Is Capcom the next THQ?

I think Deep Silver is becoming the next THQ. Well, THQ before the UDraw debacle, I mean.

Capcom has no key talent left

Kenji Inafune leaves to develop a Mega Man clone through Kickstarter. Shinji Mikami leaves to make his own Resident Evil clone at Bethesda. Basically these guys are continuing making the game they could've been developing for Capcom, elsewhere.
 
wow I can't believe it..Even Ono complained about having no money for STREET FIGHTER V and deep down is in co development with sony...

That's really unexpected and unfortunate.
 
Capcom is the next Acclaim.

Dragon's Dogma would've been nice on a machine that could pull off an acceptable frame rate for it.

DD was by FAR my most pleasant surprise for this generation, if I could get a proper PC port with mod tools I would faint. It just has incredible combat and I love how the pawn system works even if you aren't actively playing. The frame rate and textures are the obvious weak points which a PC port would address to the extent that Capcom allowed it to be.
 
MS better be paying ALOT of Dead Rising 3 to be exclusive. At least Sony is also working on Deep Down in conjunction with Capcom.
 
Capcom will be fine. They are just in a transitional period with basically no creative power houses left at the company, Hopefully with the next generation they try some new things again and get people invested in Capcom games again.

MS better be paying ALOT of Dead Rising 3 to be exclusive. At least Sony is also working on Deep Down in conjunction with Capcom.

MS care more about Dead Rising then Capcom does.

If it wasnt for Microsoft taking it over and paying for most if not all of its development Dead Rising would have been killed with the rest of Inafune's games.


Or at least thats how I see it.
 
If Capcom doesn't hit paydirt with its upcoming releases, they will be on their way in becoming the next THQ. This new generation way well be their last.

I just hope if it does happen, a decent 3rd Party will buy them whole so everyone can still enjoy their games, and not be locked on certain platforms.
 
The new console generation, at least according to offhand comments by Sony and MS, will last ten years, probably a little under that. Chances are Nintendo will either announce a new console or their "handheld/console hybrid" a couple years earlier than that.

It's possible that Capcom could go under in that time, and they are horrendous right now, but definitely not happening in the near future, or next few years.
 
Capcom made almost a billion dollars in revenue this fiscal year despite just about every game they released missing sales targets. I don't see them as being in trouble right now.

What people here might be concerned about is that console/PC game sales saw the biggest drop in sales and the one area that saw growth was...wait for it...online game (read: mobile game) sales. Smurf Village beat the shit out of Resident Evil and DmC.

Expect even more of that kind of stuff along with DLC everything in the near future.
 
If it wasnt for Microsoft taking it over and paying for most if not all of its development Dead Rising would have been killed with the rest of Inafune's games.

MS have unquestionably gotten the better of the two exclusives from Capcom. Deep Down hasn't inspired confidence and is questionable on what it actually is, time-travelling from modern day (wth), sci-fi uninspired logo for a medieval game, memory game?, always online, downgraded visuals etc.

Whereas dead rising is clear to everyone what it is and how it plays and whether or not it's your kind of game. Clear packaged product with 2 previous iterations to have a solid engine. Deep Down is all talk about new Sony engines and experimental stuff no one is sure will pay off and all the talk about "early build" damage control doesn't inspire confidence either.
 
No chance in hell that deep down is/will remain exclusive to ps4, unless Sony is chipping in. Their first venture into next gen development will be too big of a risk when their sitting on chubchange.
 
Capcom needs to go to through a major restructing. They have their own specific fans and market, if they target them then they will never see a loss in their lifetime.

The fact that they're trying to grab a fish or two from Activision's plate is the reason they've gone to a shitter.

Such a shame, really. I've played shit load of games by them too, and none of their newer ones. They will rebound when next-gen releases with all fan favorites getting a sequel in the new console.
 
No chance in hell that deep down is/will remain exclusive to ps4, unless Sony is chipping in. Their first venture into next gen development will be too big of a risk when their sitting on chubchange.

Sony is chipping in. It is a PS4 exclusive.
 
I've generally enjoyed Capcoms output this generation, however I can see that trying to make western style games and some of their revenue making decisions are leaving a lot of people to feel exploited and they have lost a lot of good will.

I really can't see them "doing a THQ" any time soon, more likely a change in their output and platform focus. If that fails, well...
 
You would be surprised.

I doubt Viewtiful Joe and God Hand would have the audience to support a full AAA release. Now, they could assign very small teams to these games and make an indie-like release for $15, similar to Blood Dragon or Call of Juarez.

I think releases like that could be quite successful.

Definitely. The problem is that they can't seem to grasp that and just go for the extremes, you're either an AAA or you're a handheld game/cheap mobage. No in between for mid/small scale productions.

I think all publishers should be looking at investing more in this digital download 'Triple A' field. There's very little room for these titles in the retail market, but Ubisoft in particular have been very good at delivering more creative and niche titles via DD while still developing big games in the traditional boxed market. Capcom should look at making smaller titles like Okami, Viewtiful Joe, obviously Megaman, maybe Breath of Fire, traditional Resi (starting with HD versions of REmake and Zero) and so on digital downloads budgeted for $15-$20 selling prices, as well as testing the water with new IPs in this field. Like you say SO they're only focusing on the two extremes and that's a very narrow business plan. Have there been any sequels to established franchises that have made the jump to mobile or tablets which have been particularly successful? Most of the games which seem to do really well on those platforms are new IPs, like Angry Birds, Runescape, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, etc. Awkwardly hammering their established 'core' franchises on to these platforms will never be more than moderately successful. In my opinion.

They made a loss on RE6, I doubt Street Fighter is making them crazy amounts of money and Monster Hunter is their only killer app but that's only selling like hotcakes in Japan.

Did they really make a loss on Resi 6? I know it had a crazily large development team, but it still sold 5 million copies. Even if Capcom earned an average $20 per sale, that's still $100 million. Surely it didn't cost more than that to develop?!
 
No chance in hell that deep down is/will remain exclusive to ps4, unless Sony is chipping in. Their first venture into next gen development will be too big of a risk when their sitting on chubchange.

Maybe Capcom really needs that engineering help from the console makers. One exclusive for Microsoft to come to grips with that system. One exclusive for Sony to come to grips with that system.
 
1) If i were in Capcom's position I'd float the idea of Sony or Nintendo buying a large chunk of their shares to fund exclusives.

It's kinda what is going on with Nintendo's relationship atm with regards to Monster Hunter but just make it a little more solid i guess instead of just a little bit of moneyhatting.


2) If it is already a console exclusive game, let Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft publish the game and get rid of a large chunk of expenditure there and just focus on the developing of games.


...or they can stop making shitty Resident Evil games and make a worthy successor to RE4.
 
To be honest I'm thinking either Bandi Namco or Konami. I mean do they even make games anymore?

I don't believe Konami can be in particularly good shape either. They've been living off MGS for years now. PES might be making a comeback (I don't care about football games so I don't really follow it), but Silent Hill is on life support and they don't seem to have any other big series, unless they've got some successful Japan-centric stuff which is never published over here?
 
I don't believe Konami can be in particularly good shape either. They've been living off MGS for years now. PES might be making a comeback (I don't care about football games so I don't really follow it), but Silent Hill is on life support and they don't seem to have any other big series, unless they've got some successful Japan-centric stuff which is never published over here?

Packaged games is a very small part of the Konami of today.

In their latest financial results I believe packaged games accounted for just 7-10% or some very small percentage of their total revenue.
 
Packaged games is a very small part of the Konami of today.

In their latest financial results I believe packaged games accounted for just 7-10% or some very small percentage of their total revenue.

Really? What other revenue streams do they have? Surely not all of that is merchandise?!
 
Quite honestly I'm not surprised that Capcom is struggling.

They're completely forgetting to nourish their respected IP/franchise/brand's and instead choose to grind them into the ground in a desperate attempt to get ensure bigger and faster profits. They're playing it safe - in the wrong way.

That, and also they're misjudging the quality of their western software products, though Dead Rising 3 seems like an exception.

They need to bring such hot topics into debate and discuss their future strategy. As of right now they're acting like a headless chicken.
 
I like how you impulsively call me wrong and then essentially acknowledge that I'm right in your very next post. Losing close to 800k users in Japan would constitute a significant drop, one that wouldn't be made up for by western sales.

Moreover I doubt that Capcom would be all that happy with a large chunk of that 4 million coming from a budget re-release rather than full price like they had with MHP3rd.

First, you have no idea how much MH4 will sell at west.
Second, you have no idea how much of these hypothetical 4m will come from full price
Third, the game will beat Capcom's expectations for FY by a long shot
Fourth, Capcom will be in heaven if they sell 4m LTD since the majority of Monster Hunter fanbase will have moved to 3DS
 
What Capcom needs to do is lower their budgets significantly going into the next generation. RE7 needs to be made on a fraction of what RE6 was made on to focus on more immediate profitability. Same goes with most of their franchises.
If the rumors of RE7 being more like 1-3/REmake hold true, this should happen. I'm sure those big Hollywood set pieces and explosions ate up a huge chunk of the recent games' budgets, but there'll be no need for them in RE7.
 
First, you have no idea how much MH4 will sell at west.
Second, you have no idea how much of these hypothetical 4m will come from full price
Third, the game will beat Capcom's expectations for FY by a long shot
Fourth, Capcom will be in heaven if they sell 4m LTD since the majority of Monster Hunter fanbase will have moved to 3DS

I wasn't really accepting that it would be selling 4 million in Japan, just that even if they met your hypothetical figure it would still represent a significant decline. And we sure as hell can predict how the game will perform in the west based on past sales.

And yes, of course it will surpass their prediction because unlike every other franchise they always low-ball the MH predictions (They famously set Tri's goal as being just the initial shipment of the game and people tried to treat that as a huge success for them), I don't think any entry has ever missed a prediction before and this time they put out a ridiculously low prediction, 2.8 million (MH3P did over 4.4 million at retail within it's first fiscal year with 2.5 months less of tracking). They are heavily hedging their bets, I have no idea why you are so confident.
 
I can't think of many third parties making games that are moderate in budget, high in quality and have a relatively neutral artstyle.
SEGA tried this by producing games like Binary Domain, Alpha Protocol, Vanquish etc. And they, wisely, bailed out of this business when they realized that the opportunity cost for mid-tier productions has become too damn high.

Well, actually there's Capcom with Monster Hunter, which is rather successful.
In Japan.
 
Capcom have left him tied up in the yard for years and forgot about him, at least Nintendo are taking him for a walk

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Da fug is this thread even about. These are totally normal cash positions for Capcom. Capcom is not a very large company. I don't know why people think they are. They have 2-3 franchises that shift lots of units that they stagger. How much cash do you think they should have on hand? 5 billion dollars?

Capcom was in real danger in the early PS2 era but I don't think there is no going concern right now.
 
SEGA tried this by producing games like Binary Domain, Alpha Protocol, Vanquish etc. And they, wisely, bailed out of this business when they realized that the opportunity cost for mid-tier productions has become too damn high.

Man, I loved all of these games but a shooter which they marketed on its voice-command gimmick, an RPG with serious control and balance issues and a shooter without multiplayer... do I have to say anything?

In Japan.

Whether you get 3+m in Japan or Worldwide doesn't really matter.
 
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