Dragon’s Dogma 2 Has Done So Well Capcom Is Paying Out More Money to Shareholders [IGN]

Capcom has announced plans to pay out more money to its shareholders after the breakout success of Dragon’s Dogma 2.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a big hit for Capcom, selling 2.5 million copies across PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S in just 11 days. The sprawling action role-playing game went on sale on March 22, and Capcom announced Dragon’s Dogma 2 had passed 2.5 million sold on April 2. Total Dragon’s Dogma franchise sales have now exceeded 10 million units, Capcom added.

To put Dragon’s Dogma 2’s sales into context, it took the first Dragon’s Dogma game a month to sell 1.05 million units after it went on sale at the end of May 2012, a tally Capcom declared a success at the time.

Now, Capcom has revised its full-year earnings forecast and its dividend forecast for the financial year ending March 31, 2024. Sales, profits, and earnings per share all all revised up in single digit percentages versus the previous forecast, Capcom said.

Explaining the revision, Capcom namechecked Street Fighter 6, which has sold three million copies since going on sale in June 2023, and Dragon’s Dogma 2, which the company said “has performed favorably.” Sales for Capcom’s back catalog titles also grew. Here’s the statement:

“In our core Digital Contents business, in addition to Street Fighter 6, the latest title in the Street Fighter series, being met with broad acclaim globally, Dragon’s Dogma 2 was released in the fourth quarter and has performed favorably. Further, sales grew for catalog titles consisting primarily of past titles from major series due to their steady popularity. Altogether, this has led us to expect earnings for this business to exceed our plan.

“As a result, we expect net sales, operating income, ordinary income, and net income attributable to owners of the parent to all outperform our previously announced forecast.”

It’s certainly good times for Capcom, whose games typically enjoy critical acclaim and commercial success. Despite a controversy over microtransactions and a backlash to the game’s performance, particularly on PC, Dragon’s Dogma 2 saw the biggest launch for a single-player Capcom game on Steam, with an impressive 228,585 peak concurrents. Capcom has surveyed Dragon’s Dogma 2 players about their experience with the game, as well as potential DLC. Given Dragon’s Dogma 2’s sales success, it seems more meaningful DLC is an inevitability.

As for the future, Capcom is working on the next big Monster Hunter game, Monster Hunter Wilds, and new Resident Evil games.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.