Today Capcom announced its financial results for the first nine months of the fiscal year, related to the period between April 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022.
The company as a whole achieved 79,671 million yen in net sales (down 9.6% year-on-year) and 33,332 million yen in operating income (down 5% year-on-year).
That being said, despite the small decline, Capcom says it's still on track to achieve its goal for the full fiscal year, also thanks to the launch of a "major new title" in the fourth quarter (between January and March 2023), which is likely the Resident Evil 4 remake, which launches just in time on March 24.
As such, the full-year forecast has not been changed.
We hear that, despite the decline in net sales and earnings, Capcom actually sold more video game units than it did in the same period last year, 29.8 million compared to 25.8 million. Of these, catalog sales (from previous fiscal years) were 22 million, also growing from 18.2 million in the previous year.
Among the drivers of these sales were Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak for new games and Monster Hunter: World, Devil May Cry 5, and Resident Evil Village for catalog games.
The Digital Content Business, which included games, achieved 61,242 million yen in net sales (down 13.1% year-on-year) and 34,612 million yen in operating income (down 3.6% year-on-year).
The reason for the decline in net sales and operating income is indicated in the comparison against a major title released in the first nine months of the previous fiscal year. Basically, Capcom this well during this fiscal year, just not as well as it did between April 2021 and March 2022. Considering the relaxation of the precaution against the COVID-19 pandemic that has slowed down the entertainment industry, that's not a bad overall result.
