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So, Capcom and the Switch: what's going on exactly?

Effect

Member
Haha hoping a company fails.

Not hoping anything. Capcom is killing themselves just fine. I'm just saying maybe they'll expedite the process. If anyone wants to see any of Capcom's older franchises their death and those IPs in the hands of others is really the only way it's going to happen at this point. Does anyone honestly think differently?
 
Man the World salt continues to linger on.

I'm expecting Switch support in 2018. It's reasonable to be cautious during the first year after the Wii U bomba.
 

yurinka

Member
Maybe they want to wait to see if it gets a big enough userbase, because games for Switch must be more expensive than 3DS games if aren't ports, even if it's just because of the game card cost.
 

HeeHo

Member
I think so too. Getting a sense that people are just (understandably) thirsty and want games for their new system, forgetting that the Switch is 3 months old and doesn't have the luxury of defacto western third party support like the PS4 and Xbox One had.

Haha, yup. Pretty damn easy to forget that, even for myself.

Guess it just shows how much people love the system (those who have one) and want more stuff on it. Launching with a highly critically-acclaimed, new Zelda game probably makes people even thirstier for good games.
 

Instro

Member
Or, we could just take granted what devs and mod on neogaf said: Nintendo was nintendoing again and send out few devkits and most of them too late and major companys are not intressted in halting major production to port engines and then port the games (which is not the same thing btw.) because switch is not the most important plattform under the sun by any stretch

Pretty much.
 

JayEH

Junior Member
Not hoping anything. Capcom is killing themselves just fine. I'm just saying maybe they'll expedite the process. If anyone wants to see any of Capcom's older franchises their death and those IPs in the hands of others is really the only way it's going to happen at this point. Does anyone honestly think differently?

I'm starting to get to this point lol.
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
I agree with those that say CAPCOM probably didn't have time to make anything for 2017. It certainly doesn't mean nothing is in the works or that something like RE7 might not be ported for next year, once the install base is larger and they've had time to play with the system.
 

Mediking

Member
Why all the hate for capcom? Games seem fine. Is it all just to do with no single player in SFV?

I don't hate Capcom at all. They just need restructuring. If they wanna do anything big... they gotta reach somebody else like Sony or Nintendo for help.
 

Sadist

Member
Lmao are they fake sales or something?
No no no no no. Alternative sales.

Anyway, Capcom seems to be cautious with their releases and the Switch isn't an exception. In the early years of PS4 and Xbox One, what did they actually release? SF V for PS4, Dead Rising 3/4 for Xbox One and Resident Evil 7. Everything else was DmC Definitive Edition, DMC 4 Remastered, Resident Evil HD, Resident Evil Zero HD, Resident Evil 4/5/6 Remastered, Dead Rising Remastered, rereleases of other Dead Rising titles... and oh right the Disney Collection and Mega Man. Capcom is really playing safe.

Guess that Monster Hunter money and the countless amount of times to make money in the mobile sector (which fail) are taking their toll on the company.
 
I'm pretty confident that most of the hand-wringing over Japanese third-party support will look silly a year from now, and even more so by the end of 2018. Where else are Japanese third parties that aren't primarily targeting the Western market supposed to go?
 

DataGhost

Member
I mean Capcom is making MHW for PC, XBX and PS4. Maybe they're simply expanding their horizons.

Also it's not guarenteed they won't localize MHXX
 

Terrell

Member
Hoo boy, a lot to unpack here.

I don't know, but I'm just glad MH isn't tied to Nintendo anymore. I just cannot play on portables, so glad its finally not looking like a PS2 game and I can jump into the series.

Yeah, now it can look like a PS3 game instead.

Capcom has been pretty rudderless of late. SFV bombed and Marvel 4 looks to be another disaster and they've still haven't learned anything from NRS. Resident Evil 7 was a nice surprise, but the company is rather limping along.

Capcom has been rudderless for a long time now, going on past a decade now.

Or, we could just take granted what devs and mod on neogaf said: Nintendo was nintendoing again and send out few devkits and most of them too late and major companys are not intressted in halting major production to port engines and then port the games (which is not the same thing btw.) because switch is not the most important plattform under the sun by any stretch

Capcom seems to be one of the earlier companies with kits, seeing as how they were able to provide input on final hardware specification.

I'm reminded of an old quote from a Capcom representative/developer, back in the GameCube days: "Maybe Nintendo should just buy Capcom".

I'll get to this later, but just know that you have investors on your side regarding Capcom being bought out.

They also statesd in their latest financial annual report that they are going to include Switch more in their multiplatform strategy

let's wait and see, even if it is absolutely normal to be suspicious right now

I'm going to need a citation for this.

If Capcom does not do any restructuring to their company I fear they will continue to head downhill. Monster Hunter is literally their saving grace at this point.

Capcom is clearly struggling in getting back to their high quality days and find new success in their established franchises. They've failed so far with SFV and RE. Hopefully Monster Hunter World is a success, because if that one fails, I'd place bets that they have to fusion or will be bought out.

Hopefully it's not Konami in that case.

Not hoping anything. Capcom is killing themselves just fine. I'm just saying maybe they'll expedite the process. If anyone wants to see any of Capcom's older franchises their death and those IPs in the hands of others is really the only way it's going to happen at this point. Does anyone honestly think differently?

Well, I dunno who it will be, but it's going to be someone, if shareholders have anything to say about it. It seems they voted yet again this year to abolish their protections against large-scale share buyouts and takeovers, a clear vote of no confidence in the Tsujimoto family to steward the company without drastic changes, given the company's mismanagement of profits from the only game that's made them any consistent profit.

Of the companies that could do so, it will likely be a Japanese company that's interested in expanding their presence in either Japanese game development or their arcade presence and a company that could afford to absorb them.

With that in mind, you can exclude Konami, Sega Sammy (who has their own shaky financial situation to worry about), Koei Tecmo, and (judging from their release of IO) Square Enix. You can also likely exclude Microsoft and Sony from that equation (more on that later).

So that really just leaves Bandai Namco and Nintendo to come to the table, unless someone completely out of left field (i.e. a company that doesn't operate within the industry) tables an offer.
And between the 2 options, Nintendo offers the opportunity for less corporate restructuring, as they would likely just sell off the pachislot and arcade divisions to Bandai Namco or another party who would only want Capcom for those pieces of their business, while retaining the remainder and their staff as a subsidiary that can continue to operate in Osaka. Capcom's eSports background would be of huge value to Nintendo, as well, given their current direction with their IP lineup.

Capcom is in a very weak position, and all it's going to take is one big financial misstep for things to come crashing down. Had RE7 not modestly panned out for them, this year's financials would look really bleak. Speaking as someone who doesn't play Monster Hunter and only sees it as "the franchise that's kept Capcom from bankruptcy" (because if we're honest, it is), I see MH World as such a potential misstep.

So we may not have long to wait for this future scenario to occur, as much as people wouldn't want it to.

They probably could afford to (fairly easily too), and it might actually be worth it just for the IPs alone. But it's not gonna happen, that's not how Nintendo operates.

Let's not assume we know how Nintendo operates. We very clearly don't and they've engaged in such M&A behaviour before, such as with Monolith and NERD, among others. And we especially know nothing of Kimishima's thoughts on the subject.

If anything, I'd say taht Sony is way more closer to buy Capcom than Nintendo LOL

Sony doesn't seem to have any interest in further investing in Japanese game development studios, they can barely get output from their current internal studios there and they clearly are more interested in investing in Western development studios. So they may be capable, but unlikely to be interested. No, any purchase of Capcom is going to happen by someone else.
 

You paint a very interesting picture in terms of Cacpom being acquired before long... I would agree that if it was going to happen Nintendo does seem like the most logical and likely choice, but they have had that option in the past. Kimishima might be more open to such deals though, that's a good point.

Hell, whatever it takes to get a Sakurai designed Mega Man revival.
 

HotHamBoy

Member
Nah, Vita was treated better when unveiled. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and SF x Tekken, which were new games at the time.

True. But what would they release? Not SFV because of exclusivity. Marvel vs Capcom Infinite?

USF4 seems like an obvious choice but it isn't even on XB1. UMvC3? That would be nice but look at the market for the Switch. It's far from an ideal fighting game platform because of the lack of D-Pad o JoyCons. Having those games on the go would be yhe main draw of buying traditional fighters on Switch and they botched the potential.

Even the Pro controller allegedy has a shit D-pad, though I wouldn't know.

It seems that the Vita will forever be the first and last acceptable platform for portable fighting games. PSP came close but too many games lacked network features. Plus, that Vita D-pad.

And just for fun, let's run through what the Vita has:

UMvC3 (physical only now)
SFxT
BlazBlue Series (console-parity ports)
Arcana Heart Series (console-parity ports)
Dead of Alive 5 Plus
Injustice
MK9
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax
Garou: MotW (arcade-perfect port)
The Last Blade 2 (arcade-perfect port)
PSABR
Guilty Gear Accent Core R (no netcode)

Plus the NeoGeo Station, PSP and PS One library of fighters on PSN.

That's easily the best we're ever going to get on a portable now.
 

CrisKre

Member
I can´t help but think Capcom is in REALLY bad shape this gen.

My thought is that they are financially unable at this point to shoulder AAA development with any risk of underperforming, but I hope they are approaching the big 3 to partner and develop titles taylored to their bases (DMC5 for Sony and say Megaman for Switch and maybe Dino Crisis for Xbox?).

I´d be happy with something like that.

They and Konami need to get their shit together and start developing projects that gamers can get behind, outside of Monster Hunter which seems to be Capcom´s only saving grace at this point.
 

KingBroly

Banned
This thread lol kinda crazy at what this lack of MHXX localisation has done to the discourse here.

Even without it I question what they're doing on Switch. No Disney Afternoon or Mega Man Legacy 2 Collections. A $40 port of a 10 year old remake of a 25 year old game as their "standard bearer" is pretty shit when there were/are lots of better options on the table.
 
You paint a very interesting picture in terms of Cacpom being acquired before long... I would agree that if it was going to happen Nintendo does seem like the most logical and likely choice, but they have had that option in the past. Kimishima might be more open to such deals though, that's a good point.

Hell, whatever it takes to get a Sakurai designed Mega Man revival.

The only things of worth in Capcoms IP library worth Nintendo's effort are MH and RE. Evrything else is not worth reviving vs Nintendo just making a new IP that is going to sell way better anyway.

Capcom's best selling game is at like 7.2 million units and their top 10 is basically all MH and RE. Why bother?
 

mas8705

Member
For all we know, the closer we get to September 8th (the release date of Stories in Europe, which is weird for US considering we don't have a date set yet...) the chance could come up to where MHXX will get announced for the west. Mind you if it never happens, I won't lose sleep over it due to World coming, but I feel like if Capcom didn't plan to announce it at E3, it could have very well have not been the best time to do it. For all we know, the Switch version of MHXX might not have been ready for the show, or at least in a "presentable" fashion. As such, the chance to raise up later on and catch us off guard. We'll see, but I doubt Capcom is going to just outright dump the Switch just because of World.
 

BitStyle

Unconfirmed Member
This thread lol kinda crazy at what this lack of MHXX localisation has done to the discourse here.
That is but one drop in the bucket of Capcom issues this gen. Many people already included MHXX anyway, but the silence beyond what are 2 pretty small scale efforts on this new console certainly speaks to their current situation be it lack of financial/developmental resources, poor planning or both.

I think it's dishonest to sum up the discourse of this thread to "people are mad Capcom aren't localizing XX"

If Capcom can't reverse their current ailings, then Terrell's scenario wouldn't be too far off.
 

tebunker

Banned
Pretty good quote


Just want to say that you are ignoring any potential Chinese or Korean buyer. One of the Chinese mobile giants could easily buy out Capcom. Not sure what Japanese exchange laws they'd have to hop through for this to happen. However a company like tencent would make sense.

Sony could do it but they do not seem to have those kinds of acquisitions in mind, even in the west. They'd much rather just use Capcom as a contractor and pay for specific games, ala SFV.

I just can't see Nintendo buying them either if for nothing other than they don't seem a good fit. I'd put my money on Bamco of anyone. The portfolio fits, the organization fits, they already do the pachinko/gambling stuff etc.

Who knows, they've been on this shaky ground for a while.

As for Switch, I think the biggest issues with what is happened recently isn't that they haven't announced anything its that they have no communication/plan/talking points to actually address the concerns. Putting your fingers in you ears and saying lalalalalala doesn't help anyone.
 

HotHamBoy

Member
That is but one drop in the bucket of Capcom issues this gen. Many people already includef MHXX anyway, but the silence beyond what are 2 pretty small scale efforts on this new consolw certainly speajs to their current situation be it lack of financial/developmental resources, poor planning or both.

Capcom has been under awful management since last gen and this gen they are really feeling the financial reprecussions of that while also refusing to learn and continuing to make ever worse choices at the management level.

That, and a lot of key senior talent flew the coup over the last 10 years. I believe they have talented people workibg there, people who want to make good games, but they don't get to decide the shaoe projects will take, the budget, the development timeframe, the monetization, etc
 
MH:XX is not coming west,
winking_lucille_arrested_development.gif
 

ohlawd

Member
I'm pretty confident that most of the hand-wringing over Japanese third-party support will look silly a year from now, and even more so by the end of 2018. Where else are Japanese third parties that aren't primarily targeting the Western market supposed to go?

I'm thinking this too but you never know. they might force themselves into PS4 development only.

it's kinda harrowing. maybe everything's just under wraps and we find out sooner than later. With Vita dead (it is dead, right? don't wanna go into MC threads) I'm hopeful that they go all in on Switch or if they can't do that yet, 3DS.
 
Capcom should really hop on the Switch bandwagon, even if their SFII remake doesn't sell like they want. The console is getting sales, LOTS of sales. And hopefully by the time 2018 hits it won't be in a selling out crisis...or if it still is, it's because even with the increased stock people are still buying it up.

There's a LOT of potential for great Capcom games on Switch, they just need to put games on it...that aren't 25 years old. lol
 

The Hermit

Member
Man the World salt continues to linger on.

I'm expecting Switch support in 2018. It's reasonable to be cautious during the first year after the Wii U bomba.

The problem is not MHWorld, most already expected after the 4chan rumor. The lack o xx localization is a different thing, that really bothers some including me.

And usf2 is a personal dream coming true, so I can't complaint.

I still think things are to early to decide, Capcom is one of the major developers who are cautious about the Switch, and they even have a game already on it.
 
This thread lol kinda crazy at what this lack of MHXX localisation has done to the discourse here.

Heh, they still didnt bring Disney Afternoon to Switch or Megaman Legacy 2. Its just really awkward imo. Can anyone explain that lol? Like forreal.

Capcom the type of person to make a peanut butter jelly sandwhich and put the jelly and peanut butter on the same slice of bread then close the sandwhich. Dont make no damn sense lol
 

Vena

Member
I'm thinking this too but you never know. they might force themselves into PS4 development only.

it's kinda harrowing. maybe everything's just under wraps and we find out sooner than later. With Vita dead (it is dead, right? don't wanna go into MC threads) I'm hopeful that they go all in on Switch or if they can't do that yet, 3DS.

They'd go out of business.
 
Btw what Capcom is doing with MH is fucking stupid. This is your biggest IP, why are you not normalizing releases and platforms.m? Why on earth do you want to develop separate games on seperate platforms for 2 different regions when you can consolidate your efforts and produce 1 game across all platforms and build trust in the product? If you want people to follow your series they should be able to expect all the major releases on the established systems.

Splitting the franchise into portable and home console after just getting away from that is a terrible idea. MH on 3DS was the most focused the brand has been.

It's extraordinarily stupid to do this. Consolidate the base on hardware andnmove from there. So either MH is now for PC/X1/PS4 only (dumb, ignores your biggest market) or partition the franchise while using more resources for no reason (also dumb).

Shit is baffling.
The game was in development for 4 years. When do you think they got dev kits?

The Switch will get a MH game, but they can't just click a button and have it ready. These things take time.

As for why they're moving the franchise to consoles, they've hit their peak with their old market. The 3DS audience is only so big, and while the games were very successful in Japan, they were only moderately so in the West. They are gambling that this move will attract a much larger Western audience. This move won't risk the franchise as a whole, though, because they're going to release a Switch game after to appeal to the Japanese and Western handheld audiences (and in the meantime Japan is getting MHXX, so they're not even ignoring their biggest market). Just because one game is skipping mobile doesn't mean they're abandoning it. They're trying to expand the franchise.
 
Heh, they still didnt bring Disney Afternoon to Switch or Megaman Legacy 2. Its just really awkward imo. Can anyone explain that lol? Like forreal.

Capcom the type of person to make a peanut butter jelly sandwhich and put the jelly and peanut butter on the same slice of bread then close the sandwhich. Dont make no damn sense lol

Those projects were/are probably complete or in the tail end of development for them to just port them. This can be an expensive process if they want to rush it or cheap if they put a couple of people on it and take their time to do it. Then Capcom has to decide whether it is financially in their best interest to do so.
 

Effect

Member
This thread lol kinda crazy at what this lack of MHXX localisation has done to the discourse here.

As other have suggested MHXX and World is likely just the final straw for a lot of people. The problems and disappointment and annoyance with Capcom has been building for a while. It's not suddenly here just because MHXX isn't being localized and it seems Capcom is removing the Monster Hunter franchise from Nintendo hardware. That's just the latest in a long line of WTF decisions from Capcom.
 
Those projects were/are probably complete or in the tail end of development for them to just port them. This can be an expensive process if they want to rush it or cheap if they put a couple of people on it and take their time to do it. Then Capcom has to decide whether it is financially in their best interest to do so.

Why would they have to rush it? It came out like a month after Switch launch no? MML2 still not even out.

Financial interest? Its NES and SNES games lol
 

MoonFrog

Member
I'm pretty confident that most of the hand-wringing over Japanese third-party support will look silly a year from now, and even more so by the end of 2018. Where else are Japanese third parties that aren't primarily targeting the Western market supposed to go?

Mobile? The grave? Stay with the little otaku niche they carved out for themselves on PS/PC?

IDK. There are lots of other places to go.

But yeah. I think Atlus and SE will probably do their 3DS support justice, at least. January seemed to say this. It'll just be a while before they transition from 3DS. SE support even seems to be growing a bit, with things like Tokyo RPG factory targeting Switch now too.

I imagine Sega support will also at least maintain its 3DS/Wii U levels, largely Sonic.

I think we'll get a Platinum game and along those same lines we have another niche title from Suda51 coming.

Really, the biggest questions among core 3DS supporters are Level-5 and Capcom. Both of these companies have struck a "wait-and-see" tone. Level-5 is in between franchises and avows deepened mobile support. Capcom is trying to evolve MH onto a bigger western stage with future Switch support unclear. Is AA going mobile after 3DS? Or is Switch still going to be part of its release plans?

As for picking up support:

Disgaea shows that smaller games can make a jump from PS4/Vita to PS4/Switch, but we've yet to see too many games make that leap. Seems others like, say, Falcom are going to just try and leap to PS4(/PC).

It remains to be seen how many small PS ecosystem games end up on Switch because it is the only portable in town and how many track PS ecosystem rather than form factor.
 

Sadist

Member
I do agree that it seems very likely that Capcom will be bought out in about a few years from now, but I don't believe it will be a traditional company from the industry itself. A smart investor could see Capcom's potential because of their diverse portfolio of titles and with some focus could turn in a very stable and healthy develoment house.

But every now this thread pops up and some think about Nintendo buying them out... nah. Even with current projects it looks like the big N really prefer collabs above anything else. FE Warriors with Koei-Tecmo, Mario + Rabbids with Ubisoft and Mercury Steam developing Samus Returns. Its conjecture, but somewhere I believe Kimishima thinks the same about buying out developers/publishers as Iwata. I mean I get why some would think why Capcom would be a good fit; long history of Street Fighter, Nintendo always dabbled with horror series like the exclusivity deal regarding Resident Evil, Eternal Darkness and in recent years Fatal Frame/Project Zero. And of course they own series like Mega Man, Monster Hunger, Ghost and Goblins and Ace Attorney which tends to do well on Nintendo systems.

But nah; when Capcom gets bought out, it will be some outsider.
 

Effect

Member
I also want to add to others that have been saying this. I do not at all buy that Capcom didn't know what the Switch was very early on. Capcom is a company that has gotten Nintendo to make hardware revisions and to put out attachments to hardware! Are people really going to say Capcom wasn't among the first to know what the Switch, then NX, was? That they would very likely wouldn't have been among the first to get the first version of the dev kit? That they weren't asked for their input during the design? There are only a handful of companies Nintendo would look to and accept design input from and they're all Japanese and likely have a large influence when it comes to game sales on Nintendo hardware. Capcom would be one of those few due to the position they had on the DS and 3DS with Monster Hunter. I do not at all buy that they didn't have enough time and didn't know what Nintendo was making nor that they didn't realize it's potential as a new system that was portable.

People keep talking about how Capcom wants to do MH in HD. The Switch is a damn HD system!!! It's Nintendo's second!!!
 

disco

Member
It's obvious that MH World will miss the mark and the assets will be reused to make Monster Hunter World Portable for Switch. I'm sure the exclusivity contract with Sony does not pertain to the exact polygons of the games substance, merely the name, that version per se. Same thing happened with Monster Hunter Tri.
 

Neoxon

Junior Member
It's obvious that MH World will miss the mark and the assets will be reused to make Monster Hunter World Portable for Switch. I'm sure the exclusivity contract with Sony does not pertain to the exact polygons of the games substance, merely the name, that version per se. Same thing happened with Monster Hunter Tri.
Isn't it a bit too soon to proclaim doom for MHW? It still looks like a solid MH game.
 
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