Was Capcom Insane for the Capcom 5?

K

Kathian

Banned
Personally I look at the industry now and see it as sensible (they just chose the wrong horse); Sony showed its dangers with the original PS3 and its lack of care for the third party environment.

Do you think it would ever happen today? Choosing one company to make 5 games exclusively for? One of the worst selling at that.

Or was it a doomed idea from the start as much as it ended?
 
Sega just did 3 exclusive sonic games for Nintendy its a great thing for whatever console gets the support and as long as they are compensated adequately its a win win.
 
They chose to make 5 exclusive games on an also-ran competitor instead of the most successful system of all time. Of course it was a ridiculous decision. Pretty much murdered the RE series in the process before Mikamis miracle revival that was also on PS2.
 
But yeah it was extremely risky and considering everything aside from P.N. 03 came to PS2. It's obvious capcom realized it was a bit crazy thinking they themselves could boost the system more than realistically possible.
 
moneyhats gon moneyhats

one game died because it was ass
one game was just ass
one game was awesome, but niche as shit
one game was awesome and is maybe the most beloved console game of the generation
one game was...unique and also niche as fuck
 
I think the Capcom 5 was a great idea. The only problem was the execution on the marketing side of things.

I'm not sure we will see Capom commit 5 games ( actually 4 ) again on a single platform. That said, they're still embracing the exclusive strategy : Monster Hunter ( 3DS/Wii U ), Dead Rising 3 ( Xbox One ) and Deep Down/Street Fighter V ( PS4 ).
 
Some background story for those who don't know what it is:

Capcom Five was five AAA games developed by Capcom exclusively for the GameCube, announced in 2002, at the time when it was pretty clear that the GameCube was going to finish at a distant third. It was meant to drum up interest in the platform, which benefited Nintendo, and I presume Capcom would've had a bigger spotlight in this platform rather than have the games compete in the crowded PS2.

The games were PN 03 (Product Number 3), Viewtiful Joe, Dead Phoenix, Resident Evil 4, and Killer7. Viewtiful Joe and RE4, clearly the most successful games out of the 5, were later ported to the PS2 (and in RE4's case, the PC) anyway. PN 03 had a mixed-to-poor reception, and Dead Phoenix was canceled.
 
I don't know what Capcom thinking when it came to the Resident Evil franchise back then. The series found massive success on Playstation with the first three entries. Then they decided to make the next game exclusive to Dreamcast? And then Gamecube after that? They did end up porting both games to PS2 so Capcom gonna Capcom I guess.
 
Takao said:
It's more insane that PS2 never had its own exclusive mainline Resident Evil.
Click to expand...
If RE4 been released in a reasonable timeframe, an exclusive RE5 on PS2 would have been a near-certainty.

What's more insane is how well RE4 turned out in spite of its horrific development story.
 
Takao said:
It's more insane that PS2 never had its own exclusive mainline Resident Evil.
Click to expand...

Yep, one of the dumbest decisions ever in this industry. RE was a franchise that was selling 1m units in its first week on the PSone. Then someone got the bright idea to move it away from the PSone and new entries would barely sell over 200k in their lifetime. Capcom's new IP's on the PS2 (Onimusha, DMC) were absolutelyt trouncing RE during that generation thanks to the decision to move the franchise away from PS.
 
Sage00 said:
Pretty much murdered the RE series in the process before Mikamis miracle revival that was also on PS2.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_4#Sales
http://web.archive.org/web/20070621040246/http://ir.capcom.co.jp/english/data/million.html

According to January 17, 2007 sales figures provided by Capcom, the GameCube version of Resident Evil 4 has sold a total of 1.6 million units worldwide, while the PS2 version has sold over 2 million units.[93] As of September 30, 2011, the PS2 version has sold 2.2 million units and the Wii Edition has sold 1.9 million units.[94] According to Capcom's Platinum Titles list, the game has sold 5.9 million units across all formats, making it the fourth biggest-selling Resident Evil title and for which it holds the record for "Best-Selling Survival Horror Game" in the 2012 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.[95]

Additionally, RE0 and REmake both sold over 1 million on GC, over 2.5 million combined.

Doesn't sound like GC did anything to "murder" RE.
 
ViewtifulJC said:
moneyhats gon moneyhats

one game died because it was ass
one game was just ass
one game was awesome, but niche as shit
one game was awesome and is maybe the most beloved console game of the generation
one game was...unique and also niche as fuck
Click to expand...
Nice :) now if only you'd made this post rhyme you'd have won all my cookies.
 
Jigorath said:
I don't know what Capcom thinking when it came to the Resident Evil franchise back then. The series found massive success on Playstation with the first three entries. Then they decided to make the next game exclusive to Dreamcast? And then Gamecube after that? They did end up porting both games to PS2 so Capcom gonna Capcom I guess.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it'd make more sense if we were in on the behind the scenes. I'm sure there were plenty of official and unofficial deals just as there are now.

t26 said:
Can't be worst than making Dino Crisis 3 for Xbox
Click to expand...

That is probably the biggest head scratcher for me, along with everything they did with Dino Crisis in that game. I have no idea how that got past the idea stage to be honest.
 
t26 said:
Can't be worst than making Dino Crisis 3 for Xbox
Click to expand...
Whoa, there's a third Dino Crisis?

Team Ninja and Sega's non-PS2 exclusives stung a lot more than Capcom's, really. DOA and Ninja Gaiden and JSRF and Orta and Shenmue II were robbed of their deserved time in the sun ;___;
 
SolidSnakex said:
Yep, one of the dumbest decisions ever in this industry. RE was a franchise that was selling 1m units in its first week on the PSone. Then someone got the bright idea to move it away from the PSone and new entries would barely sell over 200k in their lifetime. Capcom's new IP's on the PS2 (Onimusha, DMC) were absolutelyt trouncing RE during that generation thanks to the decision to move the franchise away from PS.
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure most if not all the RE games on the gamecube sold over a million.
 
SolidSnakex said:
Yep, one of the dumbest decisions ever in this industry. RE was a franchise that was selling 1m units in its first week on the PSone. Then someone got the bright idea to move it away from the PSone and new entries would barely sell over 200k in their lifetime. Capcom's new IP's on the PS2 (Onimusha, DMC) were absolutelyt trouncing RE during that generation thanks to the decision to move the franchise away from PS.
Click to expand...

Total load of nonsense.
 
t26 said:
Can't be worst than making Dino Crisis 3 for Xbox
Click to expand...

Funny enough the game was never meant to be exclusive.
256px-Dinocrisis3box.jpg


Only Xbox exclusive I know of that doesn't have the "Only on Xbox" tag on it.
Either they were being made at the same time and they scrapped the PS2 version because of specs. Or they realized no one was going to buy it even if they ported it to another system later. Much like what happened with P.N. 03. which had it been better reviewed or more successful would have come to PS2 i bet.

Surface of Me said:
Wut? Monster Hunter started on PS2.
Click to expand...

Meant future sony with no Monster hunter on vita.

Leona Lewis said:
I thought RE0 was a massive commercial failure.
Click to expand...

it was just a "critical" failure compared to other mainline entries in the series until 6.
 
Takao said:
It's more insane that PS2 never had its own exclusive mainline Resident Evil.
Click to expand...

Eh. Mikami really didn't want anything to do with Sony for a while, he even had meetings with MS about potentially moving Resident Evil onto Xbox.

foxuzamaki said:
Im pretty sure most if not all the RE games on the gamecube sold over a million.
Click to expand...

I'd be legit shook if RE2, 3 or CVX on cube got close to 1 million.
 
jres80 said:
Additionally, RE0 and REmake both sold over 1 million on GC, over 2.5 million combined.

Doesn't sound like GC did anything to "murder" RE.
Click to expand...

So the two Gamecube exclusives sold 2.5 million combined? Meanwhile RE2 sold 5 million and RE3 sold 3.5 million. Quite a lot of lost sales if you ask me. I'm not sure why Capcom never ported those two titles over to PS2.
 
Shauni said:
No, it was an original IP. People just saw the similarities.
Click to expand...

IGN apparently spread that rumor around. But...you know...IGN.

They also tried really hard to spread a rumor that Factor 5 was developing a Kid Icarus game on the Wii. I don't know what it was about IGN and Kid Icarus rumors back then.

On a tangentially related note, Factor 5 completed a port of Rogue Squadron 2 for the Wii, but was sadly never released :( I hope it leaks out someday, as pointer controls would've been pretty neat.
 
If only Capcom was this daring in 2015 to do this for the Wii-U.

It was a really cool idea at the time and must've garned a lot of interest but then it all fell apart.
 
Jigorath said:
So the two Gamecube exclusives sold 2.5 million combined? Meanwhile RE2 sold 5 million and RE3 sold 3.5 million. Quite a lot of lost sales if you ask me. I'm not sure why Capcom never ported those two titles over to PS2.
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, RE4 on the PS2 barely outsold the GC version, despite a massive playerbase advantage, both versions selling a mere 2.2 and 1.6 million:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_4#Sales

According to January 17, 2007 sales figures provided by Capcom, the GameCube version of Resident Evil 4 has sold a total of 1.6 million units worldwide, while the PS2 version has sold over 2 million units.[93] As of September 30, 2011, the PS2 version has sold 2.2 million units and the Wii Edition has sold 1.9 million units.[94] According to Capcom's Platinum Titles list, the game has sold 5.9 million units across all formats, making it the fourth biggest-selling Resident Evil title and for which it holds the record for "Best-Selling Survival Horror Game" in the 2012 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.[95]

It has nothing to do with GC or PS2 and everything to do with RE. Which is why Capcom continued to make the series more action oriented, more "cinematic", and more stupid with each successive release.

There have been numerous quotes from the developers regarding this. For instance:
http://kotaku.com/resident-evil-fanbase-also-old-decaying-capcom-tells-1491248686
http://kotaku.com/capcom-explains-the-difference-between-resident-evil-an-1637148095
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/capc...-will-return-to-survival-horror-roots/0120229
 
Surface of Me said:
Wut? Monster Hunter started on PS2.
Click to expand...

He's talking about the present situation with Monster Hunter. That's no where near as egregious as Capcom's RE decision.

Shauni said:
Total load of nonsense.
Click to expand...

I think he's referring to Japan:

PS1 : Resident Evil ( Capcom ) { 1996-03-22 } - 148,904 / 1,194,779
SAT : Resident Evil ( Capcom ) { 1997-07-25 } - 68,130 / 148,369
PS1 : Resident Evil: Director's Cut ( Capcom ) { 1997-09-25 } - 144,349 / 514,122
PS1 : Resident Evil 2 ( Capcom ) { 1998-01-29 } - 1,389,733 / 2,154,975
PS1 : Resident Evil 2: Dual Shock Edition ( Capcom ) { 1998-08-06 } - - / 301,676
PS1 : Resident Evil: Director's Cut - Dual Shock Edition ( Capcom ) { 1998-08-06 } - - / 97,305
PS1 : Resident Evil 3: Nemesis ( Capcom ) { 1999-09-22 } - 1,005,020 / 1,383,282
N64 : Resident Evil 2 ( Capcom ) { 2000-01-28 } - 8,601 / 8,601
SDC : Resident Evil Code: Veronica ( Capcom ) { 2000-02-03 } - 306,778 / 403,962
SDC : Resident Evil 3: Nemesis ( Capcom ) { 2000-11-16 } - 6,332 / 6,332
PS2 : Resident Evil Code: Veronica X ( Capcom ) { 2001-03-22 } - 184,475 / 338,307
SDC : Resident Evil Code: Veronica - Complete ( Capcom ) { 2001-03-22 } - 12,852 / 12,852
NGC : Resident Evil ( Capcom ) { 2002-03-22 } - 119,019 / 267,470
NGC : Resident Evil Zero ( Capcom ) { 2002-11-21 } - 190,394 / 400,750
NGC : Resident Evil 2 ( Capcom ) { 2003-01-23 } - 9,372 / 9,372
NGC : Resident Evil 3: Nemesis ( Capcom ) { 2003-01-23 } - 8,691 / 8,691
NGC : Resident Evil Code: Veronica X ( Capcom ) { 2003-08-07 } - 5,240 / 5,240
NGC : Pure Evil 2-Pack (Resident Evil Zero / Resident Evil) ( Capcom ) { 2004-12-22 } - 967 / 967
NGC : Resident Evil 4 ( Capcom ) { 2005-01-27 } - 145,533 / 220,799
PS2 : Resident Evil 4 ( Capcom ) { 2005-12-01 } - 234,917 / 454,979

The series was in decline, but RE4 on the Cube sold less than Outbreak:

PS2 : Resident Evil: Outbreak ( Capcom ) { 2003-12-11 } - 208,617 / 437,779
PS2 : Resident Evil: Outbreak File #2 ( Capcom ) { 2004-09-09 } - 89,131 / 213,881

t26 said:
Can't be worst than making Dino Crisis 3 for Xbox
Click to expand...

I say the less people exposed to this, the better. Should've been a Gizmondo exclusive or something.
 
Chindogg said:
They were paid well for the exclusivity. It was a good business decision for both Nintendo and Capcom.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it wasn't a moneyhat.

jres80 said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_4#Sales
http://web.archive.org/web/20070621040246/http://ir.capcom.co.jp/english/data/million.html

According to January 17, 2007 sales figures provided by Capcom, the GameCube version of Resident Evil 4 has sold a total of 1.6 million units worldwide, while the PS2 version has sold over 2 million units.[93] As of September 30, 2011, the PS2 version has sold 2.2 million units and the Wii Edition has sold 1.9 million units.[94] According to Capcom's Platinum Titles list, the game has sold 5.9 million units across all formats, making it the fourth biggest-selling Resident Evil title and for which it holds the record for "Best-Selling Survival Horror Game" in the 2012 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.[95]

Additionally, RE0 and REmake both sold over 1 million on GC, over 2.5 million combined.

Doesn't sound like GC did anything to "murder" RE.
Click to expand...

Which was poor for a RE game at the time, hence Capcom's disappointment. That's the main reason why they announced the PS2 port of RE4 before the GC version even came out.
 
They just bet on the wrong horse (from a commercial point of view), before release there was a lot of positive buzz for the GameCube, had Nintendo got it out slightly earlier then it possibly could have been a much closer race so capcpom might not have been so nuts to back it
 
jres80 said:
It has nothing to do with GC or PS2 and everything to do with RE.
Click to expand...

Are you seriously arguing that a userbase difference of 130m systems doesn't mean anything? And you do understand that RE4 was a late port right? Gamecube had exclusivity for nearly a year. Late ports almost always sell worse than the system they were originally on. The last two REs on Playstation sold 8.5 million units combined. The next two on Gamecube sold 2.5 million. That's a pretty massive drop. If you want to keep arguing that the Gamecube didn't hurt the franchise sales in any way then feel free but it makes absolutely no sense.
 
jres80 said:
Meanwhile, RE4 on the PS2 barely outsold the GC version, despite a massive playerbase advantage, both versions selling a mere 2.2 and 1.6 million:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_4#Sales

According to January 17, 2007 sales figures provided by Capcom, the GameCube version of Resident Evil 4 has sold a total of 1.6 million units worldwide, while the PS2 version has sold over 2 million units.[93] As of September 30, 2011, the PS2 version has sold 2.2 million units and the Wii Edition has sold 1.9 million units.[94] According to Capcom's Platinum Titles list, the game has sold 5.9 million units across all formats, making it the fourth biggest-selling Resident Evil title and for which it holds the record for "Best-Selling Survival Horror Game" in the 2012 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.[95]

It has nothing to do with GC or PS2 and everything to do with RE. Which is why Capcom continued to make the series more action oriented, more "cinematic", and more stupid with each successive release.
Click to expand...

Not to mention that the Outbreak games didn't set the charts ablaze, nor the Code Veronica X port to PS2. I'm not super convinced that those games being on the PS2 would've made a huge difference to be honest. You see from RE2 to RE3 there was already the start of a sales bled, no one can be 100% sure that wouldn't have continued with transitioning to the PS2 or not.
 
Jigorath said:
So the two Gamecube exclusives sold 2.5 million combined? Meanwhile RE2 sold 5 million and RE3 sold 3.5 million. Quite a lot of lost sales if you ask me. I'm not sure why Capcom never ported those two titles over to PS2.
Click to expand...

The franchise's sales had been on the decline since RE2. Outbreak and CVX sold poorly on PS2, and RE4's PS2 port barely outsold the Gamecube version. The problem was that the survival horror genre was crashing thanks to over-saturation and little mainstream appeal.
 
jres80 said:
Meanwhile, RE4 on the PS2 barely outsold the GC version, despite a massive playerbase advantage, both versions selling a mere 2.2 and 1.6 million:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_4#Sales

According to January 17, 2007 sales figures provided by Capcom, the GameCube version of Resident Evil 4 has sold a total of 1.6 million units worldwide, while the PS2 version has sold over 2 million units.[93] As of September 30, 2011, the PS2 version has sold 2.2 million units and the Wii Edition has sold 1.9 million units.[94] According to Capcom's Platinum Titles list, the game has sold 5.9 million units across all formats, making it the fourth biggest-selling Resident Evil title and for which it holds the record for "Best-Selling Survival Horror Game" in the 2012 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.[95]

It has nothing to do with GC or PS2 and everything to do with RE. Which is why Capcom continued to make the series more action oriented, more "cinematic", and more stupid with each successive release.
Click to expand...
You're ignoring that RE4 came out during the same year the 360 launched. January 2005 for one of those versions I believe.

Kind of a lot with what happened to GT6 really; caught in the middle of a gen transition.
 
Shauni said:
Total load of nonsense.
Click to expand...

I was referring to Japan, and it's completely accurate. The numbers that RE was putting up on other platforms was terrible. That's why Mikami said this

This time, it is easier because I am not the only one responsible. With Resident Evil 4, for example, it was completely different. I was under enormous pressure by Capcom. If the game had not sold well, it would have been the end, and the series would have been discontinued.
Click to expand...

People can do revisionist history all they want, but it's pretty clear that moving the series away from the PS was a horrendous move that nearly killed the series.
 
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