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How Capcom Did The IMPOSSIBLE

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Capcom is on a hot streak. How did we get here? What does this mean for the future of gaming? Let's talk.
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  • (00:02–00:33) The modern gaming industry is dominated by questionable "truths": single-player games are risky, new IPs don't sell, and everything must be live service or open-world. Capcom is succeeding by ignoring these assumptions.
  • (00:33–01:05) Capcom's 2026 performance is exceptional: three major releases in four months, all commercially successful—something rare among AAA studios.
  • (01:05–02:16) The industry's "playing it safe" mindset leads to massive budgets and bland, overly broad games designed to offend no one—ultimately making them less appealing.
  • (02:16–03:46) Games are increasingly treated as long-term "platforms" (live services), prioritizing endless engagement over focused, high-quality experiences.
  • (04:28–05:26) Capcom's recent releases (e.g., Resident Evil Requiem, Monster Hunter Stories, Pragmata) show strong sales—even for a risky new IP—proving demand still exists for diverse, single-player experiences.
  • (06:22–06:56) A large-scale study (34,000 players across 22 countries) confirms most gamers actually prefer single-player games, contradicting industry assumptions.
  • (07:19–08:41) Capcom's turnaround began around 2017 with Resident Evil 7, focusing on internal improvements like the RE Engine and consistent quality across titles.
  • (09:03–10:12) Their philosophy: make focused, well-designed games (typically 10–30 hours), not bloated experiences. Scope control is a major strength.
  • (10:12–11:58) Capcom efficiently reuses assets, technology, and systems across games, building a long-term development foundation instead of reinventing everything each time.
  • (14:04–16:06) Rather than betting everything on one massive project, Capcom releases games regularly, iterates on ideas, and prioritizes craftsmanship over chasing trends.
  • (16:06–17:43) The company succeeds by making games for actual players—not hypothetical audiences imagined in corporate strategy meetings.
  • (17:43–18:56) Capcom's approach isn't "impossible"—it just feels that way because the industry has drifted so far from fundamentals. Their success highlights a viable future model for AAA gaming.
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roosnam1980 said:
asha sharma should buy capcom
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Not sure if the video brings this up, but Street Fighter 6's single player story/expanded tutorial/RPG mode created a way to learn the mechanics of SF in a way that was engaging for me and pulled me into the series. I've always appreciated the music and characters of SF but have felt learning the game wasn't fun so I never tried getting into the series. I think this is just another example of Capcom operating on a really compelling level. I know multiplayer is the backbone of fighting games but I don't have siblings or friends I can play with with for multiplayer and I'm not good enough to engage in online SF multiplayer yet. I hope they continue to expand and develop SF in a way where it offers fun single player experiences. Their Mega Man Collection releases have been fantastic too.

 
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capcom is beast in these 10 years, but not without a flop, some of their invention is not worked, but they managed to recover and win in other day.
they are some sort of example of single player games are still fine. but their MH also cool example, they are "beast" in their way.
 
DreamcastSkies said:
Not sure if the video brings this up, but Street Fighter 6's single player story/expanded tutorial/RPG mode created a way to learn the mechanics of SF in a way that was engaging for me and pulled me into the series. I've always appreciated the music and characters of SF but have felt learning the game wasn't fun so I never tried getting into the series. I think this is just another example of Capcom operating on a really compelling level. I know multiplayer is the backbone of fighting games but I don't have siblings or friends I can engage with for multiplayer and I'm not good enough to engage in online SF multiplayer yet. I hope they continue to expand and develop SF in a way where it offers fun single player experiences. Their Mega Man Collection releases have been fantastic too.
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Well Capcom fighting collection 2 is easy to get to grasps with, and it is only of the accessibility of pulling off the special moves without too much trouble that I am able to enjoy it more especially with Alpha 3, great sprite-work, good music as well...(not to mention other titles in the collection...) where as you wish Capcom took a similar approach to their Streetfighter 3 online edition for the PS3 and 360 ....moves on that game would take a while to pin
 
Generic said:
They didn't, modern Resident Evil does nothing but follow trends.
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While true its so much better than trying to appeal to the "Western" audience that Inafune had them doing in the 2010s just as he left the company. Only issue now is Capcom kind of doesn't really like to show off skin anymore and their go to female fit is jeans and t shirt. Even men don't be getting sexualised like the 360 days.

Capcom is in a healthy place, old IPs are a success, bringing back old ones and making new ones.

I enjoyed ExoPrimal and I have Pragmata to play I've just been busy.
 
Werewolf Jones said:
While true its so much better than trying to appeal to the "Western" audience that Inafune had them doing in the 2010s just as he left the company. Only issue now is Capcom kind of doesn't really like to show off skin anymore and their go to female fit is jeans and t shirt. Even men don't be getting sexualised like the 360 days.

Capcom is in a healthy place, old IPs are a success, bringing back old ones and making new ones.

I enjoyed ExoPrimal and I have Pragmata to play I've just been busy.
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Good for them, but I found RE9 to be underwhelming.

That Crowbcat video of the RE4 Remake is a good summary for modern Capcom.
 
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I'm currently playing the originals Resident Evil 1 (finished), Resident Evil 2 (finished) and Resident Evil 3 (ongoing).

They have a long way to go if they want to reach those levels again. Those games are truly immaculate in the design and structure. Unlike the remakes and other efforts like PRAGMATA which have been contaminated by the less positive aspects of modern design.

The positive point is that they are not afraid of making semi-linear single player games that are not completely bloated with filler. That's why I'm going to keep supporting their games even if they are not top tier like many seem to preach.
 
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Every time Capcom releases a good game we see this glazing while ignoring all of their flaws. They release plenty of duds too. See crap like Monster Hunter Wilds, Dragon's Dogma II, DRDR and Exoprimal. The release schedule this year is only so strong because one of those games, Pragmata, was meant to come out in 2023.
 
What did they do? RE remakes are mostly checklists at this point, re9 sucked and is a huge dissapointment. Just because shit sells doesn't make it high quality.

Pragmata is the only thing they nailed in the recent time.
 
It's not impossible.

It's just a series of great games from arguably the best Japanese development house right now.
 
Cost control. That's exactly what idiotics xbotx dont seen to understand. THink about what Sony did with Astro bot, but in a better and larger scale, which allows even less sucessful games (that is relative, of course) to be sucessful.
 
Pragmata is really good and RE Requiem was solid. But I am still pissed about Mega Man Legends 3. And I still think they need to give Dragon's Dogma 2 a meaty expansion.
 
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ngl capcom is the last bastion of hope for serious gamers in 2026.

and to think about how fucked their early days DLC on disc shit was

Serious Lock In GIF
 
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Capcom truly has to be one of the most consistent developers. They've had their flops, sure, but considering their long history, I feel like they have done much better than most developers in consistently producing high-quality and fun games.
 
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IbizaPocholo said:
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Capcom continues making GaaS like Street Fighter 6 and Monster Hunter Wilds because they know the market data (not a survey) says the majority of the game revenue and gameplay time comes from GaaS.

Regarding making non-GaaS SP AAA games too, there's nothing new, rare or special on it. Basically all big AAA publishers also make them too.

The difference is that Capcom didn't go full retard with wokism targeting a supposed "modern audience" and instead they target the people who really plays these type of games, and delivered quality games more consistently than the rest.

roosnam1980 said:
asha sharma should buy capcom
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No, Capcom should continue being successful and releasing quality games.

Royal Rumble Wrestling GIF by WWE
 
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Wilhelm_85 said:
Capcom truly has to be one of the most consistent developers. They've had their flops, sure, but considering their long history, I feel like they have done much better than most developers in consistently producing high-quality and fun games.
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I feel like even during their 'worst' gen, which people will say is the PS360 gen, they still gave us quite a few gems:
  • Lost Planet 1
  • Lost Planet 2
  • Ultimate MvC 3
  • Asura's Wrath
  • Bionic Commando Rearmed 1
  • Bionic Commando Rearmed 2
  • Dead Rising 1
  • Dead Rising 2
  • D&D console edition
  • A bunch of Megaman games including MM 9 and 10
  • A bunch of Phoenix Wright games
  • Zack and Wiki
  • Monster Hunter Frontier
  • Monster Hunter Stories
  • RE: Revelations
  • RE 5
  • Street Fighter 4
  • Tatsunoko vs Capcom
They did a great job keeping up with tech too, especially since other Japanese companies were struggling badly with both Xbox 360's western market share and PS3's cell tech.
 
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