Was Capcom Insane for the Capcom 5?

The original RE's success was a fluke, brought on by the fact that similar games were largely non-existent at the time. This success continued for exactly one game, and every RE after that (until 4, and even that didn't even come close to RE2's numbers. It wasn't until RE5 that it was topped) saw a pretty significant decline in sales, because that type of gameplay simply isn't as popular as people like to pretend. All one has to do to back this up is look at how other contemporary horror games performed; as far as I know, Konami hasn't even released the sales of the Silent Hill games, arguably the most well-known RE rival. This is why Capcom's taking the series down its current path, and will never go back outside of maybe a spin-off: They know that old-school horror gameplay simply doesn't cut it for their flagship franchise.

This is an interesting point. But if I remember correctly, Silent Hill sales trended downwards from the very first game, and there were critic complaints about 3 being too similar to it's predecessors with little innovation. As much as we enjoy the old-school gameplay and style, I think that it was beginning to tire out. Every survival-horror was adhering to the same 'basic guidelines' ad nauseam and audiences wanted something different. RE was due for an inevitable change and it's thanks to Mikami that the series is still a relatively strong brand today. It'll be interesting to see what Kojima does with the Silent Hill brand, whether it succeeds commercially or not.

Edit: Thanks neohwa for the figures, I didn't know where to get them
 
The whole Resident Evil franchise and the survival horror genre was at serious decline during the PS2 era. You can look at sales number to see that, so Gamecube is not the one to be blamed. Perfect example would be the sales of the Silent Hill franchise:

NPD sales:
Silent Hill - 550k (PS1)
Silent Hill 2 - 512k (PS2)
Silent Hill 3 - 279k (PS2)
Silent Hill 4 - 209k (PS2)

Japan sales:
Silent Hill - 293.427 (PS1)
Silent Hill 2 - 124,793 (PS2)
Silent Hill 3 - 96,558 (PS2)
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 67,424 (PS2)

So yeah, PS2 destroyed Silent Hill and the survival horror genre as much as GCN destroyed Resident Evil and the survival horror genre. :rolleyes

Capcom 5 never really happened and was made a bigger deal than it deserved to be. PS2 got Capcom 50+ and no one ever mentioned that.
 
This is an interesting point. But if I remember correctly, Silent Hill sales trended downwards from the very first game, and there were critic complaints about 3 being too similar to it's predecessors with little innovation. As much as we enjoy the old-school gameplay and style, I think that it was beginning to tire out. Every survival-horror was adhering to the same 'basic guidelines' ad nauseam and audiences wanted something different. RE was due for an inevitable change and it's thanks to Mikami that the series is still a relatively strong brand today. It'll be interesting to see what Kojima does with the Silent Hill brand, whether it succeeds commercially or not.

Agreed. Maybe Konami should make Silent Hill less survival horror too aka RE4?

If anything, Konami needs to save the SH franchise(good thing they were not GCN games or people would blame GCN for that lol). RE doesn't need to be saved as it's still Capcom biggest IP.
 
I doubt the genuine user base difference is nowhere near what hardware sales figures suggest, yes anecdotal but every single ps2 owner I've known has gone through several systems due to them breaking
Which, in hindsight, turned out to be a very simple fix. :-/ Not that it excuses it but I am amused at the fact that nearly all disc read errors can be fixed by adjusting the laser (cd or dvd) potentiometer just a touch.
 
I think Capcom benefits from there being two Japanese platforms that they can play off of each other and ensure both companies are healthy and competitive. If either Sony or Nintendo completely bowed out of the console or handheld arenas, the remaining company would get a huge amount of control over Japanese developers wanting to make that kind of game. So Capcom will throw a bone to the Sony handheld or Nintendo home system in order to ensure they have somewhere to go if the restrictions on the Nintendo handheld or Sony home system ever become too much.
 
Which two were ass?

I'm assuming one of them was P.N.03

WotR78PN03002_zpsbafrowxk.gif
 
Except who knows how well they would have sold on other platforms. MHP3 on psp, in Japan only, outsold Tris worldwide release. The whole fanbase was on Sony's side and was forced to swallow a whole new hardware ecosystem that was arguably no improvement over psp just for the privilege of staying with the franchise.

But the real cost to Capcom is that they sacrificed developer growth. Going Wii then 3DS means their devs are not learning all the next gen tricks that their competition has learned. Today MH4 looks like utter trash by todays standards. I mean, really really bad. You cant sell this junk forever:

2013112216480068f.png

8IM6JSL549GF0031.JPG

8IM6K0VR49GF0031.JPG

Monster Hunter is probably the good example of what the Capcom 5 was supposed to be doing. But its helped by the fact that the 3DS was the right decision.

Sony's issue with the PSP and Vita is they show no support for the systems. In the end it would be Capcom selling consoles without the financial benefit from hardware sales.

Makes more sense to start their own handheld than go to the Vita. Users leave brands every gen that's why its so interesting.
 
About as insane as any publisher making Vita exclusives?

Also the suggestion that Monster Hunter 4 being a 3DS game is a bad decision is hilarious.
 
I dunno, I'm familiar enough with these kinds of deals to know they always involve money... Mostly marketing support. For time exclusivity. Ports don't mean anything after a set marketing period, the partners get the ROI they are targeting for the marketing support and the content producers get the revenue of the later platform after.

Parity clauses usually have an expiration date.
So, money.

That's how it usually works, but apparently not this time. Moneyhat wasn't the primary motivator for Resident Evil's exclusivity, and contracts apparently didn't apply to the Capcom 5.

http://kotaku.com/5968398/why-resident-evil-4-became-a-nintendo-exclusive
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-13-why-xbox-failed-in-japan

Microsoft "heard through the grapevine" that Mikami was upset with Sony, so they tried to win him over. Mikami confirmed to Microsoft that he was upset with Sony, and he was just looking for a plausible excuse to move Resident Evil away from them. Then Microsoft screwed up, because Mikami asked what Xbox's philosophy was, and none of the MS people in the room knew if Xbox even had a philosophy. So Mikami was left with only GameCube as his escape from the PS2.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2002/11/13/capcoms-fantastic-five
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2002/12/10/capcom-on-gcn-five-exclusivity
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2003/01/16/cgd-03-capcom-five-not-gcn-exclusive

For the Capcom 5, Mikami had the authority to greenlight games, so he (having already hitched his wagon to GameCube and being under pressure from Capcom and having a stake in GameCube's success or failure) greenlit four more games for GameCube. One month after announcing the games, people were asking what exactly they meant by "exclusive", and one month after that, Capcom clarified "not exclusive". IIRC, Mikami later said that he meant "exclusive" as in, he greenlit these games for GameCube, and nobody had yet greenlit them for anything else. And if a game is only available on one console, then it's obviously exclusive.

Three months later, Mikami was demoted/stepped down.

One year later, Viewtiful Joe made the jump to PS2, and another shitstorm exploded, and Mikami said it's no big deal, because the Capcom 5 (minus Resident Evil 4) never had any contracts, and were not really exclusive. But RE4 was exclusive, and would never be on PS2!
 
But the real cost to Capcom is that they sacrificed developer growth. Going Wii then 3DS means their devs are not learning all the next gen tricks that their competition has learned. Today MH4 looks like utter trash by todays standards. I mean, really really bad. You cant sell this junk forever:

Monster Hunter is not a AAA-in-budget-only franchise. And thank god for that.

I prefer graphics like this, when combined with proper gameplay instead of linear dumbed down gameplay with shiny shiny graphics.

btw. it's not junk.
 
PN03, Killer 7 and Viewtiful Joe being exclusive didn't really hurt them in any way, if anything those titles ended up getting more attention because of it. Capcom put out an awful lot of niche PS2 exclusive titles (like Under the Skin and Gregory Horror Show) that sold like absolute garbage and Viewtiful Joe likely never would have got the chance to become a series if it had been only on PS2 to start with.

Resident Evil though? Probably the wrong choice, had they aligned themselves with Sony from the start it could have become one of the big name brands that was seen as a reason to own a PS2.
 
The whole Resident Evil franchise and the survival horror genre was at serious decline during the PS2 era. You can look at sales number to see that, so Gamecube is not the one to be blamed. Perfect example would be the sales of the Silent Hill franchise:

NPD sales:
Silent Hill - 550k (PS1)
Silent Hill 2 - 512k (PS2)
Silent Hill 3 - 279k (PS2)
Silent Hill 4 - 209k (PS2)

Japan sales:
Silent Hill - 293.427 (PS1)
Silent Hill 2 - 124,793 (PS2)
Silent Hill 3 - 96,558 (PS2)
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 67,424 (PS2)

So yeah, PS2 destroyed Silent Hill and the survival horror genre as much as GCN destroyed Resident Evil and the survival horror genre. :rolleyes

Capcom 5 never really happened and was made a bigger deal than it deserved to be. PS2 got Capcom 50+ and no one ever mentioned that.

Nobody say GC is the only reason why the game didn't sell. But it's obvious that the game will get a lot more attention and more sell staying on the most popular console rather than the least popular one. Especially when the audience was built from PS era not Nintendo. RE is a popular series, but it can't draw attention like other well establish franchise (e.g. - FF, DQ). Shinji totally overestimate RE name.

Silent Hill number tells nothing. The game itself never been anywhere near being real popular. It's niche horror title at best. There are more factors that the game don't sell rather than just the genre is being declined. If the game got that sharp declined even staying on the same console with same audience. Just imagine putting it on GC...
 
Weirdly put. It sounds like you're saying that RE4 both murdered and revived the franchise. In any case I don't think the franchise was ever dead until 6... even then it's not completely dead, just on life support.

Dead critically but not financially. Hell had the reviews not been bad it might have even overtook RE5 sales.
 
Nobody say GC is the only reason why the game didn't sell. But it's obvious that the game will get a lot more attention and more sell staying on the most popular console rather than the least popular one. Especially when the audience was built from PS era not Nintendo. RE is a popular series, but it can't draw attention like other well establish franchise (e.g. - FF, DQ). Shinji totally overestimate RE name.

Silent Hill number tells nothing. The game itself never been anywhere near being real popular. It's niche horror title at best. There are more factors that the game don't sell rather than just the genre is being declined. If the game got that sharp declined even staying on the same console with same audience. Just imagine putting it on GC...

It's because, like I said in my previous post, survival horror has always been a niche genre. Resident Evil was the only big franchise in the genre, but other developers thought it was going to be the next big thing and cranked out RE clones. Almost all of these were DOA, and Resident Evil was declining in popularity as people got fatigued of gameplay that they never cared for in the first place.

Resident Evil turning into a mainstream shooter was nothing short of inevitable. It was (and still is) Capcom's flagship, and they weren't going to just let it die.
 
Monster Hunter is probably the good example of what the Capcom 5 was supposed to be doing. But its helped by the fact that the 3DS was the right decision.

Sony's issue with the PSP and Vita is they show no support for the systems. In the end it would be Capcom selling consoles without the financial benefit from hardware sales.

Makes more sense to start their own handheld than go to the Vita. Users leave brands every gen that's why its so interesting.

Sony supported the psp quite well.
Better than they did the vita.
 
moneyhats gon moneyhats

one game died because it was ass
one game was just DAT 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

fixed...also someone post dat gif.
 
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