is their blame if they fall down because a game need to be produced with Interest to make it good in all aspects or at least to try to make it good not just throw there the ingredients and hope for the best.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for salad10203
salad10203

117

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

Should have spent more paying off the Gamespot staff.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for FinalDuo1886
FinalDuo1886

854

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 18

User Lists: 0

I just hope Capcom doesn't repeat it's past mistakes, because it looks like they're going down that road again.

Upvote • 
Avatar image for badman11226
badman11226

457

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

The first LP was action/adventure with a decent story, the 2nd LP was straight up arcade with no story. The gameplay was so bad in LP2. In Lp2 you have no chance of defending urself, when u get knockback might as well put the controller down cuz u aint getting back up.

Upvote •