Despite ‘Street Fighter 5’ Missing Sales Goal, Capcom Reports Increased Profit

"Street Fighter 5" missed the mark for Capcom, the Japanese video game maker whose fiscal year ended March 31. "SFV," as the game is called, was expected to sell at least 2 million copies by the end of Capcom's year, but it had sold only 1.4 million. Even with this mild disappointment, Capcom reported year-over-year increases in sales and profits in its annual earnings report released Monday.

Capcom reported 77 billion yen ($710 million) in sales, up 19.8 percent year-over-year. Operating profit was up 13.7 percent while ordinary income was up 4.6 percent. The earnings report is good news for Capcom, which had a very disappointing fiscal year 2015, with revenue down 37.1 percent to 64.3 billion yen ($538.4 million). "Monster Hunter X," which sold 3 million units for the Nintendo 3DS, and "Resident Evil 0 (HD Remastered)" was another strong performer for the company. "Monster Hunter," as a franchise, continues to perform for Capcom, especially as the company tries to expand into new markets. "Monster Hunter Online," released in China by Tencent, was "off to a good start." The mobile "Monster Hunter Explore" surpassed 3 million users.

"Street Fighter 5," released Feb. 16, was considered a great game that felt incomplete. The base game was tailored for the fighting-games community with tournaments taking place not long after the release of "SFV." For casual fans, many of the expected modes were missing. There was no fleshed-out story mode or arcade mode. If a player wanted to enjoy "SFV," there weren't many options for a game priced at $60.

To counter the paltry offerings of the initial release, Capcom promised a multiyear road map of new content that would be free to all players just by playing the game. In 2016, there would be six new downloadable characters and a cinematic story expansion. March's update included a "challenges/trials" mode, adding to the available single player content. There is the potential for Capcom to release an expanded edition of "SFV" with all of the first-0year content to help bolster sales.

By the end of March 2017, Capcom will release "Monster Hunter Stories" and "Ace Attorney 6" for the Nintendo 3DS. "Resident Evil Umbrella Corps" will be released on the PS4 and PC, with something bigger planned for the second half of the year. "Resident Evil Umbrella Corps" (for PlayStation 4 and PC) of the "Resident Evil" series, which marked its 20th anniversary in March 2016, is the warm-up to the full-scale offensive planned for the second half of the year," the company wrote in its earnings report.