Japanese game developer Capcom’s stock plummeted 12.9 percent on Tuesday, after a downgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. According to The Financial Times, its share target price was reduced from ¥2,800 (about $25.19) to ¥2,300, citing “significant risk of sales decline” for its massively popular title “Monster Hunter World.”
Despite the recent announcement that “Monster Hunter World” would be making its way to PC after a long period of time available on only Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it appears analysts are concerned about that particular title’s future. It remains to be seen whether or not it can keep up the dizzying pace it reached earlier in the year, directly following its debut. Recently, the game hasn’t been able to maintain the strong sales numbers it once enjoyed, as sales reflect a massive drop over the last few weeks in global sales.
“Although cumulative sales volume is growing steadily, we get the impression the popularity of Monster Hunter is dying down sixth months after its release,” BofAmL stated in a report, which also lowered Capcom’s overall rating from “neutral” to “underperform,” citing the continuation of sluggish sales in the next few months.
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“Monster Hunter World” reached a record 7.9 million worldwide sales milestone in May 2018, but has since seen a decline in sales across the board. Previously, it set a record for 7.5 million units in March, so the rise wasn’t a significant one even in the course of two months. These accomplishments did, however, make “Monster Hunter World” the best-selling and fastest-selling game in the company’s history, which were impressive achievements to say the least.
The action RPG first debuted on Jan. 26 earlier this year, the first game in the long-running franchise to feature drop-in cooperative play in a bit to make things more accessible to new and returning players. It garnered near-universal praise upon its debut, and the PC version is expected on Aug. 9.
