Capcom has put recruitment at the center of its “five-year plan” to boost business.
Capcom CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto has promised a focus on recruitment in a message to investors. As part of Capcom’s new five-year plan, Tsujimoto says, “From now on, I plan to hire at least 100 software developers every year to give us an even more powerful development workforce. Furthermore, I want to establish clear targets for these developers so they can help make Capcom even stronger.” Capcom says that developing for games for next-gen consoles takes eight to ten times more hours of work, so adding new developers is key.
The message to investors says that Capcom needs improve its efforts on existing brands, mobile and online content, and downloadable content. Downloadable content was a focus of Capcom’s 2013 annual report, and it plans to bring development in-house. In his message to investors, Tsujimoto says, “Our next objective is to provide to as many people as possible a variety of products that take full advantage of Capcom’s vast amount of content.” In December, Capcom teased a new title in the Ace Attorney series, brand new IP, and a revival of its most “classic” IPs coming in 2014.
Tsujimoto points to Monster Hunter 4 as a strong performer in the past year for Capcom. As of January 22, Dead Rising 3 has shipped over one million units, so the fiscal year ending March 2014 is looking pretty good for Capcom. In the last fiscal year, Capcom’s net income plunged on Resident Evil 6 sales, with targets revised from 7 million units to 6 million units. As of December 2013, Capcom had managed only 5.2 million global unit sales of Resident Evil 6.
Source: Capcom via Games Industry International
