On the subject of Capcom

What on earth has happened to this company? Given the decisions that Capcom have made over the last couple of years - multiple re-releases, the death of Megaman and the departure of Inafune, the abominations that were Resident Evil 6 and SFxT respectively, the very-likely abomination that will be DmC, the refusal to localise the MH: Portable/Frontier series and the out-sourcing of both MH titles and Lost Planet 3 to outside devs, seeing the Capcom logo on the front of a game case, at least for me, is fast becoming the equivalent of seeing an ljn logo. I just never find myself feeling particularly excited for any new release of theirs, which is especially sad given that I've been a long-time fan of SF, RE and DMC.

What, exactly, are the motivations Capcom's most recent business decisions? I've often heard the rationalisation that they simply want to appeal to a western audience, but their refusal to localise titles and out-sourcing of much-loved series as well as the implementation of on-disc DLC and the like just seem utterly bizzare if they are indeed trying to expand their audience.

Capcom's core strengths are a niche in today's market, and no major publisher sees contraction as a good option. They're struggling to remain relevant in the market but the market has changed away from what they do best.

In terms of Capcom's core in-house competencies, they'd be better off if they were sized similarly to Atlus or Calypso; smaller risks, smaller rewards. But no company wants to shrink, they want to grow and expand. So they constantly have to compete with the EAs and Ubisofts in a market they are increasingly irrelevant to.

Okay, let's bust some things down here:

1. Calling the DMC reboot a likely abomination when talk on the demo has been mostly positive is a bit, I don't know, presumptuous, don't you think?
2. Why are you crying about Monster Hunter? They're bringing the 3DS one over in March, the Wii U one will most likely come here as well, and ultimately the only recent ones they're going to have skipped are the PSP version of 3rd (surprise, Capcom's not supporting a dead system!) and its PS3 port. That's pretty good for a franchise that does absolutely fucking nothing in the West.
3. Spark Unlimited will probably do as well of a job with Lost Planet as Capcom has, if the first two games are any indication.
4. You are legit crazy if you actually think Capcom is in any way comparable to LJN. That kind of hyperbole just shoots your argument in the foot.

More importantly, though:

@Brodehouse said:

Capcom's core strengths are a niche in today's market, and no major publisher sees contraction as a good option. They're struggling to remain relevant in the market but the market has changed away from what they do best. In terms of Capcom's core in-house competencies, they'd be better off if they were sized similarly to Atlus or Calypso; smaller risks, smaller rewards. But no company wants to shrink, they want to grow and expand. So they constantly have to compete with the EAs and Ubisofts in a market they are increasingly irrelevant to.

Nailed it.

The LJN thing was a little uncalled for, I'll admit. Nonetheless, as far as I am concerned, there is very little that Capcom has done right over the past couple of years - aside from perhaps Dragons Dogma. As for DmC, I will indeed stand by my opinion that it will not even come close to living up to the rest of the series based on what I have seen of the demo as well as what I know about Ninja Theory's previous efforts at action games - and it seems the general public appears to agree, as evidenced by the preorder numbers: http://www.vgchartz.com/preorders/41245/USA/.

I'm on the mobile site, so researching a post is kind of difficult, but if someone could list the amount of Street Fighter 2 versions (just 2, though you can include Super if you want), the amount of versions of the original RE.

Oh, and since we are using VGChartz, the lifetime sales of the PSP MH games (IIRC, Freedom and Unite?) comparing the sales in the West with their Japanese counterparts.

Much obliged if someone could indulge me.

making money is what happened to capcom

You can play the DMC demo now, so form your own opinion on that.
 
Yes I fucking hate Crapcom for all the pain they've caused me, but I'd rather not discuss that. 

@Brodehouse said:

Capcom's core strengths are a niche in today's market, and no major publisher sees contraction as a good option. They're struggling to remain relevant in the market but the market has changed away from what they do best. In terms of Capcom's core in-house competencies, they'd be better off if they were sized similarly to Atlus or Calypso; smaller risks, smaller rewards. But no company wants to shrink, they want to grow and expand. So they constantly have to compete with the EAs and Ubisofts in a market they are increasingly irrelevant to.

Pretty much this, though now that I think about it would be a lot better for some companies if they realized that contracting a bit might actually be better for them, in the long run, than expanding.

I'm just going to go ahead and mention the elephant in the room: I don't think Capcom is going to go the way of THQ anytime soon. Is it a possibility? Yes, but Capcom still has a lot of money. Here's an idea: Why don't they get in the business of doing proper PC ports to Western shores of Japanese games that otherwise would just be console only and therefore doomed to fail at the $60 price point? Devil May Cry 4 and RE5 proved that they have that kind of capability, and there's only one other major Japanese publisher I can name who consistently has good ports (Square Enix), so maybe they could chase that idea? Steam has proven to be a good home for more niche titles as far as I can tell.

But maybe that's just bullshit and my current late-night posting is really stupid.

@Turtlebird95 said:

You can play the DMC demo now, so form your own opinion on that. Yes I fucking hate Crapcom for all the pain they've caused me, but I'd rather not discuss that.

Well, I have played the demo, and, while I know that it's only a demo and locked to easy etc etc, it doesn't bode well as far as I am concerned. The attraction of DMC has always been extremely fast-paced gameplay, with a ton of enemies on-screen and a deep combo system. DmC, while it certainly looks nice, runs at 30 FPS, has considerably slower animations, few enemies onscreen (likely due to engine limitations I would suspect) and a massively dumbed-down combo system which, for some strange reason, rewards you for damage output rather than variety and innovation - making the Demon hammer pretty much the best choice at all times. Not to mention that the jump cancelling hitboxes are wacky as fuck and don't even require you to land on the enemies' heads to maintain permanent suspension in mid-air.

Coming from DMC4 which had 5 different styles as well as 4 completely different Devil Arms - each with their own combos and the ability to mix-and-match between weapons to form your own unique combos, DmC's gameplay just comes across as a huge disappointment. The difference between DmC and its older counterparts is demonstrated pretty effectively if you compare these two videos of the same player:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2vz5CJU8DM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHrAY6kntIs

Capcom, Square, & Konami were logos of over 90% of the games I bought during the PS1, PS2 era.

It's just not like that anymore. Also Square hasn't handled Final Fantasy any better, and Silent Hill gets no love from Konami.

I feel like Capcom/Square can be explained with the Wersternization thing but Konami's handiling of Silent Hill is borderline lunacy. Where the hell did the production value go? One could say it was never really there, and the push to HD graphics hurt it, but I find that hard to swallow.

Also on the subject of "Westernization" I don't understand what the big deal is. I don't even like Western RPG's. I never got bored of Random Battles. In my opinion, and I'm aware this isn't exactly universal, Squares RPG's from the 90's to 2005ish were some of the best ever made. I'd rather play through Final Fantasy VI - X again then play 10 minutes of Dragon Age 2.

All these Japanese game companies trying to "expand in the west" need to stop.

@believer258: their PC ports aren't ports. The console versions are ports, because their engine starts on the PC first and gets ported to the consoles.

@xaLieNxGrEyx: there is a very big difference between Square and Capcom. Square has a nice stable of western and eastern developers and they are pretty diversified compared to capcom or Konami.

Also, DA2 is kind of a shitty rushjob so I don't know why you are comparing the two? (I like DA2 but it's not good)

(also I'd rather play XII than any other final fantasy, your point is mad anecdotal son)

@Animasta said:

(also I'd rather play XII than any other final fantasy, your point is mad anecdotal son)

LOL

@xaLieNxGrEyx said:

I'd rather play through Final Fantasy VI - X again then play 10 minutes of Dragon Age 2.

To be fair, I'd rather extract toenails than play 10 minutes of Dragon Age 2. I wouldn't exactly call it the pinnacle of Western RPGs.

@PixelPrinny said:

@Animasta said:

(also I'd rather play XII than any other final fantasy, your point is mad anecdotal son)

LOL

my point still stands, in that you cannot just blankly state "oh yeah final fantasy is shit now because they stopped making games I like". I mean, my favorite FF games are 12 and 13-2 so whatevers.

@Animasta said:

@PixelPrinny said:

@Animasta said:

(also I'd rather play XII than any other final fantasy, your point is mad anecdotal son)

LOL

my point still stands, in that you cannot just blankly state "oh yeah final fantasy is shit now because they stopped making games I like". I mean, my favorite FF games are 12 and 13-2 so whatevers.

You can, however, cite the fact that they've handled both Versus and FFXIV poorly. The first being stuck in limbo for, what, over 5 years now? And the second requiring a full out relaunch because it was so poorly developed and executed. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the handling of FF has been shit, but there has definitely been a change in the winds from X onward -- from market strategy to the games themselves. I think the quality of the games (aside from XIV which I'm sure we can all agree was not good) is a subjective matter, but to say Square hasn't changed on a fundamental level over the last decade or so would be ignorant.

That being said, one could say the same thing about pretty much any company ever over the span of a decade. The marketspace changes, trends change, what sells changes, and the companies that don't evolve die. We've seen Square adjust by trying to reach out to a broader market -- buying up Eidos (which is arguably their smartest move as far as the western market is concerned), focusing heavily on the social and phone markets, and generally shifting away from their old cashcow of console RPGs (aside from the oooold standby -- the rerelease).

I think as a long time fan, it's very easy for any one of us to lash out at them for catering to markets that we are not apart of; for us to think they're a making a huge mistake by ignoring their once beloved JRPG genre in lieu of more "casual" games or "westernized" rpgs and such. I don't think that's the right response, really. It's more of a can't see the forest for the trees kind of approach, but at the same time I can't really blame someone for longing for those yesteryears of Square RPGs.

But it's been a looong friggin time since that era. It's time to wake up and check in with reality. Square's not the Square that many a fan grew up with back when they published games like Xenogears or Secret of Mana or Chrono Trigger or even Final Fantasy X. They've changed. Whether that is for the better or worse isn't really the issue here, it's just a simple fact that they have one interest at heart; the same interest they've always had at heart -- money -- and in this age, making that money requires different approaches and different markets than it did 15 years ago.

What were we talking about again? Uhh... I dunno, but essentially I agree with you. At least, I think I do? Do I? You tell me. I dunno, I forget. Aaaanyway, it's 4 am. I'm tired.

PS: For those wanting another more classic Square RPG type of game, I hear Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is just what the doctor ordered (of course I'm just going on the opinions of reviewers, at this point, as I haven't played it myself). Here's hoping it gets localized.

A timely thread as I was just watching this video about how Capcom used to do things and how they do them now.

I agree that current Capcom is a bit meh, I can only hope that when the global economy is done with its doom and gloom and stuff Capcom can find a place for releasing the sort of games that made them famous.