Capcom is ruling out any future mergers or acquisitions with Japanese companies, preferring instead to continue to its renewed focus on Western markets, the company says in its annual investor report.
Outlining its plans, the Japanese publisher and developer says it wants North American and European sales to account for 80 percent of its business in the future.
Currently, 53 percent of the company’s sales are in Japan, but Capcom aims to reduce that number to 20 percent – with Europe accounting for 30 percent and North America for 50 percent.
Capcom has been at the forefront of recent attempts by many Japanese publishers to contract third party Western developers to work on both new and existing franchises, including forthcoming titles such as
Dark Void and
Bionic Commando.
However, execs have made a point of ruling out the possibility of any mergers or major acquisitions in Japan, despite major consolidations in recent years for the likes of Square Enix, Namco Bandai and, most recently,
Tecmo and Koei.
Instead the company is looking at possible "friendly" acquisitions of Western developers, although no specific companies have been mentioned. This may include distribution partners, with the company now planning to self-publish in France and Spain in Europe, instead of just the UK and Germany.
The company sees an increase in the number of sports titles it produces as a key area for expansion and will seek collaborations "with companies with an already established record for developing sport-related games." Capcom also plans to increase its range of mobile phone and PC titles.
"All major titles launched during the next fiscal year or thereafter will be developed as multiplatform games," added Capcom, noting that many of its most successful games this fiscal year have been multiplatform titles.
It is unclear, though, to what degree this statement will include the Wii, with major franchises such as
Resident Evil and
Devil May Cry so far being restricted to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The recent surprise announcement of
Dead Rising for the Wii, however, may suggest that subsequent sequels are made more with Nintendo’s console in mind.
