So Capcom might be experiencing a slow death.

They, as a company, only have 152 million dollars left in the bank. But that isn't the worrying part. If they cut costs and release a few games that people will clamor for like a new MegaMan or a proper Resident Evil game that doesn't suck it could be brought back. The worrying part however is their attitude. They've lost a massive amount of money on trainwrecks like Lost Planet and their attitude is more DLC. Start out thinking about DLC, plan more DLC, and when you're done think up more DLC.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/capcom-predicting-severe-contraction-of-packaged-market-6414268

This is really worrying. The west has seen large publishers die. We've seen THQ, Midway, Lucasarts, etc all go belly up. This would be the first time that Japan has ever lost a large publisher on this scale since the console market as we know it started. And this coming from the company that has Street Fighter, MegaMan, and Resident Evil is mind boggling. How do you fuck up this much? Moreover how do you come up with such an ignorant solution as "MOAR DLC! ALL THE DLC!"

We all know how bullshit Capcom is with DLC after the SFxTekken debacle even supplanting EA as worst in the business in that respect. We also all know that Capcom in recent years has taken the monicker of Crapcom.

Discuss.

Stupid buisness choices they made out sourcing key franchises to western devs. I really want to see them return to horror with the next resident evil.

I always thought square enix would be the first to have these problems but i guess the monster hunter money is not enough for capcom.

Considering how they tend to sell content and balance updates to their fighters for nearly the full retail price of the original version, it really doesn't surprise me that their go-to strategy would be attempting to milk DLC for all it's worth. Hell, making more overpriced updates to their huge franchises (Super Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3: Turbo Tournament Edition DX or whatever) could still carry them a long way considering that non-Japanese fighting game players virtually have to purchase that update if they want to keep up with the scene.

Kind of an aside to the overall point, but I also think MegaMan fans tend to be seriously blinded by their love and nostalgia for the series, at least with regards to how well it might sell these days. Outside of that existing hardcore fan niche, I've seen no demand at all for a new game in the series, and unless they made one on a shoestring budget (which is admittedly possible for what would mostly be a very traditional 2d platformer), I doubt it would turn enough of a profit to save the company from anything.

Did I? I can't see it but the board was fucking up when I was posting the message so it's not out of the realm of possibility. It was just on an endless loop for 3 minutes so I just went to the main page and then back to the forum and saw my message was posted and assumed it worked fine.

If a mod enters then maybe they can see it and fix it.

@moonwalksa said:

Well odds are a new Megaman would be a damn sight better than what Lost Planet 3 produced for them. I don't know what the sales numbers are but I assume it's low. Very very low. Like bad enough to bring this to light.

As for the DLC I have no problem with meaningful DLC, but developers like Capcom have warped what DLC was supposed to be to a grotesque mess. Things are being held back from the initial release, on purpose mind you, because of more money. Things are being put on discs that you still have to pay for. Can you imagine if a movie did this? Imagine Star Trek: Into Darkness, regardless of your feels about the movie, now imagine it without Khan on Chronos or when Khan and Kurt fly through space from the Enterprise to the Vengence. You have to pay extra for that. People would lose their fucking shit. It isn't right and it isn't fair. DLC should not be a way to price gouge the consumer for all they're worth just because you fucked up and you're in financial shit.

It makes it harder to believe that you actually want to have a proper discussion about this when you say something like that.

Capcom is its own worse enemy. Alot of the stuff that's happening is their fault, but at the sametime I don't want the company to go out of business. They made some of the best games I've played, and got me into loving horror games.

People using words like crapcom and microshit are the worst.

Mmm, intelligent discourse. The biggest problem I had with the Street Fighter X Tekken DLC was either that there were DLC Gems that were better than the non-paid for ones or just the way people jump the gun and make assumptions about how that stuff works. The DLC being on the disc doesn't mean anything other than that was their solution to make it so that people who didn't buy it didn't have to download at least hundreds of mbs of data in order to keep playing online because other people will have those characters. The game shipped with what? Between 38-42 characters, depending on the platform you had it on. Instead of considering that maybe those DLC characters only existed because they were budgeted from the start to be DLC and nothing was being taken from you, just that there was more on offer if you wanted it, let's all be outraged on the internet and throw around witty zingers like kthnx. Other developers have handled distribution of that stuff differently, ie when Netherrealm put out DLC characters for Injustice, the compatibility pack will have a bonus costume for another character as incentive to download etc, but having that stuff on the disc is somehow the grossest thing ever. Like if they'd put that stuff on a server later, it would have been different?

Is it being self righteous to find it embarrassing to say things like "Crapcom" and "M$"?

Saying that people who disagree with your opinion of Capcom's DLC practices haven't an ounce of common sense isn't a good launch pad for a discussion. I imagine this thread will be locked soon. Rule number one: don't be a jerk.

Agreed.

Microshit, haha, I love that! Never heard it before.

Acknowledging and somewhat respecting the term "crapcom" does make you sound like you have the judgment of a 12-year-old.

That aside, yeah, Capcom has been in a weird place for a while now, though I'm surprised that Monster Hunter hasn't propped them up more. I'll be curious to see how MH4 does on the 3DS.

Capcom's doing some amazing shit. Dragon's Dogma for example is unbelievably good. Somehow Capcom just kinda doesn't hit the right flavors to land a big hit these days. I have high hopes for Deep Down, albeit its potential market will be rather marginal, being a PS4 launch window exclusive.

Still don't get how Capcom never tried to translate Monster Hunter for the Xbox Live and PSN and PC crowd. It doesn't take that much imagination to see it break out big in the West, with some changes to worldbuilding and online play. Monster Hunter being an online RPG experience, and those being the largest online communities in the world, it's an obvious move to make.

A hub town. A huge seamless open world around it. Hunting parties of four gathering in the towns, bustling with trade and all that. Hunters progressing through eras, each era changes the spawn patterns for the entire overworld (maybe even by progressing through the four seasons), as well as the state of the hub town and what's on trade. There's ways, is what I'm saying. If only Capcom tried.

P.S. Indiscriminately hating on Capcom is almost as low as hating EA in that same manner. Sure - they're pushy with their schemes, but when it comes down to it, both have a steady output of games I like, even downright love. So there's that.

P.S.S. Capcom better not go belly-up. That'd be an insane loss to all of us!

And how exactly is Capcom different from any other video game publisher in the world ever? Except for maybe Bethesda and Take Two who focus more on quality so let's see how that goes. Then there's Ubisoft and Activision who lean on mega popular franchises.

Other than that it's a dickhole man. THQ, EA, Square Enix, Sega, Konami, 2K, Tecmo, Namco - it's all a dick in the ass, so to speak.

Sad news. Capcom was one of my favorite game companies growing up. I hope they learn how to adapt to this new climate.

All of the Japanese developers are going through the same dilemma right now. It used to be that they could count on the Japanese market to prop up their sales and the Americans would have to deal with their poor translations and cultural differences. Then the Western companies started making games that were in direct competition, and the Japanese adapted somewhat to try and retain a share of that market with things like Kingdom Hearts and RE4. Then the bottom fell out of the Japanese market and the Japanese developers actually had to rely on the Western market to keep their numbers up.

Sega and Squenix did this by attempting to acquire existing and popular franchises in the West (Square/Enix somewhat more successfully)

Namco kept doing what they've been doing, but seemingly lowered their budgets to compensate for lagging sales

Capcom is unique in having taken the approach of attempting to generate new franchises with a mixed Japanese/Western identity or in attempting to adapt Japanese franchises to the market. This strategy hasn't worked out for them mostly in my opinion because these hybrid identity games end up appealing to no one instead of everyone (exactly why, I won't try to guess) and because not enough focus has been put on improved gameplay mechanics, which is the minimum bar for making a mark in any reasonably competitive genre. I don't think it has anything to do with people making conscientious purchasing decisions due to being outraged about Capcom's DLC policies.

The real problem with Capcom relying on DLC as their main cash cow is that this will get them nowhere if not enough people play their games, and furthermore, if those who do play their games do not enjoy them enough to continue doing so.

I love that people always say "They messed up using Western developers for all their franchises!" when the issue was just only like 2 of those games were good. If they just did a better job of it then they'd be fine. The strategy was a good one but the execution was a train wreck.

It's kind of shocking how poorly Capcom has done this year; it's not really surprising after so many flops and disappointments this year that they're feeling like they should scale back. It's not just that Capcom is its own worst enemy, the video game industry itself is its own worst enemy.

We're at the point right now where there's really no excuse for continuing to fuck up this bad. We've seen enough weirder successes in the last few years that we know what can work and what doesn't, what cultivates a loyal audience and what doesn't, and how to easily blow all your cash on marketing budgets unnecessarily. Not heeding the lessons of the latter half of this generation takes an astounding stupidity.

Resident Evil 6 is the personification of everything wrong with that company's game development right now. Just a bloated incongruous mess of a game, trying to appeal to everyone and no one, and more marketing than it needed. RE6 sold five million copies worldwide, and still was a disappointment because of how fucked development of that game was. But instead of learn any lessons from this, instead of be more efficient at developing games and instead of focus on targeting loyal audiences instead of trying to appeal to the vague "mainstream" with needless bombast, they're going to take their ball and go home before they ever try acting more humble.

Yet they are still releasing exclusives like Dead Rising 3 and Deep Down.

@marokai: Seems like Capcom started getting greedy, and ended up making bad business decisions.

@falserelic said:

Unheard of!

Far as I know, there just wasn't solid communication between Japan and the Western devs making those games. That can be detrimental to a development cycle.

@xyzygy: To be fair, those may be exclusives because they didn't have enough money to fully fund the games themselves. Offer up the exclusive to Sony and Microsoft and they will throw in for some of the budget or at the very least the marketing of it.

I hope Capcom can turn it around. They are responsible for some of my favorite games this generation and the FGC would never be the same without them.

I've heard that and believe it.

I think that in general they didn't really make great choices as to the devs they have worked with, as well.

But it is tough to tell, from the outside, where something like the awful look of Bionic Commando came from.

Glad I could brighten your day at least =)

I want Dino Crisis 4 on PS4.

Unless it's like DC3.

yep agreed.

If this is true, then Capcom needs to figure out for themselves proper project management. Even if a game like DmC does okay they probably spent too much money on it. Now look at a game like Resident Evil 6 which wasn't that good and wonder how much money they spent on it as well. And then they spend a bunch of money on Dead Rising 3 and automatically hamstring themselves by doing a "timed exclusive".

If it is true, then it is all the upper management of Capcom's fault and I full expect them to blame the gamers and piracy instead of looking at their own decisions.

Well, we've got Inafune carrying the torch for Megaman, Mikami doing the same with Resident Evil... all we need now is for the Yoshinori Ono to branch off and continue his own brand of fighting games elsewhere and we're sorted!..

152 million dollars left? no wonder why ono said there isnt the resources atm to do a Street fighter 5.

i actually hope with the onset of mighty no 9, that they DONT bring back megaman, cause how will that look especially with inafune out in front of mighty no 9?

they definitely fucked up in execution, they sent lost planet out to die, they sent asuras wrath out to die, then ninja theory's mouth poisioned the chances of the new DMC doing what they wanted and not to mention there was just a general stigma on that game..

the idea of them doing dlc is not a bad idea, as from a business sense it has potential to earn a lot and also not spend a whole lot on it vs the costs on creating a new game and manufacturing discs. but they need to be more transparent on why DLC exists for said games

Deep down and Dead rising 3 (and the rumored dragons dogma sequel) are going to be very very important games for capcom going forward. and if their focus is on providing DLC, then expect a LOT of little this and that DLC for both games,especially with the fact that both those games are platform exclusives so i would imagine those would be costly games to make..

but then all this doom and gloom we people love to do and we people are forgetting a big thing....

......Monster Hunter 4 hits tommorow and that's gigantic earner for capcom so they will have more than 150+ million in the bank.

and also the next phoenix wright hasn't even hit the US yet (and thats coming digital only i believe, so profit margins should be good) and they still have the layton vs phoenix wright game next year.

so i think Capcom will be fine, but with talk of game dev costs rising, they are going to have to play it smart to survive this transition.

You mean like Square Enix did with the properties formerly of Eidos?

Dead rising 3 is not a timed exclusive, thats a console exclusive to xbox one http://stickskills.com/2013/08/21/dead-rising-3-not-a-timed-exclusive-says-capcom/

to add credence to that, Microsoft is also Directly Publishing the game and they have said this game wouldn't have existed without MS, so i imagine MS gave them a Sack of Cash to help them make the game.

but i agree its the managements fault, they apparently outsourced for a mega man game and then killed it, i have to imagine thats wasting a good few millions right there.

Being completely biased in your opening statement is a terrible way to open a thread. Also, saying "discuss" as if you're trying to make this some sort of intellectual conversation and insulting those that have differing opinions from yours are huge no-nos.

Yeah sure. I'll enjoy it when it comes to PC. ^_^

more power to you if it still comes to other places, but i still doubt it will.

o.O

Complain all you want about the quality of their games / development policies, but Capcom is on solid footing financially and comparing them to THQ and other major publisher failures is laughable. Capcom has been generating consistent profits since 2005 http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/data/pdf/annual/2013/annual_2013_08.pdf

Ah, so you're one of those people. Yes, it certainly was horrible of them to release their DLC in a manner that would guarantee a consistent and hassle-free online environment for their players.

Fucking THIS. Also, OP you need to cut the dickhead act, you sound like an ass.

@kidavenger said:

You're right that comparing them to THQ or saying Capcom is going to go out of business anytime soon is over the top, but they're definitely not doing great right now. In the last generation they've lost a great deal of talent, and many of their flagship franchises seem adrift, under-utilized, or bloated without any kind of vision. Wasn't there a bunch of layoffs in July, as well?

Their development of Resident Evil 6 was hilariously wasteful, and 2013 has been a pretty rough year for them so far. DmC: Devil May Cry sold significantly less than expected. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen was a waste of money that bombed. Resident Evil: Revelations tanked on consoles. Remember Me and Lost Planet 3 are bombs of epic proportions. Capcom just seems super off kilter right now. I don't think they're in severe danger at the moment, but they can only disappoint people for so long before people turn away. Square Enix is a good example of that.

MONSTER HUNTER ON REAL CONSOLES AND PC. God those idiots at Capcom know nothing Jon Snow.

Yep. I just flagged the thread. Dude has a history of shitting on people who disagree with him, making the "discuss" line all the funnier when what he really means is "Agree with me or fuck off." Grow up, OP.

Enjoying DR1 on PC Bro?

@flacracker: You're cute.