As Resident Evil 6 prepares to terrify gamers next month, Capcom's annual financial report has been released and contains information regarding the company's future plans, which includes online, mobile and social gaming. The news was first reported by IGN.
In the financial report, Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto said the following:
"We launch sales of popular series titles held by the Company approximately every 2.5 years. This is because the development of a single major title usually requires 3-4 years; in the event that there are few hits, it will be difficult to create a series title every year and earnings will be adversely impacted.
For this reason, it is important either to maintain a large number of popular titles or shorten the sales cycle to ensure stable earnings. Among the multitude of major titles held by Capcom - such as Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Lost Planet, Dead Rising and many others - we will promote shortening of the sales cycle in pursuit of further earnings stabilisation and growth."
The report went onto to describe how Capcom's "intellectual properties with universal market appeal," are key to the company's "Single Content Multiple Usage Strategy." The strategy revolves around building games that can be shipped to multiple devices such.
The report also said: "with the worldwide adoption of smartphones and tablet devices, the market is experiencing rapid growth. The advent of App Stores and the establishment of other global platforms are opening up a whole new segment of game users in new regions such as the Middle East and Asia."
Capcom has a distribution team ready to deal with this,"new light game user segment" that is emerging.The company's Beeline brand distributes social games for smartphones that look to garner the attention of non-traditional Capcom user.
"We will continue to develop popular series for mobile phones by making effective use of the content and expertise accumulated over years of consumer game development with the Capcom brand," The report said.
Tsujimoto discusses online and social gaming in the report and says that Capcom was late to the platform, but has since caught-up with games like Resident Evil: Outbreak.
"With regard to online development, we were a bit late to enter the domestic social game domain, but we have finally solidified our lineup and gained expertise along the way. From now, we will develop social games from popular package games with the objective of getting this area on track. "Resident Evil: Outbreak Survive"(GREE) , which began distribution in June 2011, already has more than two million members."
While most of this is just business jargon, gamers have to wonder if the next generation of consoles will see either company snagging a Capcom exclusive. The report is filled with information and can be read in full here.
