Capcom 2013 financial results sees revenue climb despite poor game sales

Capcom revenue climbed by the millions this fiscal year, rising from ¥82 billion ($820 million) to ¥94 billion ($940 million) in revenue according to the publisher's full year financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

This is despite a lack of results from the company's increased efforts in digital returns, alongside a number of games that failed to meet sales targets. Capcom's Digital Contents Business, a sector made up of console, Windows PC and mobile titles, saw profits fall by over 50 percent. Even more significantly, this arm of the company accounts for just over 67 percent of its total income.

Similarly, only three of Capcom's software releases reached over 1 million units in sales. DmC: Devil May Cry saw sales of 1.15 million, failing to reach its expected sales of 2 million units. Resident Evil 6 missed its target of 7 million units, selling only 4.9 million instead, while Dragon's Dogma showed success on consoles with 1.3 million units sold.

The company's online games division saw a jump in revenue, however. This year resulted in a 45.9 percent jump in revenue, with an expected increase of 22.3 percent by March of next year. This sector includes titles like Beeline's Smurf Village, a highly successful mobile and online strategy game published by Capcom. The company will focus its efforts on growing this games sector for fiscal 2014, as it works to develop new apps for existing brands.

Capcom projects revenue will remain static in the next fiscal year, despite expecting fewer sales in profit and software worldwide. The company also plans to offer more DLC in the future, according to a statement from COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto.

"I regret to say that, up to now, we had few plans for the full-scale implementation of DLC. From here on out, we need to focus on the long-term provision of content starting at the earliest stages of development," he said.

"Furthermore, in terms of user response, if the additional related content we are providing continually to users online is deemed uninteresting from the start, there will be no ongoing business to pursue. This means that, more than ever before, the creation of underlying content is the key to success."