Capcom "aggressively" seeking overseas partnerships

Japanese publisher Capcom has released a note to investors highlighting acquisitions and mergers with Western companies as an immediate priority.

The note outlines the need for Capcom to increase sales of its game business outside of Japan to ensure future growth.

"Acquisitions and partnerships are one of the important strategies for increasing our market share overseas," the note reads.

"We aggressively seek the opportunities of acquisitions and partnerships for the purposes of creating game content with universal market appeal and acquiring technologies and know-how required for our 'Single Content Multiple Usage' strategy."

The note discourages any takeover bids on the grounds that they lead to employee departures, which compromises the value of the acquired company. As such, Capcom favours partnerships, which could lead to acquisitions in the long term.

However, similar deals with Japanese companies are explicitly discouraged.

"A merger with a large Japanese game or toy manufacturer is not being considered as a serious option since it would not make a significant contribution to growth in our overseas sales. Furthermore, this type of merger also poses the risk of limiting our activities involving the licensing of game content."

Capcom's focus on appealing to Western gaming markets has been a defining feature of its strategy over the last few years.

Former creative director Keiji Inafune has been particularly vocal in his disillusionment with the Japanese industry, variously claiming that it makes "awful games", and that its internal culture turns developers into "salary men".