After massive success on the Xbox 360 with Lost Planet and Dead Rising, it seems the house of Ryu is all set to pack up its wagons and roll out to plunder the western territories. One of the first Japanese companies to seriously embrace Microsoft's machine, Capcom obviously hasn't missed the massive profit potential in pandering to the western world, and so has announced large-scale plans to actively pursue overseas partnerships and acquisitions in order to secure more of a foothold in the international market.

Quotations from Capcom CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto and comments after the jump.

In order to maintain stable growth, it is important for Capcom to turn its efforts to increase its share in the overseas market where much of the growth in the home video game and mobile content markets are taking place

…Mutual shareholding in, business partnerships with, or acquisition of companies that create content popular around the world is something Capcom is actively pursuing,

There have been many mergers and acquisitions in the industry in recent years with companies attempting to secure popular content or to expand, but Capcom is currently not envisioning any mergers with [Japanese] game companies or toy makers, 

He added that part of the reason for this reluctance to work with Japanese companies

is that potential partnerships would likely become restricted, narrowing the possibilities with licensing business opportunities. 

Definite proof that at this early stage, the landscape of this new generation is already quite different to that of the one before it. Whereas Japan was quite happy to ignore the first Xbox, higher game development costs and the dominance of Microsoft's second machine in the west are forcing even the larger companies like Capcom to think further afield in their business practices. Lost Planet and Dead Rising were both designed with the western market in mind, but this new ideology sees Capcom making serious steps in the direction of becoming a truly international company.

With Square Enix following a similar plan in terms of producing western-oriented software with The Last Remnant, who knows how far this homogenisation is going to go? While it seems a business necessity in the current climate, many are no doubt already worrying that jumping into bed with the west will eventually bring about a loss of identity in our favourite Japanese developers. Here's hoping a healthy balance can be struck in the years to come. 

[Via Next Generation]