Capcom Mobile's persistence paid off

Capcom's Haru Tsujimoto has said Capcom Mobile's success with games like The Smurfs Village and Cafe Zombie is the result of sticking it out through the pre-smartphone years.

"At one point a lot of Japanese companies were buying up American and European mobile gaming companies, hoping to move into the market," told Reuters.

"But they found it didn't go as well as they expected, so they pulled out. We kept mobile gaming as part of our multi-platform strategy."

Despite the move towards growing markets, Capcom obviously isn't ready to abandon its loyal core fanbase - even refusing to step away from the arcade scene, which is rapidly becoming near untenable.

It is our point of contact with the customer, so we want to continue with it," he said. "Arcades won't disappear, because children in Japan don't have many places to play. And recently we are seeing more older people visiting arcades with their families."