Capcom Halves Profit Forecast After Poor Sales In Mobile Market

Capcom has announced ahead of its annual financial results that it will revise its current profit projections by more than 50 per cent. Despite an increase in profits from their famed Monster Hunter franchise, the company has issued a statement to halve their profit forecast after underwhelming sales in both the mobile market and Monster Hunter Frontier G – the online game which is exclusive to Japan.

The Osaka-based company has reduced its consolidated net income profit forecast from its original projection of 6.8 billion yen (around $66 million) to 3.3 billion yen (around $32 million). However, Capcom’s net sales are due to increase from 97 billion yen to 101.5 billion yen, primarily due to strong sales from Monster Hunter 4.

Though sales have increased, the mobile market hasn’t quite hit the ground running and Capcom has suffered a significant “special loss” of 5 billion yen from setting aside “post business structural improvement expenses” to reorganise the product development framework and improve development processes. A small section of the offiical statement from Capcom can be found below.

“The forecast for consolidated sales has been increased mainly because of strong sales of ‘Monster Hunter 4’, the biggest title in Capcom’s home video games business, and the highly successful pachislo title ‘Monster Hunter Gekka Raimei’. On the other hand, the operating income and ordinary income forecasts have been lowered because of a decline in profitability. The primary reasons for this decline are below expectations of products in the highly profitable mobile contents and ‘Monster Hunter Frontier G’ online game. The net income forecast has been lowered for these reasons as well as to incorporate the special loss explained in the previous section. As a result, Capcom revises the forecast for consolidated business for the fiscal year ending March 2014.”