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Capcom developing social games for Android, Smurfs' Village hits 15M downloads
Capcom has made so much smurfing money off Smurfs' Village for iOS that its Smurfville simulator will also become available on September 28 for Android. The publisher announced that the app has reached 15 million downloads, making it the top-grossing title on Apple's App Store in 69 countries. Smurfs' Village is the first Capcom social game, under its Beeline brand, to make the move to Android. The publisher is "committed" to developing more social games that will be available on both the iOS and Android platform going forward. Mo' smurfin' social games, mo' money.
Capcom profits soar with help from record AAA game sales
Good ol' video games came through for Capcom over the twelve months ending March 31, 2011. The company reported "a history-making milestone" of five million-seller titles in the period, with Monster Hunter Freedom 3 (4.6 million units shipped) leading the pack. Additionally, Dead Rising 2 (2.2M units), Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2M units), Super Street Fighter IV (1.6M units) and Lost Planet 2 (1.5M units) racked up high shipment numbers, and each surpassed the million-mark in pure sales. In all, net sales in Capcom's "Consumer Online Games" division increased 60.8 percent over the previous fiscal year to ¥70.3 billion (about $873 million). But the sales success of so-called "major titles" wasn't the only contributing factor in Capcom's record bottom line for a fiscal year, which showed a net income increase of 257.6 percent over the previous year to ¥7.75 billion -- roughly $96.3 million in profit! Despite reported losses of ¥1.45 billion due to restructuring and another ¥105 million filed under "disaster" -- the Great East Japan Earthquake knocked out ten of Capcom's arcades -- all of the company's business units recorded operating income gains for the year. Notably, the "Mobile Contents" division enjoyed some highlights, with downloads of The Smurfs' Village Facebook game exceeding expectations "by far" and the Japan-only iPhone version of Ghost Trick faring "well." Capcom tempered its jubilation, however, noting that the forecast for the current fiscal year (ending March 31, 2012) calls for "lower sales and earnings." The company anticipates "immeasurable economic losses" in Japan due to the earthquake and its aftermath, as well as a "downturn in consumer confidence" in the game industry at large -- not to mention Capcom's weaker offering of AAA titles this year. Dead Rising 2 ... again? "We will focus more than ever before on our global operations as the environment surrounding the industry rapidly changes," Capcom said, observing that "the rise of social games [is] fueling the growth of new competitors in the industry."
Monster Hunter again captures 'center stage' in Capcom 9-month fiscal report
At this time last year, Capcom was thanking Monster Hunter Tri for helping the company boost its 2009 year-end financial results. Today, Capcom heralded the monstrous shipments of Monster Hunter Freedom 3 that closed out 2010 and propelled the publisher's profits up nearly 300 percent in a nine-month period. During the first three quarters of its current fiscal year (which ends March 31, 2011), Capcom netted ¥6.836 billion (nearly $84 million) in profit -- up from just ¥1.731 the same period the year before. Sales of "Consumer Online Games" (what we call "video games," excluding mobile content) were the driving force, totaling ¥54.057 billion ($663.6 million) -- a bit more than 76 percent of total sales for the business, which includes arcade and amusement ("slot machine") operations. Joining Monster Hunter Freedom 3 (currently only available in Japan), Capcom noted three additional "million-sellers" in the nine-month period (April–December 2010): Dead Rising 2 (with more than 2 million units shipped); Super Street Fighter IV (1.6 million units shipped "mainly to Europe and the United States"); and Lost Planet 2 (1.5 million sold -- "though the figure was less than [the] projected shipment"). During the period, Capcom also worked on "rebuilding the development departments comprising our core competence" in an effort to shift greater resources to its mobile operations, with specific focus on social gaming. Sales of "Mobile Contents" for the three quarters amounted to a modest ¥2.383 billion ($29.25 million), led by a bevy of iPhone releases and some "positive surprises," including the popularity of The Smurfs' Village on Facebook. And Capcom hasn't even accounted for all the MaXplosion press in January yet!
Capcom bringing social Smurf game to iDevices
What the smurf? Did you hear that Capcom is set to release a social Smurf game for the iPod, iPhone and iPad this November? We couldn't smurfing believe it either. Promoting the upcoming Smurf movie, the game is called The Smurfs' Village and has players rebuilding (what else?) a Smurf village that's been sacked by Gargamel. Players begin the game with a single mushroom house and a plot of land and are allowed to rebuild the village as they see fit (sounds familiar). The game will be free to download and play, which sounds hunky smurfy, until you read this smurfing bit of text in the press release: "To expedite growing and construction times, players can opt to purchase Smurfberries as downloadable content." Well that's just smurfing smurf. %Gallery-106203%
