By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo - Capcom: Original cool games don't make money, Dead Rising port yes

Esa-Petteri on 28 January 2009
Chrizum said:

Capcom has a terrible business strategy if Zack & Wiki and Okami really didn't make a profit.

In february 2008, Capcom stated Zack & Wiki sold well. So selling well means still losing money? Ouch for Capcom's business strategy.

Zack & Wiki has now sold over 500.000 units, 90% of them at 50 dollars/euro's. 95% of the similar games that reached that number, made a healthy profit (De Blob, No More Heroes, Boom Blox), as it's been stated numerous times by publishers and analysts.

500k for a low budget niche game should rake in a good profit. It looks like Capcom spent over 10 million dollars making Zack & Wiki. You can probably make 2 times No More Heroes and 2 times De Blob combined with that amount of money. Obviously, Capcom has a terrible business strategy.

The unability of Capcom to make any money with Zack & Wiki selling over 500k units within a year is telling. Capcom is lost.

Okami was selling "along expectations", and it's on track to outsell the PS2 version. The Wii version is obviously a port, and it couldn't have cost much money at all. Still, it failed to make Capcom any money.

Conclusion: Capcom has a terrible business strategy and is unable to make any money even though all other publishers are able to with similar products and similar sales. Capcom is extremely inefficient.

Was it you who wrote that on capcom forums? :)

 

Anyway, do you have anything to back your claims of 90% of Z&W sales being at 50€/$? It was never a 50€ game in EU. After a month or so, it has been 20€ game. You don't get 20$ profit from 20€ sales. I also doubt that those 3 games you mentioned cost only ~3million each. Do you have anything to back that up?

edit:

 

Oh man, it was you. Amazing how annoyed a ninty-fan can be if his beliefs are shattered. :D:D

 

 



Around the Network
NJ5 on 28 January 2009
Esa-Petteri said:

Was it you who wrote that on capcom forums? :)

 

Anyway, do you have anything to back your claims of 90% of Z&W sales being at 50€/$? It was never a 50€ game in EU. After a month or so, it has been 20€ game. You don't get 20$ profit from 20€ sales. I also doubt that those 3 games you mentioned cost only ~3million each. Do you have anything to back that up?

edit:

 

Oh man, it was you. Amazing how annoyed a ninty-fan can be if his beliefs are shattered. :D:D

 

 

I think Zack & Wiki was 50 € when it launched in the EU. Now it's a 30 € game at least in Portugal and Sweden, not sure about other countries.

Oh wait, it's 40 € at Amazon France:

http://www.amazon.fr/Capcom-Zack-Wiki-tr%C3%A9sor-Barbaros/dp/B000W007XI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1233156138&sr=8-1

EDIT - Rather interestingly, it's still 50 € at Fnac France:

http://jeux-video.fnac.com/a2036902/Zack-et-Wiki-Tresor-de-Barbaros-Jeu-Nintendo-Wii?Mn=-1&Mu=-13&Ra=-4&To=0&Nu=1&Fr=0

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

Chrizum on 28 January 2009
Esa-Petteri said:
Chrizum said:

Capcom has a terrible business strategy if Zack & Wiki and Okami really didn't make a profit.

In february 2008, Capcom stated Zack & Wiki sold well. So selling well means still losing money? Ouch for Capcom's business strategy.

Zack & Wiki has now sold over 500.000 units, 90% of them at 50 dollars/euro's. 95% of the similar games that reached that number, made a healthy profit (De Blob, No More Heroes, Boom Blox), as it's been stated numerous times by publishers and analysts.

500k for a low budget niche game should rake in a good profit. It looks like Capcom spent over 10 million dollars making Zack & Wiki. You can probably make 2 times No More Heroes and 2 times De Blob combined with that amount of money. Obviously, Capcom has a terrible business strategy.

The unability of Capcom to make any money with Zack & Wiki selling over 500k units within a year is telling. Capcom is lost.

Okami was selling "along expectations", and it's on track to outsell the PS2 version. The Wii version is obviously a port, and it couldn't have cost much money at all. Still, it failed to make Capcom any money.

Conclusion: Capcom has a terrible business strategy and is unable to make any money even though all other publishers are able to with similar products and similar sales. Capcom is extremely inefficient.

Was it you who wrote that on capcom forums? :)

 

Anyway, do you have anything to back your claims of 90% of Z&W sales being at 50€/$? It was never a 50€ game in EU. After a month or so, it has been 20€ game. You don't get 20$ profit from 20€ sales. I also doubt that those 3 games you mentioned cost only ~3million each. Do you have anything to back that up?

edit:

 

Oh man, it was you. Amazing how annoyed a ninty-fan can be if his beliefs are shattered. :D:D

 

 

I already stated I posted it, check out some posts above you. And yes, it was €50 to begin with, and still is €50 here in the Netherlands.

I know you like personal attacks on the internet but it makes you look pathetic, not me.



jammy2211 on 28 January 2009

From Sven on Capcom-unity:

"It did not sell 500K units or anywhere near it. I still don't understand where you're getting 500K.

To the best of my knowledge, the 300K figure quoted by IR included European orders from Nintendo who published the title on our behalf in that territory. Nor did it do the volume it did do at anywhere near frontline pricing (in the US anyway).

And what you think was a cheap game to make, wasn't. Great games almost never are.


Well that explains that. Someone replied with VGChartz figures, will be interesting to see what he says about us here at VGC lol.



Chrizum on 28 January 2009
jammy2211 said:
From Sven on Capcom-unity:

[QUOTE]"It did not sell 500K units or anywhere near it. I still don't understand where you're getting 500K.

To the best of my knowledge, the 300K figure quoted by IR included European orders from Nintendo who published the title on our behalf in that territory. Nor did it do the volume it did do at anywhere near frontline pricing (in the US anyway).

And what you think was a cheap game to make, wasn't. Great games almost never are.[QUOTE/]

Well that explains that. Someone replied with VGChartz figures, will be interesting to see what he says about us here at VGC lol.

It's no secret Sven doesn't like VGChartz. He may call false on us by default, even without knowing the sales figures or when sales figures are correct.

That said, I think Zack & Wiki probably didn't sell 500k because all of the Europe sales are not going to Capcom but to Nintendo. So probably around 350k has been sold from Capcom, and another 150k from Nintendo. It still sold 500k, but not all the money is going to Capcom.



Around the Network
Daileon on 28 January 2009

Uh-oh @ numbers...



 ..........
^Click on cards to level'em up!!!^ =D

jammy2211 on 28 January 2009
Chrizum said:
jammy2211 said:
From Sven on Capcom-unity:

[QUOTE]"It did not sell 500K units or anywhere near it. I still don't understand where you're getting 500K.

To the best of my knowledge, the 300K figure quoted by IR included European orders from Nintendo who published the title on our behalf in that territory. Nor did it do the volume it did do at anywhere near frontline pricing (in the US anyway).

And what you think was a cheap game to make, wasn't. Great games almost never are.[QUOTE/]

Well that explains that. Someone replied with VGChartz figures, will be interesting to see what he says about us here at VGC lol.

It's no secret Sven doesn't like VGChartz. He may call false on us by default, even without knowing the sales figures or when sales figures are correct.

That said, I think Zack & Wiki probably didn't sell 500k because all of the Europe sales are not going to Capcom but to Nintendo. So probably around 350k has been sold from Capcom, and another 150k from Nintendo. It still sold 500k, but not all the money is going to Capcom.

So he's lying?

 He says the figures are 'way off' in at least two territories, and seeing as the Japan figures are from Mediacreate / Famitsu I'd imagine it's Europe and American.

 If a Capcom Rep says it didn't sell half a million then I think it's safe to say it didn't. Just another VGC cock-up, not complaining cause it's gonna happen. He mentioned alot of sales at cut retail price too.

 



noname2200 on 28 January 2009

Well, I'm willing to concede that Zak and Wiki was a failure, then, if that's what Capcom's saying now, and I apologize for beating people over the head with contrary information. I'm a bit surprised, considering what their official press release said earlier, but c'est la vie.

Also from that thread:

"Lastly, Okami Wii is not on track to outsell the PS2 version. The worldwide Okami Wii number might get to the US Okami PS2 number at some point though. Seriously guys, just stop trying to use VGchartz or whatever you read on Neogaf to be armchair analysts."

A bit snarky of Svennson, but there we have it. Looks like this site needs to improve its numbers...



NJ5 on 28 January 2009

@noname2200: Okami's sales data is very incomplete, so that looks like a bit of a strawman argument from Mr. Svennson (or perhaps a reply to someone who misinterpreted the data).

The Wii version only has NA data, and the PS2 version only has Japan data. One can't conclude anything like "Okami Wii being track to outsell the PS2 version" from the VGC data.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

Chrizum on 28 January 2009

Okami sold way over 300k (http://gonintendo.com/?p=62047), and it failed to make a profit. If Capcom spends millions porting a game over, then that's their fault, not ours.