What the Hell is Going on at Capcom?

So Capcom is posting a large drop in profit. Capcom likes to blame the economy and the developers. The gamers like to blame the games that suck. But who is right...and where did Capcom go wrong?

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

No mention of Sengoku BASARA 3?

Good! Just Capcom need to import that game to America and Europe.

[Dragun619]

I'm pretty sure Sengoku Basara 3 was already heading west. I was playing it at their booth at Comic Con.

The problems I have with Capcom.
1. DLC. Capcom had sold unlock keys to unlock DLC stuff on the disc for example RE5 mulitplayer mode & SFIV Costumes, that and the day they released Lost Planet 2 they were selling DLC maps. What The Hell is up with that.
2. Working with Western Developers. Obviously working with Western Developers doesn't seem to be working for Capcom for example Bionic Commando and Dark Void. They need to fix the way they work and connect Western Developers. Hopefully Dead Rising 2 won't end up like the two mentioned above.
3. Wii. It's great that they're supporting the Wii and all, but it seems the audience isn't there for them. Looking at Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and Monster Hunter Tri. They should go with the approach of releasing it multiplat like they did with Sengoku Basara 3.
4. The Inclusion of Coop/ Muliplayer. I did not enjoy Lost Planet 2 SP mode at all. The Game was basically built for Coop.

Other than that, Super Street Fighter 4 is a great 2D fighting game. It's totally worth $40.

[8800gtx]

Capcom is just making crap games.

They should just blame piracy and be done with it :P

8800gtx

[Godmars290]

I honestly don't get why people are excited for Dead Raising 2 when it seems a trivialized version of DR1. The zombies have gotten dumber and the whole game is based on gimmick making.

[DelbertGrady]

If you played the first game it's hard not to be excited about the sequel. The videos I've seen from it look very good.

@Capcom - Hiring Grin to do Bionic Commando and then f*cking up Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2 could have something to do with your decline in profits. The MT Framework 2.0 is one of the most powerful graphics engines this gen. Don't waste it on poor game production. Can't rely on Street Fighter forever.

I'd love to see a Monster Hunter game for PS3/360.

[GrieverSoul]

Its simple! They got greedy and lost focus! They started to think of ways of milking their games for DLC and lost what made them unique with previous franchises. Their games are polished but lake content wich is made available by DLC.

To CAPCOM and other developers (ubi) dont loose focus! You get good sales on your first try but gamers will hold a grudge and you will loose them on the sequel.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Last Gen, working on the PS2! Just countless releases of awesome games!

[tokugawa]

http://www.1up.com/news/cap...

perhaps that will make you smile....and is quite old news anyway

also, i agree, the MT framework engine is very very pretty. i had high hopes for lp2 aswell

[Natsu X FairyTail]

Godmars ole hatin ass mofo. DeadRising 1 was a great game and people are Hyped about the 2nd game because it looks even better. you just mad cuz its not exclusive to ps3 :(

lames.

[ThanatosDMC]

Tokugawa, MH Frontier, sadly, will not be making it to NA or PAL. They stated it's only for Japanese 360s. Yeah, it's a major downer since they update MH Frontier with new maps, armor, weapons, monsters, etc. almost every 3-4 months.

Also, Dead Rising was an awesome game! I cant wait for the second one but im pissed that delayed it, but it's fine if there was something wrong with the game that can be fixed. I just hope they dont cut out content like in most capcom games now and sell it for DLC later.

[Baka-akaB]

you wouldnt know their few good games anyway 8800, they are and always have been on consoles

[Theonik]

Capcom just hasn't been the same after they let go of Clover. Right now everything Capcom makes is mediocre.

[Godmars290]

I want a zombie survival game that's a zombie survival game. Something that drops you in the middle of a dying, infested city and has you scrambling for weapons, foods and other survival tools while dealing with undead and the living either turned crazy or looking for help.

This game just sounds like an extreme sports game run by some nutjobs.

[Jdoki]

The problem with Capcom is that they've 'done a SquareEnix', by thinking that they'll sell more if they create games that are more Westernised - either through design, or by partnering with Western developers.

When are these Japanese developers going to realise that the sole reason their games sold so well was BECAUSE they were NOT Westernised! The appeal was in the very fact that their games were different and interesting compared to traditional Western games. (I'm not saying Western games are bad, just that the appeal and design is different).

Although I would also say that a few of their decisions have not been great. Their support for the Wii is admirable, but doesn't appear to be paying off. I hope they remake Zak and Wiki for Move/Kinect, as that game needs to be played by more people!! And Monster Hunter really needs to be on a more hardcore console.

EDIT: Rebooting or creating sequels to some of their key IP's wouldn't hurt either... a new Onimusha would be nice. And they need to forget overloading games with DLC.

[ExcelKnight]

On your edit: They've been creating sequels for a LOT of key IPs lately. Street Fighter 4 was the first key release in the franchise since SF3 came out nearly half a decade before, while Mega Man 9 came out ten years after Mega Man 8. Bionic Commando (not Rearmed) was sort of a sequel to the original, while Rearmed was a reboot. They even went back to 1942 and HD-ified it.

Capcom's done a lot to please their old fanbase and it still hasn't yielded rewards, nor has teaming up for "westernizing" games. At that point, you can pretty much see why Capcom is confused as to what they should do next.

[scofios]

Capom that's what you get when you close a great( clover ) studio with your best developers , and get stuck with incompitent peopel like Keiji Inafune and Jun Takeuchi .

[kagon01]

Megaman Zero Collection(DS) is a complete gaming experience compared to the HD games in home consoles, where they charge you to play your own content that is inside the disc...(DLC)

[Nitrowolf2]

MHTri i agree
the game was amazing but honestly most of your audience were Playstation owners, switching audience like that is bad

[Quagmire]

Heres to hoping for a Monster Hunter PS3 Exclusive game

[ExcelKnight]

I don't see how you can agree with MHTri. It uses the same online system MHDos and MH/MHG used on the PS2 and I didn't see anything wrong with that.

The fact that the author mentions friend codes just goes to show that he didn't even play the game. The online allows for jumping into random online whenever you want and keeping track of friends isn't any different from back then.

If you mean how much it would have sold on the PS3, THAT I agree with. A PS3 version would have sold a LOT more, but would it have covered the cost difference of making the game for Wii? They definitely would have had to sell a lot more copies to do so.

[BuIIetproofish_]

Resident Evil in daytime Africa may have been a bad idea.

[Cold 2000]

It still sold bucket loads though. Capcom are complaining and stuff about the sales but have huge IP's that have a big demand that just arent seeing the light of day or are "asleep".

Wheres Onimusha ? Breath of Fire ? What have they been doing with DMC since the 4th episode ?

[big_silky]

Wheres Strider or Dino Crisis? They put out Mega Man, Resident Evil, Street Fighter and the occasional Monster Hunter or random game (Dark Void, B.C.) and thats about it.

[Jdoki]

A new version of Strider would be pretty amazing - or even an HD remake of the old games would be pretty sweet!!

No idea why they haven't done more with Dino Crisis. With the graphical horsepower available these days the dinosaurs could be fantastic.

[BYE]

The setting was not the problem, it's quite original actually.

The problem was the action style gameplay and the horrible, mandatory coop partner.

[Otheros00]

They didn't announce monster hunter 4 and we don't know what system it is for. The monster hunter game for 360 is a port of monster hunter frontier on pc.

[ApocalypseShadow]

they fired all the great developers at CLOVER STUDIOS with greats like shinji makami(resident evil) and hideki kamiya(dmc,viewtiful joe)....and now they make average games.that's what they get.

my best developers in the past used to be namco,capcom,konami,sega and nintendo.with sub categories like tecmo,treasure,sunsoft,etc.

but namco can't make a proper fighting game,racing game or air combat game anymore after merging with bandai.

sega won't make sequels to their hit games like shenmue,skies or arcadia,streets of rage or phantasy star proper,etc.and it's only because of platinum(clover studios)that they are hanging on.

konami is hanging in there because of hideo kojima.but they can't even make a proper next gen contra and they are taking too long with castlevania.

nintendo is riding the casual wave and making all that money.but aren't making games or enough games to appease me.

and capcom can't make a resident evil 2 remake like on gamecube that everyone wants.the only game i bought from capcom this gen was the bionic commando rearmed.and it wasn't even made by them.that's a shame.

capcom just sucks.the funny thing is that sony has made up for their failings as third parties this gen.but i wish all the third parties would step up like they used to do.

[jack_burt0n]

The japanese games industry needs to go back in time to last gen.

[Jdoki]

Well said Apocalypse... Agree with pretty much all you said.

We need more Skies of Arcadia for sure!!

[3sq]

As for me I don't buy current gen games from 3rd parties anymore. These companies used to make great games but not anymore. By the way where the hell is my Breath of Fire 6, Capcom???

[Aphe]

It's in the post, they made it just for you. Because they often look on n4g for their ideas on what to release next. Especially if you are called 3sq.

Enjoy your game.

[3sq]

What are you babbling about?

[Optical_Matrix]

They should drop their obsession with DLC and start actually making good games. Only good games from them over the past couple of years imo have been Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV. Only other games from them I care about are Okamiden, SFIII:Online Edition, MvC3 and SFxTekken. They're just butchering every other IP they own.

[SOAD]

Maybe everyone else got better at making games. Or maybe a lot of the unpopular fan favorites that people on this site are begging to see sequels of weren't as good as they remember.

It's easy to blame Capcom for trying to westernize, but I think that despite a few poor decisions with western game development, Capcom is making the right choice by expanding into the western market with more tenacity.

Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2 were both heavily focused on co-op. But were those aspects really a negative feature?

Resident Evil 5's setting was itself not scary at all. That's more of a problem.

Co-op games are becoming more popular. The online era of consoles demands that co-op becomes a standard feature in gaming.

Capcom is trying to keep up with the times. Their failures are a result of limited experience with western features. But once they get a hang of it, I have no doubt they will be considered top tier developers.

[pustulio]

Yes, co-op is amazing. I love it.

I only like SP games like Fallout, Mass Effect, etc... where you have a "universe" and you can explore and do whatever you want to be good or bad, other than those games i wish there was co-op in every single game.

[TrevorPhillips]

They're working on Resident Evil games.

How do I know. From an employee @ Capcom.

Who...DW

[CrazyOrange]

maybe they aren't creating too much new games (beside re-release)

I bought in 2008
DMC4, DEADRISING

in 2009
SFIV
RE5

in 2010
DEADRISING 2

[Alos88]

They keep putting games that aren't suited to the Wii's audience on the Wii, it's baffling that they did it more than once, you'd have thought they'd have learnt the first time.

[GMWPS3]

they should have made lost planet 1 for the PS3 from day one. Alienating the PS3 crowd (who buy a lot of games) was not a good start. They need to go back to basics.

[chidori666]

Resident Evil 5 Dead Rising Wii, and Street Fighter IV were ass. They'd better get their asses in gear if they want me to buy any of their crap games.

[Johandevries]

hate about Capcom is that all their PC games (except Dark Void) are either badly ported or take half a year to be released on the platform after the consoles.

[StitchJones]

Let's see here,,,, RE5 Gold was DLC based on 360, stupid move. Super Street Fighter IV should have been a DLC upgrade to existing SF IV owners. And Left 4 Dead..uuuurrrr I mean Lost Planet 2 should have had a solid story based single player instead of that terrible 4-co-op drop in drop out mess.

[jdigitalseven]

SF3 was not a key sales any thing, Alpha 3 was the last good SF game until SF4. It took 10 years to come out with SF because of the horrible horrible sales of SF3. Few were/are interested in that game and Capcom needed to redesign SF.....thus SF4. They barely got permission to even make SF4 because of what SF3 did.

[Baka-akaB]

sf3 could maybe have sold better better if the first platform wasnt the dreamcast . However great the version was , that alone killed their chance at touching their whole console fanbase .

And well 3d fighting was reigning as sole master

[jdigitalseven]

@helghan666
How was SF4 ass?? Because you cant parry everything and you actually need a strategy?

[tcapri]

Wow, who is running this site? This is what members voted to pass as news? And gamers wonder why they're not taken seriously.

[MaideninBlack]

Not when Namco posted 1Q profit w/o even releasing any major titles. Konami and SE also were in good shape too. Capcom has just lost it way.

[NYC_Gamer]

ps2 will be the last good capcom era if things dont change

[lightningsax]

I don't mind even the shameless milking of IP from them; this isn't the problem with Capcom. It's just the bad big-game decisions they've made in the recent past.

For example, what is going to net you more profit globally - buying an anime license and making a smaller (but good!) Tatsunoko v. Capcom only on the Wii, or going right out of the gate with MvsC 3 on the more powerful consoles with more actual gamers? That's a marketing misdirection.

Lost Planet 2 tried so hard to look Western and wound up looking ho-hum bland. It played like Monster Hunter. Neither of those characteristics would have made a console game sell on the global market, so why was it such a huge project? That's a design and funding misdirection.

Dark Void - well, I think we've said enough about Dark Void. That's an everything misdirection. Dark Void Zero was great, though!

I can't wait for some of this shameless IP milking people are complaining about- SF3 Online will be day one for me so long as it includes 3rd Strike in all its glory, I can't wait for MvsC3 now that it's finally on its way, and SF x Tekken, as a concept, looks really cool.

It's really not those wonderfully-crafted old school franchises that are killing them. It's the failed AAA franchises. In this case, Capcom needs new upper management. They need to fire some suits ASAP.

[Violentine]

stop making hardcore games Wii exclusive.

[Smokeeye123]

1. No Megaman Legends 3
2. Make Megaman Legends 3
3 $$$PROFIT$$$$$