16/04/2026

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | APR 16, 2026

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Capcom looks to extend ‘golden age’ with ‘Pragmata’ PARIS: Japanese game studio Capcom is taking a big science fiction swing this week with moon-bound action title Pragmata , juiced by the success of hit franchises like Resident Evil . Following the adventures of an astronaut trapped on a moon base overrun by hostile robots, the new game set for release tomorrow combines tense shootouts with puzzle-based hacking, allowing players to weaken enemies mid-gunfight. The game mechanic is creatively represented on screen by an android in the form of a girl who accompanies the protagonist. Professional game reviewers have handed the new title a respectable average score of 86/100, according to aggregation site Metacritic. Capcom’s previous release, February’s Resident Evil Requiem , has already sold more than six million copies, leading the charts in many countries and firing up purchases of the series’ back catalogue. That success likely powered the studio towards its target of ¥190 billion (RM4.7 billion) in net sales in its 2025-26 financial year, which ended on March 31. Such results would drastically set Capcom apart from a games industry mired in post-pandemic doldrums, with many publishers closing studios and laying off staff to remain solvent or protect profit margins. “Capcom is currently in its golden generation and seems to make almost no big mistakes as a corporation,“ said Serkan Toto of consultancy Kantan Games. The Osaka-based firm, founded in 1983, has been growing for more than 10 years. A second building is under construction near Capcom HQ to accommodate new staff, after the company surged from 3,200 people in 2022 to more than 3,760 last year. “Capcom’s discipline as a studio has been extremely high for a long time now, with a high focus on quality, building on top of existing hit IPs and shipping on time,“ Toto said. “Part of that discipline includes what Capcom is not doing,“ such as “blindly acquiring other studios” or “jumping on live service (online multiplayer) games,“ he added. Other industry giants have burned their fingers in recent years, such as Sony with its team-based shooter Concord – pulled offline after less than two weeks. Stepping off the beaten path is rarely profitable in the games industry, with even Capcom bearing the scars of previous attempts. Pragmata is its third recent effort at a new game universe, after 2023’s Exoprimal and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess the following year – “both of which failed”, noted Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda. Pragmata will be released for PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Series and Nintendo’s new Switch 2 console. Offering the game on Nintendo’s less powerful hardware is a rare choice among high-end productions. “Since Capcom develops its own game engine (the software that powers features like graphics and physics), it can adapt to the hardware much more quickly than competitors,“ Yasuda said. That allows the studio to reach a larger market of players across different platforms. In some European markets, the Switch 2 version of the latest Resident Evil title accounted for around 5% of sales, according to specialist outlet The Game Business . That was “not a big figure, but 5% of a high selling product can still be significant and profitable”, the site commented. – AFP

China may curb exports of solar panel equipment to US

BEIJING: Chinese officials have held initial talks with providers of equipment to make solar panels as they consider limiting exports of the most advanced technology to the United States, said five people with knowledge of the consultations. Such a clampdown would risk investments by US firms and set back a race for space-based computing, as China, estimated to make more than 80% of the world’s solar panel components, is also home to the top 10 suppliers of equipment to make solar cells. No rule has been finalised, and the talks have not advanced to the stage of canvassing formal feedback from an industry grappling with severe overcapacity after years of aggressive expansion, two of the sources said. If adopted, such a move could threaten plans by US firms, such as Tesla, to build new factories or expand existing ones in efforts to boost local production. It would also widen export controls in another area of technology where China has a o Move could threaten American firms’ plans to expand The support, aimed at preventing knock-on effects on Japan’s own supply chains, would be channelled mainly through state-backed financial institutions such as Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI). Announcing the plan, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the support would be equivalent to as much as 1.2 billion barrels of oil, or about one year’s worth of crude oil imports by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). She was speaking after a meeting of the Asia Zero-Emission Community (AZEC), a Japan-led initiative aimed at accelerating decarbonisation and energy transition in Asia. Compared with Japan, Southeast Asian countries hold smaller oil stockpiles, leaving supplies of crude and petroleum products such as naphtha – a key feedstock for plastics – increasingly tight. A disruption in Southeast Asian production has fuelled anxiety among Japanese healthcare providers that rely on Asia for critical supplies such as containers, tubes and gloves.

lead, building on Beijing’s move to control rare earth exports a year ago in response to US tariffs. The step comes at a time when the rivalry between China and the United States has spilled into the race to produce space-based computing powered by solar panels, a focus for Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Other US tech companies such as Google and Amazon are investing in ground-based solar and energy storage systems, even as they count on similar orbital data centres to satisfy AI’s growing demand for power. Analysts who track China’s solar industry and executives have braced for export controls, in part because concern is growing over efforts by Musk and others to boost solar panel production in the US, reducing reliance on China. Musk seeks to exploit China’s solar downturn to acquire equipment and talent, Xu Xiaohua, chairman of Anhui Huasun Energy, told the Caijing business magazine this year. He called for greater efforts by Chinese companies to retain their lead in technology. The prospect of China’s curb comes amid preparations for a summit of leaders Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in the Chinese capital next month that both sides

because the talks with regulators are confidential. Talks between regulators and Suzhou Maxwell Technologies focused on possible curbs on shipments to the US, including high-end equipment needed to produce higher efficiency panels, a technology known as HJT, two of the sources said. Reuters could not determine how sweeping any curbs would be in terms of other export markets, when any licensing requirement could take effect or what products would be covered. In 2025, China threatened licensing requirements for exports of a related technology, high-end batteries and materials for the energy storage systems demanded by large-scale solar projects, but paused implementation until November this year. Other Chinese solar producers have continued to negotiate and ship solar manufacturing equipment to the United States, including other firms bidding for the Tesla order, two people said. HJT or heterojunction solar technology boosts power output by using a wafer of crystalline silicon sandwiched between very thin layers of silicon in the cell, allowing more of the electrons generated by sunlight to be captured as electricity. – Reuters

view as an opportunity to preserve more stable ties on trade matters. Reuters reported last month that Tesla was looking to buy US$2.9 billion of equipment for making solar panels from Chinese suppliers such as Suzhou Maxwell Technologies, which was seeking export approval from the Commerce Ministry. Musk has said solar power could supply all the electricity needs of the US and Tesla has pushed a goal of making 100 gigawatts of solar manufacturing on American soil before 2028. “Tesla succeeding in its solar self-sufficiency push could prove a nightmare for China’s world leading solar manufacturers,” research firm Trivium China, focused on Chinese government policy, said in a note this month. Not only would they lose a major potential customer, but they could face the emergence of a formidable new competitor at a time when they are already under enormous financial pressure, it added. “Beijing won’t sit idly by as its industrial champions inadvertently aid the industrial policies of rival countries.” Suzhou Maxwell Technologies was visited by officials after Reuters reported on Tesla’s talks with Chinese suppliers, said three of the sources who sought anonymity

Japan plans US$10 billion framework to help Asia secure oil TOKYO: Japan said yesterday it would set up a financial framework worth about US$10 billion (RM39 billion) to help Asian countries secure energy resources as the Middle East conflict has intensified competition to secure oil.

A small tanker sails near an oil refinery, in the Keihin Industrial Zone in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo. – REUTERSPIC

which the US began blockading this week. He said Seoul had also secured an additional 2.1 million tons of naphtha, an important oil-derived component used to make a range of plastic goods. That figure “(amounts) to roughly one month’s worth of imports”, Kang said. – Agencies

this year,“ Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to the president, said. The amount is sufficient for more than three months of South Korea’s oil needs, Kang said after he returned from a trip to Kazakhstan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Kang said 60% of South Korea’s crude oil imports last year transited through the Strait of Hormuz,

Meanwhile, South Korea has secured supplies of more than 270 million barrels of crude oil via routes unaffected by the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a senior official said yesterday. “I hereby report to the nation that visits to four countries have secured the import of 273 million barrels of crude oil by the end of