Capcom released today its quarterly financial results for the first half of the fiscal year 2017, which ended on September 30th.
All relevant sales and income figures are in the black, and as you can see in the table below, actually show a significant improvement year-on-year.
The increase was motivated by “favorable sales of new titles and licensing revenue in the Digital Contents business.” For those unfamiliar with the terminology, the Digital Contents business is the one related to games.
Interestingly, we also learn that Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite shipped 900,000 copies in its first ten days on the market, as of September 30th. Resident Evil 7 biohazard shipped an additional 600,000 copies between July and September. This brings its total shipments to 4.1 million units.
A look at total sales shows that Capcom shipped 3,550,000 copies of its games at retail in the first half of the fiscal year (from April to September), while 4,850,000 copies were sold via digital download, for a total of 8,400,000 copies. This is almost two million above the same period in 2016.
Speaking of Monster Hunter World, the publisher mentions that it “drew much attention” at E3, and was “overwhelmingly popular” at Tokyo Game Show, raising expectations for its successful release. Capcom also noticed “broad signs of recovery” in the industry due to “greater penetration” of PS4″ strong performance” of the Nintendo Switch.
“In June, Monster Hunter: World (for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC), which will be one of our major titles for the current fiscal year, drew much attention from show-goers at E3, one of the world’s largest trade shows for computer and video games held in the U.S., and was also overwhelmingly popular at the Tokyo Game Show 2017 held in September, raising expectations for its release next January.
In such an environment, as part of its reexamination of the mobile contents division, the Company took on initiatives to strengthen its management structure by integrating development and operations, which included the absorption-type merger of Capcom Mobile, Inc., its wholly-owned subsidiary.In addition, the Company made efforts to reduce costs and expenses by reviewing and re-evaluating cost of sales and selling, general and administrative expenses in order to improve profitability.”
Interestingly, Capcom deems the results of Monster Hunter XX for Nintendo Switch “Strong,” and classifies Ultra Street Fighter II The Final Challengers a “smash hit,” even if neither title became a million seller.
“In this business, Monster Hunter XX (Double Cross) Nintendo Switch Ver. (for Nintendo Switch) performed strongly, while Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC), which targets the European and US markets, was released in September.
In addition to Ultra Street Fighter II The Final Challengers (for Nintendo Switch) turning out to be a smash hit, catalog unit sales of such titles as Monster Hunter XX (Double Cross) (for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems), which was released in the previous fiscal year, also contributed to the increase in revenues to a certain extent.
Furthermore, in online games, Monster Hunter Frontier Z, a perennial favorite which underwent a major update commemorating its 10th anniversary, performed steadily; while in mobile contents, amid the reorganization of operations, which include the Company carrying out alliance strategies to bring about a breakthrough in the business, Monster Hunter Explore remained popular, while licensing revenue from utilizing our IP also contributed to the increase in profits.
The resulting net sales were 20,138 million yen (up 23.0 % from the same term in the previous year) and operating income was 3,830 million yen (up 248.4% from the same term in the previous year).”
If you want to compare today’s results with those of the first quarter of the fiscal year, you can check out our dedicated article.