Capcom just doesn't get it.

[Malacite]

Capcom CEO wants shorter dev times, faster Devil May Cry turnaround | Joystiq

Capcom Chairman and CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto told investors of the company's plan to "reduce the time needed to develop major titles from the usual three to four years to only two and a half years," as part of a briefing on the fiscal year 2011 financial results earlier this month.

"Speeding up development will probably raise the cost," he said. "But creating quality content will be vital to Capcom's ability to survive by overcoming intense global competition. We will make substantial investments to develop this content."

President and COO of Capcom Haruhiro Tsujimoto added to the CEO's comments in his own address, saying the company's plan is also "to increase [DLC] sales from 2.8 billion yen in the past fiscal year to 3.5 billion yen in the current fiscal year." The COO also noted that the upcoming Resident Evil 6 will release approximately three and a half years after Resident Evil 5, and Lost Planet 3 will launch after a two and a half year development cycle, both in a shorter time span than with past games.

He added that DmC Devil May Cry will require five years of development due to a decision to switch to an external developer, with the end goal of creating new games in the series every two and a half years. With DmC Devil May Cry shipping in 2013, that equates to another game in the series in 2015.

So they're going to be rushing more of their games now, because they've had oh so many quality releases in the past few years.

[Firewind]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

I think what they mean is that they're going to try and increase the size of thier development teams. Japanese dev teams tend to be tiny compared to the ones used by the major devs in North America. American dev teams also seem to like hiring a huge team team then laying off a ton of employees once the game is finished and only keeping on content producers and a token QA team.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

It was so nice of EA to tell ex-38 Studios "Hey, we're hiring!" after virtually no marketing support for Kingdoms of Amalur and laying off hundreds of their own people.

I'm honestly amazed with that environment that EA has people that would create games for them or even partner with them.

That aside. I don't think accelerated milking of existing franchises and more DLC is the best strategy for Capcom or changing the disc-locked content strategy to "we'll just find a better way to hide that we gutted this content from the game to sell it to you."

I prefer the "We'll take our sweet time making DLC" approach better. I mean, I think GTA IV was out six months before Lost and Damned came out and Ballad of Gay Tony came a few months after that. Both seemed to be good, rich content expansions. Its been seven months since Skyrim came out and we're going to hear about the first expansion next week. Not like anyone needed more Skyrim, as I'm still going back from time to time to see what I still have yet to uncover.

I prefer DLC come later with more to justify it rather than the cash grabs were mostly getting from the industry. Capcom's disc locked content (hey, that is "DLC!") is just the most repugnant kind of cash grab.

[Malacite]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

And of course Activision seems to be continuing their now proud tradition of "fuck everyone who's not on xbox" with Bungie's new project being released as a 1-year timed exclusive.

It's one thing to shaft the other competing platform, but to shaft PC as well with their COD Elite nonsense and now Bungie's new game? I really hope they lose that IW lawsuit.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

I fail to see how an exclusive for a next gen console that no one has yet and not on another console no one has yet is fucking anyone over.

[Raydeus]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

Gamers will simply move on if quality drops even further. That's the thing I like about Corporate thinking, since they don't get the media they are investing in they end up self destructing when greed reaches the tipping point.

Expect more and more studios to fall and more and more indies rejecting corporate deals in the future.

[Aeni]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

And of course Activision seems to be continuing their now proud tradition of "fuck everyone who's not on xbox" with Bungie's new project being released as a 1-year timed exclusive.

You mean Microsoft? They must've given Activision enough incentive for them to pursue that avenue. Afterall, Activision stands to lose money, not gain, from producing a console exclusive.

[Malacite]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

I fail to see how an exclusive for a next gen console that no one has yet and not on another console no one has yet is fucking anyone over.

Wtf are you talking about? I was referring to the 360, not their next platform. Pretty sure project Destiny is being made for the 360 and CoD Elite subscribers all have to wait much longer on PC (which is really absurd) and PS3 where as 360 gets the content right away. Activision has made it pretty clear they heavily favor the xbox to the point of screwing over the rest of their customer base, and I for one would love to see that come back and bite them in the ass. EA has only lightly done it with PS3 in the form of minor little exclusives (1 week early DLC for BF3, Dante's Inferno & Dead Space 2 getting mostly cosmetic shit). It just further stokes the perception that everyone who plays online is on 360.

---------- Post added at 03:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:04 PM ----------

You mean Microsoft? They must've given Activision enough incentive for them to pursue that avenue. Afterall, Activision stands to lose money, not gain, from producing a console exclusive.

That could very well be the case. Eitherway it's annoying as hell. I HATE timed exclusives with a fiery passion. Either develop it for just the one platform with the aim of taking full-advantage of said platform or relase all versions at once.

[Firewind]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

Timed Exclusives aren't a bad thing. It does give the developers time to iron out any bugs that might be caused by porting and sometimes you even get some DLC thrown in for the guys who have had to wait.

Probably the best example of it would be Mass Effect 2 and Rock Band for the PS3. Both came with very few bugs caused by porting and each one had a ton of DLC added in for free for the people who had to wait for it.

It is an issue if the later version is a porting disaster though or has no new content to justify making people wait. I mean the PS3 version of The Orange Box (I think it came after the 360 version but don't quote me on this) was a complete disaster and gamers had every right to be angry about that.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

Exclusives are what sells and differentiate consoles.
Bungie is already familiar with 360 and they have a strong relationship with MS.
Why the hell would Bungie just start learning/suffering through development for the PS3 now with PS4 (hopefully more developer friendly) around the corner?

They can farm it out. There's really no point in them starting a PS3 version now.

People complain 360 has no exclusives and people complain when 360 has exclusives. Which is it?

[Firewind]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

Exclusives are what sells and differentiate consoles.
Bungie is already familiar with 360 and they have a strong relationship with MS.
Why the hell would Bungie just start learning/suffering through development for the PS3 now with PS4 (hopefully more developer friendly) around the corner?

They can farm it out. There's really no point in them starting a PS3 version now.

People complain 360 has no exclusives and people complain when 360 has exclusives. Which is it?

Well some people can't accept that their mum will only buy them one console and if they didn't pick the winner, they sort of fly into a Nam style flashback the second something happens that makes them think they have to justify why they own the console where they either fly into a rage, go into a state of denying reality that would make Shinji Ikari proud, clamp their hands over their ears and go "LALALALALALANOTLISTENING" or all of the above.

[Raydeus]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

Well some people can't accept that their mum will only buy them one console

I can confirm this. My mum only bought me a PS3.

[Icemage]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

I don't really consider a timed exclusive to be "exclusive". They fall into one of two categories:

(1) Moneyhats. Basically one platform holder pays for the privilege of being lead development platform and subsidizes the cost of development (and thus lower risk of poor return on investment). See: Call of Duty, Battlefield, Ninja Gaiden, Mass Effect, etc.

(2) Insufficient resources / manpower / technical know-how. Small development teams often don't have the time or energy to throw at other platforms simultaneously, so a platform exclusive lets them sort of drill down and get a product out, then expand the scope later if there's additional demand, which turns it into a de facto timed exclusive. See: Castle Crashers, Braid, Limbo. Of course, not "every" small developer has this problem. Housemarque did a pretty good job on the simultaneous release of Outland after being a predominantly PS3-exclusive studio, as did FrozenByte with Trine 2.


Icemage

[Feba]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

My mom bought me an Xbox which was pretty much only justified by Shenmue 2.

She's pretty cool. She rides motorbikes.

[Malacite]

Re: Capcom just doesn't get it.

Wait how is battlefield on that list? BF always has been and always will be PC first and foremost, which means DICE isn't ponying up money to anyone; unless you're referring to the 1-week early DLC on PS3 but you can hardly call the PS3 the lead platform and 1-week early is nothing compared to the months ppl have to endure for Elite content packs.

I just find it irritating when they do timed-exclusives as it usually means one or more of the following;

- I have to wait much longer to get it on the platform I prefer
- I forgo the above preference in order to get in on the platform that everyone else is going with lest I get left out
- I buy/rent the game, only to discover that the later version is more complete/has more features etc. etc.

At least with definite exclusives you're left with a very straightforward decision with no future repercussions down the road.