Resident Evil 7 may not have hit its sales target, but it still shifted 3.5 million units – Capcom financials

By Stephany Nunneley

Capcom has reported its 2017 year-end financials, and while Resident Evil 7 had an overall solid performance, Dead Rising 4 sales were well-below expectations.

According to the latest financial report, the company’s target for Resident Evil 7 was to have it in 4 million customers’ hands by fiscal year’s end on March 31, 2017.

It’s possible the figure was partially based on the number of demo downloads for the title, which hit 4 million; however, companies sometimes base expectations on pre-order interest and sales of a previous release if it’s not a new IP.

While it didn’t meet said target, the title moved a respectable 3.5 million instead, which isn’t shabby by any means. By the time the fiscal year ended, Resident Evil 7 had only been available for just a little over two months. So, again, while it may have come in 500,000 units shy of its sales target, especially on day one, the company expects sales to continue upward due to DLC and the fact each entry in the series sells well long-term.

Monster Hunter XX also came in shy of its target, moving 1.7 million units as of March 31. Considering the game was released just four weeks before the end of the fiscal year, that’s a nice figure. The target number for the 3DS title was 2 million, so it sold 300,000 units less than expected.

Dead Rising 4 on the other hand, under-performed enough that Capcom didn’t provide sales figures. The PC and Xbox One title had a sales target of 2 million units, and with it releasing during the busy holiday shopping period, one would think sales would have at least been close to expectations.

Globally, the Dead Rising franchise has moved 10 million units, Monster Hunter 40 million, and Resident Evil has shifted 77 million units, making it Capcom’s second best-selling franchise. Street Fighter remains the company’s best-selling series of all time, and has moved 390 million units since the SNES version debuted in 1992.

Now, let’s look at company earnings.

Digital sales for the firm were up 11.7% year-over year at ¥58.7 billion ($526.6 million) compared to ¥52.6 billion ($472 million) during the prior fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2016.

For the fiscal year starting April 1, 2016 and ending March 31 of this year, Capcom reported company net sales of ¥87.170 billion ($782 million) up from ¥77 billion ($691 million) year-over-year.