Is Capcom in trouble?

[Wrath2X]

I have been ignoring a lot of biz talk for months now. Lately I've seen all sorts of talk about Capcom being in trouble and saw people talking about them maybe selling their franchises and everything. The fuck?

Can someone sum up what's going on? I'd very much appreciate it.

[Takao]

blue bombuh taking capcom with him

[Positive Touch]

not that I'm keeping a list, but it feels like I've heard of a lot of their big talent and longtime staff have left in the last few years. shame because they've always been one of my favorite devs.

[magus]

if only they made more megaman game and less mobile games </neogaf>

[Himu]

I don't know why they were shocked. It was obvious even back then due to how much talent left and how often they outsourced.

[tiesto]

The entire traditional industry is in trouble.  They're too big for where things are going.  You don't need 200 man teams to make Puzzle & Dragons.

Why does King have 600+ employees and Zynga have 2000 at its peak?

[a slime appears]

Yes, Capcom is fucked.

Sega is doing just fine thanks to Pachinko and PC.

Aside from MGS, Konami has no business making games.

Square Enix is slowly but surely shifting all of their profit centers to mobile.

Nintendo is hurtling towards fiscal disaster at a meteoric rate.

Etc. Etc.

Thank god I switched gears and didn't go to Japan. The traditional game business is destroying itself. If you're an independent Japanese game developer *cough* Platinum *cough* I'd be fucking pissing myself right about now.

[magus]

Yes, Capcom is fucked.

Sega is doing just fine thanks to Pachinko and PC.

Aside from MGS, Konami has no business making games.

Square Enix is slowly but surely shifting all of their profit centers to mobile.

Nintendo is hurtling towards fiscal disaster at a meteoric rate.

Etc. Etc.

Thank god I switched gears and didn't go to Japan. The traditional game business is destroying itself. If you're an independent Japanese game developer *cough* Platinum *cough* I'd be fucking pissing myself right about now.

that's not true! konami makes pachinko games too!

spoiler (click to show/hide)

i just wanted to post the suikoden pachinko to make himuro cry

[close]

in all seriousness, i guess yu-gi-oh makes money for konami? somehow they are still doing expansion even after existing for like... an eternity

[Himu]

You fucker!

[a slime appears]

that's not true! konami makes pachinko games too!

spoiler (click to show/hide)

i just wanted to post the suikoden pachinko to make himuro cry

[close]

in all seriousness, i guess yu-gi-oh makes money for konami? somehow they are still doing expansion even after existing for like... an eternity

Holy shit Suikoden Pachinko looks way better than actual Suikoden!

[magus]

i get super angry everytime i look at the goemon pachinko because it looks like the proper cartoony cellshaded B Platforming game we would have got if konami didn't slowly start to lose his sanity



instead the only PS2 goemon game we got was this shit here with serious business link wannabe goemon

You fucker!

[Himu]

that's not true! konami makes pachinko games too!

spoiler (click to show/hide)

i just wanted to post the suikoden pachinko to make himuro cry

[close]

in all seriousness, i guess yu-gi-oh makes money for konami? somehow they are still doing expansion even after existing for like... an eternity

Holy shit Suikoden Pachinko looks way better than actual Suikoden!

The graphics are great.

[a slime appears]

Holy shit, I need to play some real deal Pachinko. They honestly look pretty cool. Way more interesting than what WMS, IGT, and Bally churn out.

Also, I think it's hilariously appropriate that we're talking about Pachinko in a thread wondering about the stability of a Japanese game company.

[originalz]

The entire traditional industry is in trouble.  They're too big for where things are going.  You don't need 200 man teams to make Puzzle & Dragons.

Why does King have 600+ employees and Zynga have 2000 at its peak?

because they are and were flush with cash and spending/spent it inefficiently.  which is why zynga ran into a lot of trouble and why king needs to be very careful.  good times often cause people and companies alike to get fat and stupid.

though in king's case they are consistently supporting and updating about a dozen games, so it's probably not *quite* as bad as it looks.

I used to work for Mobage, and man, the amount of money just being thrown around was insane.  Half of the people working there were incompetent, so the other half just had to fix the shit the others messed up.  No kind of accountability, just hire anyone who looks like they might be able to do something resembling a job.  They also had yearly trips to Okinawa for all the members, 100% paid by the company.  I remember thinking that there's no way that this was sustainable.

[Himu]

HEy, he got to go to spain at least.

[Yulwei]

Well, after spending a whole bunch of money on mobile and not getting anything much out of it they then decided that the best course of action would be to double down on that decision.



Personally, I just hope that they get around to releasing Street Fighter V, Marvel Vs Capcom 4 and Dragon's Dogma 2 before they go down under. Capcom is easily my favorite game dev company of all time, but the old fucks who run the show have caused the company to bleed talent almost nonstop since the 90s.

[magus]

Well, after spending a whole bunch of money on mobile and not getting anything much out of it they then decided that the best course of action would be to double down on that decision.

(Image removed from quote.)

Personally, I just hope that they get around to releasing Street Fighter V, Marvel Vs Capcom 4 and Dragon's Dogma 2 before they go down under. Capcom is easily my favorite game dev company of all time, but the old fucks who run the show have caused the company to bleed talent almost nonstop since the 90s.

or worse! they go deep down!

....

ok, that was lame, in all seriousness has capcom released any big mobile game beside ports? i know they've done a pad clone, an awfull monster hunter card game, an awfull capcom cross over card game and an awfull megaman card game (which is called xover) maybe they will strick luck with BoF6?

[Tasty]

Nintendo is the only thing that can save Capcom.

And MH.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

Namco, Sega, Konami all have somewhat diversified interests and as such, aren't in danger of going under anytime soon.

Capcom though, well, umm.  I really, really, really hope that Capcom can somehow continue to survive in the long term.  A company with a legacy as rich as theirs should be able to leverage their assets and keep on living.  I do however very much miss the old Capcom, the one that would regularly publish games they didn't make, would take chances on weird-ass games with no proven audience ("Hey guys, lets give Clock Tower 3 a massive budget, yeah?  Sure, right after we approve these plans for God Hand"), and just made plain made shit that was fun.

Present day Capcom has slowly become just another risk averse pub that only makes big, unwieldy games.  Ubi Soft (another publisher time bomb) without as much success.  I still want them to pull through though.

[Human Snorenado]

Does the Pope shit in the woods?

If they're a developer that doesn't make all of their money on mobile, they're in trouble. And most of the mobile developers are probably in trouble too, because as we've seen they're stupid.

[Yulwei]

True, mobile is certainly not the reason for their financial troubles. I am just sad because we will never get 5th~6th gen era Capcom back.

[Damian79]

Someone buy these guys already and replace all the devs in it.

[Damian79]

Yeah it should have been the businessmen instead.

[chronovore]

Nintendo is the only thing that can save Capcom.

Any time you say "Nintendo is the only thing that can save..." and the next word is anything other than "Nintendo," whatever that next noun you're choosing is fucked. If you're saying Capcom, they're fucked. If you're saying my breakfast tomorrow, I'm going to go make different breakfast plans, because clearly my breakfast will be fucked.

[magus]

What do you mean by big?  If you mean big money, Smurfs' Village makes pretty stupid amounts of cash, along with a couple of other decent moneymakers under the Beeline Interactive label.  If you mean big quality?  No, they pretty much get by on doing really fucking good ports these days.  I don't think it's fair to blame mobile for their financial woes, though.  Of all the big Japanese companies, they're the most invested in console development aside from Nintendo, and their mobile investment is smaller than just about all of the other big boys.  You might say, in fact, that they haven't invested *enough* in mobile, though the smash success of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G is going to lead to some changes, I think.

yeah i meant big by quality, i have seen some F2P game that seems to have actual content or at least a semblance of it and are raking tons of money, even without going with the usual "PAD!" there are games like chain chronicle or that monster strike (which if i understand it right is currently doing even more money than PAD at least on the japanese ios store) so i don't understand why a big company like capcom is struggling with the concept and has to do cheap F2P games instead

[thisismyusername]

Nintendo is the only thing that can save Capcom.

Any time you say "Nintendo is the only thing that can save..." and the next word is anything other than "Nintendo," whatever that next noun you're choosing is fucked. If you're saying Capcom, they're fucked. If you're saying my breakfast tomorrow, I'm going to go make different breakfast plans, because clearly my breakfast will be fucked.

What if it's "Nintendo is the only thing that can save... your ass."?

[Human Snorenado]

Then your ass is fucked

[Himu]

Then your ass is fucked

Tell bout it

[magus]

What do you mean by big?  If you mean big money, Smurfs' Village makes pretty stupid amounts of cash, along with a couple of other decent moneymakers under the Beeline Interactive label.  If you mean big quality?  No, they pretty much get by on doing really fucking good ports these days.  I don't think it's fair to blame mobile for their financial woes, though.  Of all the big Japanese companies, they're the most invested in console development aside from Nintendo, and their mobile investment is smaller than just about all of the other big boys.  You might say, in fact, that they haven't invested *enough* in mobile, though the smash success of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G is going to lead to some changes, I think.

yeah i meant big by quality, i have seen some F2P game that seems to have actual content or at least a semblance of it and are raking tons of money, even without going with the usual "PAD!" there are games like chain chronicle or that monster strike (which if i understand it right is currently doing even more money than PAD at least on the japanese ios store) so i don't understand why a big company like capcom is struggling with the concept and has to do cheap F2P games instead

to quote myself



see? even eighting which is like capcom fucking wank can do a better looking mobile game than capcom!