"Whoa, whoa there," - i hear you say (real reactions may vary), - "why would Capcom need any kind of "saving" - they're doing fine!" Well, no. They are not. And their problem is a problem of how big Eastern companies are falling behind Western ones in terms of game publishing. Yes, i have almost no problem with the games themselves - it's how they are treated by Capcom is what bothers me. So I take a mantle of an imaginary superhero Capcom Savior, who knows everything about game publishing I don't, and fly on my keyboard to save the company.
1. Selling new editions of old games as new games is bad.
Super Street Fighter IV came out last year as an entirely new game. Was it a new game, however? Could it have been released as a huge DLC? Dead Rising 2: Off the Record will feature a new storyline and gameplay mechanics but will use the same levels and resources. I have nothing against tis addition, but could it be released as a DLC? Now, in the old days of pre-good-internet connections and online enable consoles, such things were quite fine. Buying a Dual Shock version of RE2, or Director's Cut of RE1 seemed like a nice idea. Because there was no other way to add new content to the game and make money from it except for selling a new edition of the game for a new game price. Maybe it's just me, but doing so in 2011 seems like a bad idea.
2. Capcom cannot into PC publishing.
Latest Capcom games, especially those on MT Framework engine, worked like charm on PC. DMC4, RE5 or even Lost Planet games felt like definitive versions on PC. RE5 looked great, played perfect with Mouse controls, Gamepad controls and even Wii-like controls. But it's not a definitive version. Why? Because Capcom never bothered to update any of the PC versions. No patches, no DLCs. And GFWL on top of that. Is anyone truly surprised that sales were not as high as they could've been? Capcom can do awesome ports of PC games, now they, like most of Japanese publishers, have to understand how to publish them in the west. I think, the only way Capcom can get PC fans back now is if they patch and update all these games and give an option to activate them on Steam. But they wouldn't go for it, would they?
3. "Appealing to the west."
This is something all eastern companies seem to do lately, right? "Let's see what's popular and try to copy it". Keiji Inafune, in his now infamous long interview, criticised Capcom for not outsourcing games more. A very wise criticism Capcom seems to misunderstand. No, it did not mean that you should ask Canadian developers to develop
another co-op zombie shooter as if we did not have a lot of them already. Resident Evil name or not, but it wasn't following the conventions and popular trends that made Dead Rising, another zombie game, series popular. And it was not doing the expected that made Shattered Memories great (sorry, Jim) and Homecoming hated of all the outsourced Silent Hill games.
No, Capcom doesn't look good today. People are angry at the treatment of Mega Man. People are not sure if they want to buy an HDfied version of the game they have on PC, PS2, GC and Wii (RE4) or RE:CVX, which looks bad, being a slightly broken 2001 game with hi-res textures and bad voice-acting. But would've gone gladly with a properly redone games, especially if it meant an updated RE2, people ask for 10 years now. People are suspicious, not excited, about RE6 and RE: Raccoon City. And PC gamers don't want to buy incomplete and soon forgotten versions of great games. Capcom doesn't look good at all.
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3. "Appealing to the west."
You mis interepted what inafune was saying. He said that companies should make the games they want to do, not the games people think they want them to do.
The fact that hes helping idea factory now is proof of that
If more companies outsourced to japan the games might come out more unique
I was referring to the part, where Inafune was saying that japanese companies are afraid to outsource their games to the western devs. Afraid that western devs will not make games good enough without constant creative control. He outsourced a lot of stuff during the development of the first Dead Rising and said that it didn't make the game any less original. With Raccoon City it seems as if Capcom said "make the game in a popular and widely used way" and not in a "do something original with our IP." I might be proven wrong, when the game comes out, of course. but right now it looks like that
And yes, Capcom, or more specifically Resident Evil, are just very important to me, so i presented the problem of most asian companies through Capcom example
You missed capcoms biggest issue. They kill ips. It has nothing to do with east vs west
Good blog, though!
Your other points I strongly agree with, Especially 2. Capcom for the longest could never do a perfect PC version of a game. Hell, SSF4AE may be better than it's console counterpart, but it still has bugs and faults on it's own. I hope though they can do what they learned for SSF4AE in their future PC titles.
Appealing to the West I would also agree with, but Capcom this year has released a lot of 'Eastern' feeling games. Ghost Trick, Okamiden, Monster Hunter, etc. And 2012 is looking good as well with Asura's Wrath and (believe it or not) DmC.
Still, an excellent blog to say the least.
I just thought that the situation with Capcom as a publisher is a good example of how Eastern publishers act today, which is different from how western usually do. but maybe i did misunderstood the point of east vs west -_-, sorry
@Epic-Kx
Yes i did think of the console limitation and may be completely wrong in that point. It's just that this practice seems more common for Capcom or some eastern companies then with western ones.
and yes, there are good games and even new IPs from Capcom i'm looking forward to. Dragon Dogma, for example. And Monster Hunter also seems to be perfectly fine as an IP for now.