Capcom Profits Fall; New Studio Created

After closing a number of outlying studios last week representatives from Capcom have announced that the company is creating a new subsidiary near its Osaka HQ. The new studio, to be called Clover Studio, will be headed by Viewtiful Joe producer Atsushi Inaba. The studio will be wholly owned by Capcom and will form part of a wider plan for the reorganisation of the company's development assets. The studio is being formed as an external company in an attempt to give more creative freedom to the developers and cultivate more original titles. The move comes after company representatives announced some particularly disappointing financial predictions that will see the company making a loss of $89 million for the year ending March 31, instead of the previously predicted $40 million profit. Representatives have citied the recent closure of insurance/financial service company Stratus, the liquidation of the company’s arcade division and the delay of several key titles as the main reasons for the loss. As a result of the news, shares in the company fell as much as 14% and trading had to be stopped according to exchange regulations. Source: Polygon