According to gamebiz Japan, it appears that the proactive approach to PC gaming of Capcom has been paying off, as the company has seen a sharp increase in sales made via Steam.
Capcom’s total revenue made by steam sales during its most recent fiscal year, which concluded in March 2022, was 17.2 billion yen (about $126 million), up 62.5 percent from the previous year. This accounted for 15.6 percent of the company’s overall sales.
Hope Square Enix is taking notes. You can indeed make money in other ways than selling “story-focused” NFTs and keeping players from playing your products thanks to terrible exclusivity deals and puzzling pricing of rereleased products.
Capcom Enjoying Increase of Sales On Steam – Projections Suggest That That Number Will Only Increase
Capcom has been highly active in recent years in releasing its games on PC, mainly via steam. Starting with both new and old Resident Evil games as well as other well-known IPs like Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter. High player numbers and generally positive user ratings for the games is seen all across their library.
Monster Hunter Rise has been in the top 10 games by current player count for steam every single week since its release. And the spot that it’s currently maintaining belonged to Monster Hunter World for a long time after its release.
Of course, there is still much room for improvement in this department. As you can see on the map above, Capcom is not doing so well in many countries in Latinoamerica, eastern Europe, and for example in India. Counties that are otherwise HUGE for videogame sales.
This is because Capcom doesn’t do any form of regional pricing. In India for example, you are expected to pay anywhere from 150% to 250% of the usual videogame price. Because they just aren’t adjusting for much less income (in USD) compared to Western Europe and USA regions. The terrible quality of some of their PC ports doesn’t go unnoticed too!
BUT!…
At Least It’s Better Than Nothing!
Many coming console Capcom games will also be available on Steam. Japanese game makers frequently port their titles to PC these days to earn an extra buck, but Capcom’s strategy for the PC market has definitely stood out.
Compared to contemporaries such as Atlus, who after 8 years finally decided to rerelease one Persona game! And finally, 2 years after that they woke up and started drafting up ports for Persona 3 and 5. Yet, the majority of their games are not available for ANY modern system, let alone for PCs!
Meanwhile, Square Enix switched their way of operating, and instead of selling games to customers, instead they sell to platform holders. Their terrible Epic exclusivity deals and shady pricing of rereleases need to be reevaluated based on Capcom’s success.
To be honest, every Japanese, and non-japanese console giant should reconsider their strategy. A lot of PC users just won’t buy consoles for many reasons. But they would most definitely enjoy ports of great console games. Sony, Capcom, Atlus, and almost any dev that rereleased their gems on Steam has benefited greatly. It’s 2022, time to abolish silly exclusivity!
