Capcom net sales down 29%, Monster Hunter sales strong (again)

For the nine months ending December 31, Capcom net sales down 29% year over year, to 50.27 billion yen ($660.6 million). Similarly, operating income for the period is down 47.2%, despite such collaborative cross-marketing efforts as "the launch of beverages based on popular characters, in order to leverage highly popular software to achieve increased visibility, expanded fan base and other synergistic effects."

It's not so much that Capcom did poorly this year — last year featured the breakout successes of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and Super Street Fighter IV, among others. The blockbusters this year aren't as numerous and not quite as blockbustery. According to Capcom, Monster Hunter Tri-G sold 1.2 million copies since its December release in Japan. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record moved 800,000 and 500,000 respectively. That's still a pretty good return on a set of games entirely based on existing games.