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It's no secret that Monster Hunter 4 has been a substantial success for Capcom, blowing away initial projections and now challenging for the crown of best-selling title in the franchise; it's sold 4.1 million copies in Japan alone, as of 31st March.

In its financial results briefing, which brought profits, Capcom highlighted the 3DS exclusive as a vital success for the company — it said the title had "displayed explosive popularity". It provided updates on other titles, too, including decent news for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, DuckTales: Remastered and the HD version of Resident Evil Revelations, though Monster Hunter Frontier G appears to have struggled following its most recent release on PS3 and Wii U. Below is an excerpt from the press release.

In the Digital Contents business, the featured title "Monster Hunter 4" (for Nintendo 3DS) was supported by overwhelming popularity, as mentioned above, and created a huge buzz even comparable to a sort of social phenomenon. Moreover, sales of "Dead Rising 3" (for Xbox One) that has been geared toward the European and U.S. markets, and "Resident Evil Revelations" (for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC) exceeded a million titles each and so three titles have become million-sellers.

b. In addition, "Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen" (for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) showed firm sales while projected sales were basically achieved for "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies" (for Nintendo 3DS).

Furthermore, full-game digital titles, which respond to changes in forms of distribution, contributed to the expansion of sales by growing significantly both at home and overseas in line with the progress in diversification of business models. This included the over-performance of "DuckTales: Remastered" for overseas in addition to the aforementioned "Monster Hunter 4" showing strong sales.

...d. Meanwhile, the online game "Monster Hunter Frontier G" (for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U) performed lower than anticipated, but the browser game "Onimusha Soul" which was distributed in Taiwan with the aim of expanding Capcom's business fields, garnered a great deal of attention and ranked first in popularity. This thereby marked the beginnings of gaining a foothold in the market for the local corporation, which was established two years ago.

Capcom is still emphasizing a desire to improve its performance in the mobile sector, though solid results for some console and portable titles will surely encourage more projects for these systems. There's no doubt also hope that Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate will bring more success for the series in the West.

[source capcom.co.jp, via eurogamer.net]