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Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

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Capcom's annual results are in, "focusing on the overhaul of overseas development companies"

"Capcom will restructure its development organisations."

Capcom's annual financial results are in, and everything the company predicted in its April forecast pretty much came true.

Resident Evil 6 "did not meet with our [7 million] projection" and sold 4.9 million copies.

Dragon's Dogma became a "million seller", which is apparently "unprecedented" for an original title these days, but it was created by the largest dev team ever assembled by Capcom.

It only sold how many?

DmC Devil May Cry, meanwhile, "enjoyed stable popularity in overseas market and posted solid sales". There was no unit total to report, but Capcom mentioned 1.15 million sales in April, which is likely to be on-the-nose.

All-in-all, Capcom posted an expected profit of £19.42 million, down 56 per cent year-on-year but a profit nonetheless.

When Capcom warned investors in April about a "special loss" and revised sales forecasts down, it said "excessive outsourcing" had led to a "decline in quality", which must have been a dig in the ribs for DMC co-developer Ninja Theory.

Wrote Capcom in its latest report: "In order to lower development costs and shorten time frame for development, Capcom will restructure its development organisations, which are the core parts of the company's business, increasing ratio of in-house developments by focusing on the overhaul of overseas development companies."

The entire company is due "streamlining measures", too.

"As for future prospects, the industry is expected to find an increasingly mature market of home video games, which is our core business segment. Even though a full line-up of new home video game consoles will eventually be released, the industry is likely to be in a period of scant new product releases over the near future, awaiting the full-scale launch of the next generation machines.

"In the meantime, development costs are projected to soar as advanced and multiple functions are added to hardware. Business alliances and consolidations may therefore occur in increasing numbers."

Encouragingly, however, Capcom won't leave home video games behind for the gold rush of smartphone and social gaming.

"Faced with this sudden and significant changes in the operating environment, Capcom intends to direct its development resources to the home video game software, which is our core business segment, and the development of online games, which is a growing area, based on its medium-term strategic map."

Games mentioned for the year ahead were only Lost Planet 3 and Monster Hunter 4 (3DS).

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