In mid-August, Capcom VP Christian Svensson reaffirmed the company's commitment to developing software for the PlayStation Portable. Calling rumors that support would entirely cease "absolutely 100% false," he told the official Capcom forums that the company was in fact making more PSP games.
But if PSP development has not stopped, it has certainly slowed. In a chart available today on Capcom's Investor Relations website, the company has revealed that though FY2008 saw the release of 16 PSP games, and 20 were released in FY2007, this financial year we will see no more than six.
However, before all you PSP owners rise up in arms against your beloved developer, we should caution you that the number '6' doesn't mean anything until you qualify it with another number: 2,200,000. That's the number of copies Capcom expects those six titles to collectively sell.
Certainly, that number won't be difficult to reach if they're counting sales of smash hit Monster Hunter 2G, which released just three days before the March 30th cutoff date for financial year 2008 figures... but if not, each one of those six games is responsible on average for pulling in 365,000 purchases. Quality over quantity?
Though the decline in PSP support is the most pronounced, the trend certainly isn't limited to that system. Overall, Capcom is producing 26% fewer titles this year.
But considering that sales projections for the year are still 15% higher (see that little dot way above the 2009 column?) we wonder if Capcom will add the phrase "less is more" to their existing corporate philosophies of "single content, multiple usage," global expansion, film production and multiplatform release.
Leave a Reply