Nikkei Telecom 21 reports Capcom to discontinue from Arcade Market      - 3.18.01

Please note that the following is a 3rd party report, and not an official announcement made by Capcom.

The Nikkei Telecom 21 -the largest online news & information database in Japan accessible through paid membership only, has reported that Capcom will be discontinuing from sales and development of arcade games.

Nikkei Telecom 21's parent company- the Nikkei News, is a respected new source, responsible for the original reporting of Sega's discontinuation from the Dreamcast, prior to Sega's official announcement.


The following is the report.


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Capcom will withdraw from the diminishing arcade market within the fiscal year. From prospects that the arcade industry will not recover from its current downfall, Capcom will retreat from the arcade industry and focus their development on games for home consoles. While development on currently made arcade games will still continue, no new games will be developed. Capcom will be the first major company in the arcade industry to withdraw from the market.

Capcom's arcade games sales have decreased to 5,000 units per title, a major drop from the 80,000 units per title at the peek of the arcade industry. For the fiscal of March 2001, Capcom's sales from the arcade dropped to 3.9 Billion Yen, only 1/5 of the income compared to 1994. Capcom held 30% of total sales in the arcade industry at its peek as well; estimates for this fiscal year have dropped to under 10%.

Another aspect to Capcom's decision comes after Sega's discontinuation of the DreamCast console, a machine compatible to the arcade board "Naomi" used by Capcom for arcade game development.
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The Dreamcast/Naomi system also allowed users to purchase and play identical games at home or the arcade- a double profitable development, which will no longer be useful once the DreamCast is discontinued.


The Madman's Cafe will continue to follow up on any news related to this Report.




[ Link: Nikkei Telecom 21 ]

Copyright Capcom, Nikkei, 2001