CAPCOM Raises Forecast Thanks to Resident Evil and Monster Hunter

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.

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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.