Capcom CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto announced that the company will allow more development time for future video game releases following the troubled launch of Street Fighter V earlier this year.
Capcom detailed its shift in strategy in a financial results briefing this week, according to an MCV report. The company will now focus on “strengthening our brands” in the coming year.
Tsujimoto specifically cited Street Fighter V while detailing potential areas of improvement for the coming financial quarter. Capcom’s CEO acknowledged the game’s much-criticized lack of content at launch, and called out server issues as being particularly damaging to the final product.
“Some aspects of Street Fighter V needed more polish, such as the lack of content and server issues at launch,” Tsujimoto admitted. “Accordingly, we feel it’s better to give a little more time to development than before, and have made slight adjustments to our portfolio.”
Tsujimoto continued: “Profits may take one or two years longer to stack up than initially expected, however we will be firmly strengthening our brands. That being said, even looking at Capcom’s growth exclusively, we expect at the very least growth in excess of 10% to continue.”
Capcom previously announced that Street Fighter V sold 1.2 million copies across the PlayStation 4 and PC platforms to date, falling short of initial company projections that pegged launch sales in excess of 2 million.
Street Fighter V launched with a notable dearth of expected features like a single-player arcade mode. The game also lacked significant tutorial and training features prior to the release of a patch that added a collection of in-game challenges in March.
Street Fighter V also comes up short in terms of its roster, offering only 16 playable fighters at launch compared to Ultra Street Fighter IV‘s 44-character lineup. Patches released in the wake of the game’s debut added returning favorites Alex and Guile to Street Fighter V‘s roster, and more characters will enter the arena following future updates.
