Bloomberg, Monday April 7 2003 Capcom stock volatile in early trading; company reconsiders its Nintendo strategy In the first 37 minutes of trading today, Capcom stock rose to 1,253 yen, a 195 yen (18%) rise from its close at the end of last week, then gave up some of its gains and settled at 1,208 yen. The increase is likely due to recent media attention suggesting that the firm is undervalued. According to UFJ Tsubaki Securities analyst Takashi Oka, “the total group loss in the quarter ending in March 2003 is the culprit. But considering Capcom’s lineup, including Onimusha 3—which is expected to sell three million copies—people have sold too much.” In related news, the April 4th edition of the Nikkei Shimbun suggested that due to lower-than-expected Gamecube sales, Capcom was reconsidering its plans for Gamecube software. According to news reports, Capcom’s horror game “Biohazard 0,” which has been on sale in the U.S. and Western Europe since November 2002, has not sold according to expectations. As a result, there is now a movement to make titles currently planned as exclusive Gamecube releases available for other game consoles as well. Minae Wada of Capcom’s General Affairs Department responded: “As a software maker, it’s true that we’re aware of console sales results, but at the present time, we have no plans to take the actions described in the media.” But Takashi Oka disagrees, saying “I think there’s a high chance that the Biohazard series will be coming to PS2.” Comments Ugh, just when you decide that the gaming industry, like alcohol and cigarettes (not to imply that there's any connection between addictive substances and a gaming habit) is recession-proof, along comes a story like this. This uptick was just a momentary respite from a long-term slide: over the last year, Capcom has dropped from 3,260 yen to just over 1,200. No wonder they're thinking about abandoning their exclusivity agreement with Nintendo for the Biohazard/Resident Evil series. Nintendo must have offered some serious concessions to get Capcom to agree to that in the first place, but when push comes to shove, it's going to be hard for Nintendo to come up with incentives more attractive than the opportunity to sell the game to PS2 and XBox users.