Today, Japanese developer and publisher CAPCOM announced it has raised the earnings forecast for the fiscal year that ended last month. The new forecast reveals net sales of $860 million, up 10% from the estimated $780 million, and an operating income of $330 million, up 1.9% from the previous forecast.
CAPCOM said the sales performance of Resident Evil Village, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, and Monster Hunter Rise were better than expected.
1. Regarding revisions to the earnings forecast
i. Revisions to the consolidated forecast for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022
(April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022)(million yen)
Net sales Operating income Ordinary income Net income attributable to owners of the parent Earnings per share (yen) Previous forecast (A) 100,000 42,000 42,000 30,000 140.52 Revised forecast (B) 110,000 42,800 44,300 32,500 152.23 Variance (B) – (A) 10,000 800 2,300 2,500 – Variance (%) 10.0 1.9 5.5 8.3 – (Reference)
Previous year’s results
(FY ended Mar. 31, 2021)95,308 34,596 34,845 24,923 116.74 ii. Reason for the revision
In our core Digital Contents business, we saw favorable performances from titles such as Resident Evil Village, which is the latest game in the series, as well as Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, an RPG in the Monster Hunter series. Further, in addition to the January release of the PC version of Monster Hunter Rise, a title that was originally released in March 2021, sales grew due to the stable popularity of catalog titles—primarily past titles in major series—and due to the synergetic effects of discount sales held in the fourth quarter. Altogether, this has led us to expect net sales to exceed our previous forecast.
Additionally, we expect operating income, ordinary income and net income attributable to owners of the parent to all outperform our plan.
CAPCOM has been on a streak for a few years now. Resident Evil Village is the fastest-selling installment in the revered horror franchise, though Monster Hunter is doing even better between the successful spin-off Wings of Ruin and the incredible performance of Monster Hunter Rise (on the heels of Monster Hunter World becoming the best-selling CAPCOM game of all time).
With Resident Evil Village scheduled to receive DLC and Monster Hunter Rise getting the Sunbreak expansion in June, CAPCOM is poised to continue doing very well for itself. The company also has two new IPs, Exoprimal and Pragmata, targeting a 2023 launch.
