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Deep Down, Sales, current stable of IP, and Where Capcom Goes from Here

I wonder whatever happened to Capcoms plans to release more Resident Evil. Remember them saying that a couple of times over the past years. The reality seems to be quite the contrary though. The time between the releases gets longer and longer. They can't even get that DLC finished for Christ sake. I mean, we were supposed to get that Free DLC and a completely new episode in 2017 for RE7 and by this point not even the free DLC is in sight. What gives?

Can they please hire Yves Guillemont to teach them how management works?

Like other have said it's such a shame. They have so many great IPs and they make nothing with them. Even their tentpole IP Resident Evil is extremely poorly managed. I don't get it. Can't be that hard.

Nintendo should buy Capcom.
Nah, their IPs would be in better hands with Ubisoft.
 
Deep down wouldn't run on the PS4. Happens every generation. Some fake prerendered footage comes out, people get fooled into thinking it's real. Watch PS5 footage comes out, and people are wowed and fooled again for the 5th time.
 

Kyoufu

Member
Deep down wouldn't run on the PS4. Happens every generation. Some fake prerendered footage comes out, people get fooled into thinking it's real. Watch PS5 footage comes out, and people are wowed and fooled again for the 5th time.

There's live PS4 footage posted on the previous page.
 

dosh

Member
A common misconception is that CGI movies can't have any sort of clipping, that's simply not true. Any form of 3D rendering can have clipping, not just video games, the reason movies don't is because they give the most talented animators a metric fuck ton of time to animate and polish any inconsistencies

They also have entire teams of fixers whose sole purpose is to tweak and clean all the horrible shit animators put the rigs through.

An animator from Pixar once told me that the pose of Mr Incredible's hand when he threatens to break Mirage's neck was so weird that the hand itself was fucked beyond repair and they basically had to paint over the whole thing in post.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
There's live PS4 footage posted on the previous page.

Yeah, and if you look closely although its pretty, what its doing isn't as impressive technically as it first appears. Hint: watch the shadows cast (or in many cases not cast at all) by the player entities.

The VFX are very accomplished, but beyond that (animation, scene complexity, physics) its actually pretty basic stuff.

I still wouldn't count the project out as being completely dead at this point, but I can imagine it bears little resemblance to this prototype build. The issue as always is when an ongoing project gets put into turnaround -as DD did, following the decision to drop the FTP model- is that it loses all creative momentum, and when that happens management/publishing backing tends to collapse also.

Its an issue specific to internal projects at big developer/publishers because there's always somewhere else for the staff to be deployed while a new creative direction is sought. The thing is, often those staff cannot be transferred back so readily as they were dispatched.
 

DMiz

Member
I think there's much to be said about the time when people were clamouring to have Ninte do purchase Capcom, if only so that they could take advantage of their IP and increase their stable of games.

That obviously wouldn't happen - Nintendo has plenty of their own IP, some of which they continue to sit on - but it speaks to the love and fervour that Capcom fans have for these franchises and how underwhelmingly pisspoor the management has been in leveraging them.

The most tragic thing is to watch one of the most prominent Japanese developers effectively allow their stable of beloved characters stagnate into obscurity. It's partially what put Konami into a death spiral and will likely be the trend for Capcom unless their efforts show other results.

That said, I do feel like their efforts have also gone unrewarded in certain aspects. Resident Evil 7 seemed to critically hit all the major bullet points but is still not meeting the sales expectations that I would argue equal its critical success. It may prove to be an uphill battle until Capcom is able to right the ship. Hopefully MonHun World will signal the beginning of their upswing...?
 
The wind simulation is really good but the overall scene really isn't impressive. When you consider how barebones everything looks does it really matter? The game looked pretty awful tbh.

Look, if we have games like Warfare out on PS4 as a free online game, Deep Down could definitely be a lot of fun in the same line. I'd be way more inclined to play Deep Down than Warfare tbh, I actually like what I see from the video even though it's obviously in progress.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
I wonder whatever happened to Capcoms plans to release more Resident Evil. Remember them saying that a couple of times over the past years. The reality seems to be quite the contrary though. The time between the releases gets longer and longer. They can't even get that DLC finished for Christ sake. I mean, we were supposed to get that Free DLC and a completely new episode in 2017 for RE7 and by this point not even the free DLC is in sight. What gives?

Can they please hire Yves Guillemont to teach them how management works?

Like other have said it's such a shame. They have so many great IPs and they make nothing with them. Even their tentpole IP Resident Evil is extremely poorly managed. I don't get it. Can't be that hard.


Nah, their IPs would be in better hands with Ubisoft.

I think the RE title thing is gonna happen. We know of 3 titles already in dev for the series (RE8, RE2make, unknown third title). So long as they don't hit dev trouble we could see an RE title every year until 2020
 

Duxxy3

Member
It's easy... stay away from exclusive contracts. Stay away from AAA spending.

As much as people might complain about them, RE7 and MVC:I are the right direction. They're not exclusive. They didn't cost a lot to make. They will make a profit on both games. Especially MVC:I when new Marvel movies come out.

SFV and DR3/4 are the wrong direction.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
They also have entire teams of fixers whose sole purpose is to tweak and clean all the horrible shit animators put the rigs through.

An animator from Pixar once told me that the pose of Mr Incredible's hand when he threatens to break Mirage's neck was so weird that the hand itself was fucked beyond repair and they basically had to paint over the whole thing in post.
Yep. Granted the rigs themselves are getting better these things are still incredibly polished to perfection.
 

Unknown?

Member
It's easy... stay away from exclusive contracts. Stay away from AAA spending.

As much as people might complain about them, RE7 and MVC:I are the right direction. They're not exclusive. They didn't cost a lot to make. They will make a profit on both games. Especially MVC:I when new Marvel movies come out.

SFV and DR3/4 are the wrong direction.
lol exclusivity had nothing to do with SFV launching bare bones and Dead Rising going down the gutter. They would have been the same games if they weren't exclusive and probably have way more glitches.
 
lol exclusivity had nothing to do with SFV launching bare bones and Dead Rising going down the gutter. They would have been the same games if they weren't exclusive and probably have way more glitches.

We don't really know what would have happened if Sony didn't front the development cost for SFV. All we know from Capcom is that Sony made SFV possible to be made near the start of this generation.
 
They built a new engine, took three to four years to make the game, 700+ names in the credits, and at least a dozen companies outsourced to. It probably wasn't "cheap".

Missing your sales target by 500K is never a good thing. Also failing to have sales "legs" isn't a good thing either when the company expects it to sell another 2 million .

It's also a 1.5 million decline from RE 6 in the same time frame.

Capcom have already said the game turned a profit . Only this board can make out that 3.5 million units is bad, but then when the likes of NieR: Automata sell just over a million it's the best thing ever?

RE 6 has sold great and better yet got the series and IP back on top form, brought back the scares and quality to its IP. Capcom are still one of the best and I'm looking forward to this next few games myself.
 
I'd personally like them to remake a few of their classics. The treatment Shadow of the colossus is getting. Throw down that love on RE4, mega man 2, the first DMC, Maximo, super ghouls and ghosts, and Street Fighter ll hyper fighting.

They'd print money if executed correctly.
 
Capcom have already said the game turned a profit . Only this board can make out that 3.5 million units is bad, but then when the likes of NieR: Automata sell just over a million it's the best thing ever?

RE 6 has sold great and better yet got the series and IP back on top form, brought back the scares and quality to its IP. Capcom are still one of the best and I'm looking forward to this next few games myself.

It's all about context.

Nobody expects a Nier game to sell over a million, let alone over 1.5 million. Everyone expected it to do 400K to 500K at best because Yoko Taro games are super niche. Hell, it was a miracle that the game was made at all. That's why it's touted as a major triumph.

Resident Evil, on the other hand, had sales expectation of 4 million and they failed to ship that much let alone sell that much. They also expect to sell another 2 million by March 2018, and have only managed 200K of that 2 million. Unless is suddenly starts selling gangbusters for no reason at all, it won't come close to making that amount. It's also contracted in sales compared to RE 6, which was critically maligned, by 1.5 million and won't even come within the same ballpark as RE 5 at this rate. That's not a good sign since Resident Evil is the flagship franchise of Capcom alongside Monster Hunter. Nobody is saying these sales are horrible, only that they are disappointing in context.
 

leroidys

Member
For the people saying they need to stop trying to be an AAA developer, they did try that towards the end of last gen and the strategy flopped hard. Bionic Commando, Remember Me, Dark Void, Asura's Wrath, etc. All were decent A/B tier games, but sold almost nothing. I don't think that it's *totally* misguided to try and compete in the AAA space with their big franchises and make smaller scale games with some of their latent IPs.

I honestly don't know where they should go now, they're in a tough spot in the market. I do wish that, regardless of budget, they would treat their tentpole franchises with more care. RE7 and Monster Hunter World look like they have the care and polish to compete with other titles. Street Fighter V and MvCI on the other hand feel like afterthoughts in many ways. I like SFV more than most, but I don't think you can argue that Capcom really budgeted and developed it like it's one of their top tier franchises.

That's how Capcom has always operated though. Get a new concept out there ASAP no matter how rough, and iterate with new installments if it takes hold.

Nintendo should buy the Mega Man IP

It's got to be all or nothing. Losing MM characters in all the Capcom crossover games would suck.
 
It's all about context.

Nobody expects a Nier game to sell over a million, let alone over 1.5 million. Everyone expected it to do 400K to 500K at best because Yoko Taro games are super niche. Hell, it was a miracle that the game was made at all. That's why it's touted as a major triumph.

Resident Evil, on the other hand, had sales expectation of 4 million and they failed to ship that much let alone sell that much. They also expect to sell another 2 million by March 2018, and have only managed 200K of that 2 million. Unless is suddenly starts selling gangbusters for no reason at all, it won't come close to making that amount. It's also contracted in sales compared to RE 6, which was critically maligned, by 1.5 million and won't even come within the same ballpark as RE 5 at this rate. That's not a good sign since Resident Evil is the flagship franchise of Capcom alongside Monster Hunter. Nobody is saying these sales are horrible, only that they are disappointing in context.

Let's talk good signs then .. God Of War Accession sold less than 3 million copies and way less than GOW III 5 million plus, Gran Turismo 6 sells 4 million way down from GT 5 11 million but that's ok and only a good sign for Sony and the upcoming games . Nioh a game in development for decades sells just over a million and again this board talks it up, maybe RE7 only mistake was it not a PS exclusive, because only this board could make out that any game selling over 4 million full price units is bad .

Sure Dead Rising 4 sales are pretty poor, but RE7 ?
 

Kaleinc

Banned
We're basically just seeing the end result of years of terrible executives making bad decisions all while treating the talent like garbage to the point where most left, leaving a wake of amazing properties and not enough good people to make anything out of them, if they even get a chance to because of said executive decisions.

The biggest disaster being a Japanese company known for excellent gameplay in a diverse array of genres throwing all of their properties over to mediocre western developers in order to try and transform series like Devil May Cry and Lost Planet into fucking Rockstar sales.

Top that off with their weird sales over-estimates constantly making them look foolish and Street Fighter 5 being rushed out too early (and people who probably don't even care about the series to begin with making it out to be the worst video game of all time) and we are in the weird state we are now. A company with incredible properties beaten down by bad corporate decisions, bleeding talent, and doing every possible thing to make people think of them less and less positively.
This guy gets it.

For the people saying they need to stop trying to be an AAA developer, they did try that towards the end of last gen and the strategy flopped hard. Bionic Commando, Remember Me, Dark Void. All were decent A/B tier games, but sold almost nothing.
They weren't decent, not even close.

Copcam need their own engine (not that UE garbage) and a bunch of good games - that's all it takes.
 

butman

Member
Deep Down was a tech demo impossible to run in current gen. It look next-gen way better than Horizon Zero Dawn and Hellblade.

Forget it.
 

leroidys

Member
This guy gets it.


They weren't decent, not even close.

Copcam need their own engine (not that UE garbage) and a bunch of good games - that's all it takes.
Sure they are. I'll give you dark void, but everything else is a solid 7-7.5/10

Your analysis is amazingly insightful though. Have you thought about pitching it to the leadership at Capcom?
 
I'm kinda surprised they haven't tried to retrofit one of their shooter franchises into a GaS-title. I played Warframe for the first time recently and didn't even know it was a co-op game. Would be a decent pick for a Lost Planet or Dino Crisis revival that takes some inspiration from Monster Hunter.
 
In an ironic twist of fate, Capcom appears to have fallen in to the very trap they avoided at the beginning of the 360 generation. Back then they were arguably the only Japanese dev/pub to come out of the gate strong with DR, LP, DMC4, RE5, etc. and this time around they were arguably the only Japanese devs to come out the gate incredibly weak with only SFV and RE7 as their major releases over the last 4 years. I'm no expert but it appears to me that they overestimated what the current consoles would be capable of.
 
Poor handling of their IPs likely led them here.
They've had a lot of luck getting first party funding for many of their releases but I'm not sure how long that'll last.
They've been butchering their fighting game market with sub par releases next to a lot of strong competition.

Dead Rising 3 went in a direction fans weren't super happy with with the 4th game being even worse.

Resident Evil's fan base is mostly that of 3rd person action horror with co-op. They went from that to something akin to an indie horror game with better production values and bad combat.

Panty Raid was being worked on early in the gen when everyone wanted their own engine. Not entirely sure why they made another engine with the RE Engine but I guess it's fine.
Their early gen plans falling apart likely hurt since they missed out on building an audience early on and they're failing again with Switch.

It's mostly poor management and a lack of strong talent. Not a whole lot of teams of note left that can make the big games Capcom wants to make and the franchises likely aren't big enough to justify these budgets
 

Zalman

Member
They're slowly digging their own grave as they continue to mismanage their franchises one after another. It's sad to see, especially when they have one of the most impressive collections of IPs in the industry.
 
Let's talk good signs then .. God Of War Accession sold less than 3 million copies and way less than GOW III 5 million plus, Gran Turismo 6 sells 4 million way down from GT 5 11 million but that's ok and only a good sign for Sony and the upcoming games . Nioh a game in development for decades sells just over a million and again this board talks it up, maybe RE7 only mistake was it not a PS exclusive, because only this board could make out that any game selling over 4 million full price units is bad .

Sure Dead Rising 4 sales are pretty poor, but RE7 ?

...I'm not arguing that all of those are good signs. You need to stop arguing with someone who isn't here at the moment.

God of War Ascension's sales are probably a factor behind the big changes taking place, among other things.

RE 7 did not sell over 4 million copies. Shipping 3.5 million copies is not "bad". However, missing the sales target and stalling in back end sales where the previous two entries did not is "disappointing". Resident Evil is not longer expanding and is showing signs of contraction. That's disappointing. We'll have to see what RE 8 does to see if it is a trend or a reaction to the gameplay perspective shift.
 

DOWN

Banned
Maybe stop outsourcing Dead Rising and Resident Evil to western developers. Literally all the charm of Dead Rising was in it being a Japanese interpretation of America.
 

Kaleinc

Banned
Sure they are. I'll give you dark void, but everything else is a solid 7-7.5/10

Your analysis is amazingly insightful though. Have you thought about pitching it to the leadership at Capcom?
7.5 is Uncharted 4 territory but good try.
If pitching good ideas to Copcam worked they wouldn't be in this desperate position in the first place.
 
Nah, bruh. Capcom IP would be in better hands with Sony & Nintendo and we all know that.
Like Sony is a model child with how they handle their IPs mate... Better to give it to someone who does something with it. Nintendo would be a good choice given the quality of their game but Capcom IPs hardly fit into Nintendos portfolio.

Though enough of this theoretical talk. Deep down in my heart I just want Capcom to get back on track. They were my favorite publisher in PS1 & 2 days. Just want them to get there again.
 
Funny enough I wish capcoms ips were in the hands of different publishers and developers at this point as DmC and lost planet 3 are the two capcom games ive enjoyed most these last couple years, with Revelations 2 being the lone capcom developed exception.
 

leroidys

Member
7.5 is Uncharted 4 territory but good try.
If pitching good ideas to Copcam worked they wouldn't be in this desperate position in the first place.
What is Copcam? Is that like Micro$oft? I'm not going to be bothered to continue arguing this point with you, but suffice it to say that's about where they fall in community consensus as well as review aggregate sites.

If we're shifting goalposts to say that Uncharted 4 is anything but a AAA tier game, then I don't even fucking know.
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
Sengoku Basara is basically dead too now. Maybe it wouldn't be if Capcom had also transitioned it to 3DS/Vita rather than sticking with just PS3/PS4. I guess Koei gets the last laugh.
Shame, it was MUCH MUCH better than any Musou game I've ever played.
 

Sesha

Member
In an ironic twist of fate, Capcom appears to have fallen in to the very trap they avoided at the beginning of the 360 generation. Back then they were arguably the only Japanese dev/pub to come out of the gate strong with DR, LP, DMC4, RE5, etc. and this time around they were arguably the only Japanese devs to come out the gate incredibly weak with only SFV and RE7 as their major releases over the last 4 years. I'm no expert but it appears to me that they overestimated what the current consoles would be capable of.

You forgot Dead Rising 4. They also have MvC Infinite this month and MHWorld early next year.

Maybe stop outsourcing Dead Rising and Resident Evil to western developers. Literally all the charm of Dead Rising was in it being a Japanese interpretation of America.

They have. Capcom has moved all development in-house. Capcom Vancouver is a wholly-owned subsidiary, and have been since after DR2. The only RE title that was wholly outsourced was Operation Raccoon City.
 
...I'm not arguing that all of those are good signs. You need to stop arguing with someone who isn't here at the moment.

God of War Ascension's sales are probably a factor behind the big changes taking place, among other things.

RE 7 did not sell over 4 million copies. Shipping 3.5 million copies is not "bad". However, missing the sales target and stalling in back end sales where the previous two entries did not is "disappointing". Resident Evil is not longer expanding and is showing signs of contraction. That's disappointing. We'll have to see what RE 8 does to see if it is a trend or a reaction to the gameplay perspective shift.

Please any time a game sells over 3 million units at full price it's done well when all is said and done. Some here have double standards and is almost obsessed with sales. There's loads of Talk of Yakuza on here, an IP that's hasn't expanded it's base since the 2nd game (which I'm sure still is the best selling in the series) and I don't think has ever sold a million units each title: That's one of SEGA main brands and takes hundreds of staff to make each game. Yet no worries from some here (there again it's a PS exclusive) both Nier and Nioh have been in development for years sold barely over a million and that's the best thing ever?(one forgets they're PS exclusives) and the likes of GT and God of War latest entries saw a massive decline in sales, but let's focus on Capcom?

Dead Rising 4, I get that's an IP going nowhere and in trouble, but otherwise RE 4 done really well and to see a Vs fighter sell over 1 million units is good in today's market. Capcom only silly move was not to make on the One which would have helped even more with sales.

Still a huge fan of Capcom and think they're a top corp and really looking forward to the upcoming Monster World and hopefully a sequel to Dragon Dogma
 

vala

Member
They have. Capcom has moved all development in-house.

Reaaallyy??

Remake HD -- K2
RE Zero HD -- Tose
Revelations 1 & 2 -- Tose
Umbrella Corps -- K2
Monster Hunter Stories -- Marvelous
Mega Man Legacy Collection -- Digital Eclipse
The Disney Afternoon Collection -- Digital Eclipse
Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 -- Now Production and Bullets Co., Ltd
Street Fighter 5 -- Dimps
Marvel vs Capcom Infinite -- unconfirmed, but i'm pretty sure 8ing is behind it
 

Sesha

Member
Reaaallyy??

Remake HD -- K2
RE Zero HD -- Tose
Revelations 1 & 2 -- Tose
Umbrella Corps -- K2
Monster Hunter Stories -- Marvelous
Mega Man Legacy Collection -- Digital Eclipse
The Disney Afternoon Collection -- Digital Eclipse
Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 -- Now Production and Bullets Co., Ltd
Street Fighter 5 -- Dimps
Marvel vs Capcom Infinite -- unconfirmed, but i'm pretty sure 8ing is behind it

According to themselves, yes. I should clarify that it means in-house development of new titles. Revelations 2 was in-house, SFV was 60-70% in-house, Infinite is in-house as well. Stories was probably in-development before the restructuring, hence why Marvelous did it.
 
Maybe stop outsourcing Dead Rising and Resident Evil to western developers. Literally all the charm of Dead Rising was in it being a Japanese interpretation of America.

RE never been outsourced and done In-House (for the main series) Dead Rising been outsourced since the 2nd game I just feel there's only so much you can do with a Dead Rising game tbh and the series as run its course for me. Outsorucing Lost Planet 3 really hurt the game and the series and I love to see Capcom make a new one back In-House.

I'm sure Capcom have said they'll no longer outsource and were building two new R&D development studios/buildings back in 2014
 
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