Monster Hunter 4 delayed due to poor Resident Evil 6 sales

Capcom has pushed back the release of Monster Hunter 4 because of unmet sales expectations for the recent Resident Evil 6.

The 3DS game and next entry in the Monster Hunter series was due in Japan in March 2013, but now Capcom will publish it later “in order to further raise the quality of [Monster Hunter 4]."

Resident Evil 6 isn't selling as many copies as the Japanese company hoped. "Sales … were initially strong but subsequently weakened,” it said. “As a result, sales for this title are certain to fall short of the plan.”

Capcom said last month that despite poor reviews for the games, sales for Resident Evil 6 were at least moderately successful — "to some degree," it said. Before that, it had lowered its shipping expectations from 7 million to 6 million copies.

It looks like the factors Capcom counted on — the Christmas and New Year's season, past sales in the series, and "other reasons" — weren't enough for Resident Evil to fulfill that altered quota.

The publisher has now revised down its expectations for the financial year ending March 2013.

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[Eurogamer]