Capcom Commits to Multiplatform Releases, Film Production, Friendly Overseas Acquisition, 3D Mobile Gaming

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Capcom Commits to Multiplatform Releases, Film Production, Friendly Overseas Acquisition, 3D Mobile Gaming

Fri, Sep 12, 2008

Capcom's 2008 Annual Report is here, and with it are some very educational images and intriguing statements from top brass. Read on for a solid glimpse into where the company is headed. Hint: You probably live there.

Yesterday, Capcom released a ninety-page Annual Report for the financial year ending March 31st, 2008. The unifying theme, as usual, was corporate synergy, backed by the catchphrase "single content, multiple usage"; that last being the idea that Capcom can create brands with lasting appeal, like Street Fighter, and easily insert those brands into arcade units, pachinko machines, comics, figures, movies and more.

But though Capcom's annual report holds mostly layers upon layers of statistics and synergistic discourse, there are a number of disclosures within that might interest even not-so-financially minded gamers. We've sifted through so you don't have to.

1.) Capcom wants to expand overseas, primarily to gain a larger foothold in the U.S. market.

Year after year, Capcom has discovered that the lion’s share of sales is to be found overseas. This year, however, they've provided a handy image to demonstrate exactly how large that share might be with regards to their hit titles.

The difference is vast, and although there are certainly domestic (Japanese) hits as well -- like Monster Hunter -- expansion is a no-brainer. This is especially true when you consider that Capcom's overseas sales ratio looks nothing like that of the global games market:

If Capcom is managing to sell over one half of its games in Japan despite the tremendous sales bias of those aforementioned hit titles towards the west, then perhaps the company's focus is too domestic. Realizing this, the company plans a hefty push into the European market, and an absolutely gigantic one in the US, as pictured immediately above. Basic algebra reveals that if the current 53% in Japan were to expand to 20%, the corresponding U.S. expansion would be over 40%.

But this isn't the first time Capcom has mandated global expansion, and their track record for accomplishing said expansion hasn't been particularly good over the past few years. While Capcom is apparently now the fifth-largest Japanese game company with a market share of 7%, its market share in the U.S. fell from 2.19% in 2005 to 1.43% in 2007, while sales dipped by roughly seven million dollars per year. (UK: 2.2% to 1.4%, and drop of over 12 million dollars per year.) So what has changed?

2.) Capcom is actively looking for "friendly" partnerships and acquisitions to produce titles that appeal to the West.

Contrary to some reports, there's nothing newsworthy in Capcom's statement that they "have no plans to merge with any Japanese video game publishers or toy manufacturers in the foreseeable future," because the entire paragraph in which it appears has been pilfered, more or less, from the annual report issued last year. However, the following sentence is all new:

We will be actively pursuing friendly acquisitions and partnerships.

Expanding U.S. sales by over 40% will be tricky, but another way to boost overseas sales ratios would be for the company to simply acquire or merge with another firm that already has a heavy U.S. and European sales bias. Capcom has had dealings more than once with Take-Two...

3.) Capcom will make all major releases multiplatform.

Last year, Capcom introduced the MT Framework, a integrated development solution that reportedly allowed teams to easily turn the PS3-exclusive Devil May Cry 4 into a multi-platform release on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, and last year's annual report touted the Framework as part of a multi-platform strategy. This year, Capcom has decided that strategy is no longer optional:

"Completing implementation of multi-platform development on major titles" means that all major titles launched during the next fiscal year or thereafter will be developed as multi-platform games.

4.) Capcom will produce its own movies.

At E3 2008, we reported that Capcom was teaming up with Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad to create a movie based on Lost Planet; and that all parties implied that more Capcom films were just down the road. What we didn't know was that starting with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, these movies would no longer be licensed out to studios.

Capcom does not own the image copyright of three films released so far based on the "Resident Evil" series as these have been licensed out to other companies. It is our policy that, from now on, Capcom will keep the copyright for its original content along with its potential earning power within the company as it develops movies based on games.

5.) Capcom will introduce more 3D mobile phone games in the US, and hint that the iPhone may be among those devices supported.

In March 2007, Capcom Interactive was ranked #9 among U.S. mobile phone game publishers. Now, with a market share of 5.4%, they're #4. Capcom plans to tackle the top three by taking mobile games 3D. Though the last two years have seen only one 3D title a year (Resident Evil: The Missions in 2006 and Devil May Cry 3D in 2007), it appears multiple 3D titles are in now being readied for release, and the iPhone is definitely on the company's radar screen:

6.) The new Street Fighter movie has/had a harbor scene.

Though we wouldn't read too much into it, considering the paragraph following this image begins "Reworking the scenario time and again," a page from this set of Street Fighter movie production materials definitely reads "Harbor." Make of it what you will.