Could someone explain Capcom's reasoning to me?

Capcom hopes for handheld hits

Capcom plans to release 10 PSP and three DS games by the end of March 2006.

TOKYO–In its latest company profile report, Capcom has disclosed it plans to release a total of 10 games for the PlayStation Portable and three for the Nintendo DS during the current business year started April 1, 2005. Five of these games have already been announced, and the PSP editions of Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry could see the light of day before 2006. Further information should become available as the September Tokyo Game Show approaches.

Capcom plans to sell 1.45 million PSP games during this business year, which is nearly 10 times the volume it sold by the end of March 2005. Those sales were of the company’s only current PSP offering, Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower. The game sold a total of 150,000 copies by April 1, 2005.

With only three games in development for the DS, it seems clear that Capcom has decided to favor the PSP in its plans for the future. All three of Capcom’s upcoming DS games have already been announced: Viewtiful Joe DS, Mega Man Battle Network, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Capcom plans to sell half a million DS games during the current business year. These three titles will be the first offerings for the DS from Capcom.

The company expects a 3.4-million-unit increase in sales of its PlayStation 2 games, but it also forecasts a massive decline in sales of its games for Nintendo platforms. Capcom expects a net profit of 3.9 billion yen ($36.3 million) for the current business year. The company made 3.6 billion yen ($33.5 million) during the business year ended March 31, 2005.

The rest of Capcom’s FY 2005 sales projections are listed below.

It would seem that Capcom has all but written Nintendo off, from home consoles to handhelds. It’s kind of perplexing to wonder why this is the case, when the Battle Network series makes Capcom a mint on the GBA, DS has sold more hardware than PSP and Resident Evil 4, despite their boneheaded decision to undermine its GC sales, has sold quite respectably (and VJ1/2 sold double, triple, quadruple on the Gamecube).

Let us have a look at some telling figures now.

FY 2004 Sales Results (4/1/2004 - 3/31/2005)
PlayStation 2 - 40 titles, 7.3 million copies
GameCube - five titles, 2 million copies
Xbox - seven titles, 250,000 copies
Game Boy Advance - seven titles, 3.4 million copies
PC & Misc. - 11 titles, 400,000 copies

FY 2005 Sales Estimates (4/01/2005 - 3/31/2006)
PlayStation 2 - 55 titles, 10.7 million copies
GameCube - four titles, 350,000 copies
Xbox - eight titles, 750,000 copies
Game Boy Advance - four titles, 1.25 million copies
PC & Misc. - zero titles, zero copies

The PS2 sold around 182,500 units per game in FY 2004, while the Gamecube sold 400,000 units per game and the Xbox sold 35,751 units per game. GBA sold 486,000 units per game.

Obviously the answer is to release more of those PS2 titles AND more XBox titles, but the Gamecube is getting a cut and the sales estimates are shorting Gamecube software sales[/sarcasm]. I’d bet money that the Gamecube exceeds their expectations and the PS2 and XBox fall far short. Lets not forget that, despite the announcement of the Gameboy Micro (which will sell like hotcakes), Capcom is cutting back both GBA and DS development and shorting their GBA software forecast, which will probably be far exceeded.

I guess I don’t have a head for business, because this stuff doesn’t make a lick of sense to me. Pound for pound, titles that are developed for Nintendo platforms are more profitable than their PS2 counterparts and a helluva lot more profitable than their XBox counterparts. Meanwhile, Capcom rakes in a ton of cash off of Nintendo’s portables.

Why go in the opposite direction?

A lot of you guys are in the business. Please translate these decisions into something that a rational human being can understand.

Maybe they think with all the titles coming up for DS they’ll have a better shot in the less competitive PSP market. Like you said, it was working for them on GameCube.

That part makes sense, but putting more games out on XBox and less on Gamecube in FY 2005 doesn’t.

The answer for PSP vs. DS is that Capcom doesn’t skimp on production values when it makes portable games and thus they can use re-use some PS2 assets with PSP spin-off games or vice versa to make a killing on both platforms (like they used Chaos Tower basics to go on to release a compilation on the PS2). DS, on the other hand, requires them to do things from scratch more often, other than the Rockman.exe series. I’m sure you’ll see more later, but for now, that’s it.

No Gamecube games, because the platform is weakening really quickly, while the PS2 shows absolutely no sign of slowing down.

-Kitsune

Right, but we arent saying PS2 v. Cube, if you look at number of titles released they released a lot on Xbox compared to Cube, yet volume of sales for the smaller number of titles was much higher on Cube.

So choosing Xbox over Cube dev seems odd.

Look at these numbers

FY 2004 Sales Results (4/1/2004 - 3/31/2005)
PlayStation 2 - 40 titles, 7.3 million copies
GameCube - five titles, 2 million copies
Xbox - seven titles, 250,000 copies
Game Boy Advance - seven titles, 3.4 million copies
PC & Misc. - 11 titles, 400,000 copies

That averages to
182,500 per ps2 game
400,000 per GC game
35,700 per xbox game
485,714 per GBA game

It’s also probably a backlash against Nintendo over the whole exclusivity thing they did with the Gamecube. While RE4 did reasonably well, there’s not much doubt that had RE4, Viewtiful Joe series been on the PS2 first or even at the same time the sales would have been much higher. Most business observers believe Capcom hurt themselves significantly this generation with the love they gave Nintendo.

As for the DS vs PSP thing, all I can tell you is that the DS is fading really fast at retail in the US while PSP is going strong. Look at EA - Capcom isn’t the only major publisher that is avoiding Nintendo right now.

Well looking at the announced end of year lineup for the DS and the PSP I’ll be interested to see how that plays out, as the DS looks to have a much stronger lineup while PSP is hitting a lull in titles.

I don’t think that is true. While the DS in the US is suffering a software drought, DS games are making the top 10 charts in Japan repeatedly. And most pundits response from E3 was that there were more DS games than PSP games on display, and the DS games were overall more fun, interesting, and innovative.

According to the numbers I’ve seen, the DS has nearly twice the install base as the PSP and the games cost 1/4th(?) as much to develop. I don’t see any reason to reduce support for the DS.

-Scott-

Uh huh. The DS is doing just fine and more importantly is stronger in Japan where it matters much more to Capcom, so it will ramp up in support sooner or later with Capcom, not that they already aren’t supporting it well, but they still made GBA games too.

And then there’s been backlash against Capcom for Cube support? Where? Fanboy shitty shitty fairyland? How on earth could it have hurt Capcom when they didn’t throw most of their weight behind the platform and their biggest sellers mostly weren’t on it? DMC, Onimusha, Rockman.exe, Monster Hunter and the like were all PS2 or GBA franchises. I hope Capcom doesn’t pay attention to basement dwelling retards, and all signs point to the fact that they never have. What’s more likely is that the GC didn’t pan out as well saleswise as they were hoping it would, so they are focusing more exclusively on the PS2. Capcom’s only bad year this generation was when they were loading off parts of the company not related to video games and the rather hurtful transition from arcade to console revenue.

You can’t really make a comparison between PS2, Xbox and GC titles Capcom put out. Most of everything they released for GC was high profile in the first place, or a port occuring at the same time as the PS2. The Xbox was just an also-ran platform. Only Rockman seems to sell better on the GC, so that’s the only strange part. Furthermore, just releasing so many titles, many of which they don’t have high expectations for on the PS2 waters down their average by quite a bit. If they’d released the same titles on the GC, they could probably expect similar ratios.

Also, its impossible to know whether VJ would have sold better on the PS2, but 450,000 on the GC vs. 100,000 on the PS2 and VJ2 selling better in its GC version, as well as the GC version continuing to sell better month after month leans to a big fat “no.” As we don’t know how RE4 is going to sell on the PS2, its seems stupid to make a comparsion right now.

As for the Xbox. Capcom supports everything in the hopes that should market conditions change, they’ll be ready. That’s their philosophy. Plus, Tekki was well, special. They’d probably like to reap more money in the US with Xbox and use the PS2 for Japan, console-wise, which leaves the GC in the nether regions because its not particularly strong in either right now.

-Kitsune

The DS will be doing great as soon as they put out some more colors. As far as I can tell that is their strategy. Lots of colors for the unit rather than games.

Nevada medical marijuana dispensary

Mine’s “Grape”.

Ssssh! Those torrid stories of Capcom taking advantage of the cluelessness of Microsoft execs are probably best left for the locked vault!

-Kitsune

Story time! Now!

throws some popcorn in the microwave

(The following information is based on EA’s released E3 2005 lineup).

EA Sports:

1 for DS, PSP, GCN, PC (Madden NFL 2006)
3 for PS2 and Xbox (NCAA Football 06, Madden NFL 2006, NASCAR 06)

EA Games:

11 for PS2 and Xbox (Batman Begins, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, BLACK, Burnout Revenge, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, From Russia With Love, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, Medal of Honor European Assault, Need for Speed Most Wanted, The Godfather, The Sims 2)

7 for GCN (Batman Begins, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, From Russia With Love, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, Medal of Honor European Assault, Need for Speed Most Wanted, The Sims 2)

6 for PSP (Burnout Legends, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, Need for Speed Most Wanted, The Godfather, The Sims 2)

5 for NDS (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, Need for Speed Most Wanted, The Sims 2, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent)

5 for PC (Battlefield 2, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Need for Speed Most Wanted, The Godfather, The Sims 2 Nightlife)

4 for GBA (Batman Begins, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Need for Speed Most Wanted, The Sims 2)

2 for Xbox 360 (Need for Speed Most Wanted, The Godfather)

Hardly avoiding.

As for the DS vs PSP thing, all I can tell you is that the DS is fading really fast at retail in the US while PSP is going strong. Look at EA - Capcom isn’t the only major publisher that is avoiding Nintendo right now.

I love watching fanboys grasp at straws. The DS is mopping the floor with the PSP, and for Christ’s sake, take a look at the holiday lineup; it’s going to keep doing it.

Not sure where you’re getting “the DS is mopping the floor with the PSP” from. In -Japan-, yeah, the DS has signficantly outsold the PSP for the past six or so weeks, since the release of the new colors and Nintendogs. In the US, it’s another story – while we won’t know for sure until the NDP numbers are released for last month, various Best Buy and EB folks are reporting that the PSP is slaughtering the DS at retail here.

The DS is doing well – far better than its ancient technology and current C-grade lineup should allow for, which testifies to the strength of Nintendo’s brand name in this sector – but the battle’s just begun and the two units are reasonably close worldwide despite the DS’ head start. Post-Xmas, we’ll have a better idea of how the cards will fall, but no matter what, Sony’s set to slash a huge chunk out of Nintendo’s handheld market. Finally, we might see a little hardware evolution in that space.

Perhaps you missed this thread, in which it was revealed that the DS has sold well more than twice as many units as the PSP?

Yeah, and the data from the linked site hadn’t even included the PSP’s US launch. It’s at least two months old.

But you’re right, we’ll have to wait for Sony to actually come out and say how many they’ve sold. But outside of raging fanboyism, there’s no reason to think it’s even close.