http://wii.ign.com/articles/117/1172319p1.html
Interview by Jim Reilly
I selected some parts, more on the full interview.
On:
MMU
Megaman
MML3
RE PSP
Inafune
Wii
PSN DRM
Investing in New IP
Why RE4+CVX aren't on disc?
MvC3
DR2 off the record
DRM
Interview by Jim Reilly
I selected some parts, more on the full interview.
On:
MMU
IGN: Why was Mega Man Universe cancelled? It seemed pretty far along in production.
Svensson: It was pretty far in production. I will say that we weren't pleased with where it was, collectively at Capcom as a product from a quality standpoint. We opted to say, "You know what, it's probably better that this not come out as opposed to it coming out and not necessarily giving the experience we want people to have." I know that's hard for fans to hear because they want to try it and want to play it, it doesn't matter what it is.
Megaman
IGN: For Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10, I don't recall Capcom ever talking about whether or not those were successful titles given the budget for those two games. Were you pleased with the results?
Don't let the 8-bit nature of those games make you think that they didn't cost much to make.
Svensson: Yes, we were pleased with the results. Let me also say don't let the 8-bit nature of those games make you think that they didn't cost much to make because they were not inexpensive.
MML3
IGN: I wanted to touch on Mega Man Legends 3. There was talk earlier that despite being announced it's not actually green lit for development. Can you clarify the status of this title?
Svensson: It's still not. It's green lit for prototype, it has not been green lit for production. The distinction is an important one in that the prototype green light allows the team to spec out what they're going to build and put together a prototype, a playable version of the game to show internally. In this case we're sharing the prototype publicly with everyone to collect feedback to then go back into the production cycle. Production would imply more headcount put against it and the other part is the full plan for what are we building the final product.
RE PSP
IGN: Where is Resident Evil Portable?
Svensson: Oh, Resident Evil Portable. That is definitely to be determined.
IGN: There was speculation that it was originally Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City for PSP but was later moved to consoles
Svensson: I can promise you there was absolutely nothing connected between the two.
Inafune
IGN: Did Keiji Inafune's departure from Capcom late last year have any effect on the company's project pipeline? Were certain projects pushed back or given more priority over others? What happened?
Svensson: I would say looking forward, since his departure we have prioritized things perhaps a little bit differently. We have restructured the R&D teams and the R&D leadership appropriately. Jun Takeuchi (Resident Evil 5), Hiroyuki Kobayashi (Dragon's Dogma), and Yoshinori Ono (Street Fighter IV) have all stepped up into very senior roles. All of these things have been, to my mind, very good for our output. We have three brains thinking about stuff instead of one. Katsuhiko Ichii (head of Capcom's Home Video Game division) has been very visionary in how he's approached stuff since he's stepped into his [head of R&D] role. But we're focused very much on our future projects. We're not really looking back quite as much.
Wii
IGN: Any regrets with the Wii?
Svensson: I think like much of the industry, I wish I knew what it was going to be a year before it actually became apparent what it was going to be, in terms of market acceptance. I don't know that there's any publisher you could speak to going into that window that would have said "It's going to be that." Maybe Ubisoft did, they're the only ones that bet really heavily out of the gate on it. But I'm not sure if they capitalized on it any better than we did in the end.
There are certain things I wish we would have done, but the problem is the windows of opportunities closed. When it became apparent we should have done something, the chance had already passed us by from a business or development standpoint. But other than that, it was not terrible. We've had some major successes. The Wii helped us grow the Monster Hunter brand in the West. Our most successful Monster Hunter in the West was Tri in both North America and Europe. I think Zack and Wiki was an interesting experiment; very creative in its approach and reinforced that Capcom innovation is alive and well here. We brought Tatsunoko vs. Capcom to the West when everyone said it wouldn't come. We proved them wrong and it was modestly successful.
PSN DRM
IGN: Two of your digital titles, Bionic Commando 2 and Final Fight: Double Impact, both have DRM that requires the player to have a internet connection in order for the game to boot up. Obviously during the PSN outage these games weren't playable. I believe Capcom said this DRM was an experiment.
Svensson: It's not an experimental DRM, it's Sony's DRM. It's one of the mechanisms that Sony has made available for third parties.
........
We were trying to see what impact, if any, on sales there was if we used it, both from a piracy and/or a game-sharing standpoint. The result for both cases was that there is no impact, negative or positive
Our assumption was that people would never have content denied to them due to the absence of a network or the ability for us to turn the DRM off in advance of an outage. That was an unfortunate miscalculation on our part. I think it was an important exercise for us to go down.
For future releases, we will take a case by case look at options available to us and the market situation as to whether or not that form of DRM is important to us. I can say that in the future I think there are other things coming that will make it not necessary.
Investing in New IP
Svensson: It is more risky to do it now. But the counter point to that is that if we're not introducing new IP, we're in a death spiral. If we can't create new franchises and new brands on an on-going basis, and this is true for all companies not just Capcom, you will eventually stagnate and die if you're not successful in doing that. We have a strategy where we will be introducing some form of new IP on a much more consistent basis than we have. We went a couple years with very few new introductions.
This coming fiscal year you happen to see us with two, significant bets coming very close to each other. We'll probably stagger those out a bit more in the future, but we will continue to invest in new IP.
Why RE4+CVX aren't on disc?
Svensson: The digital market in Japan is a bit behind the Western markets in terms of adoption and the numbers of consumers transacting. The connected console rates are there, but for some reason digital hasn't caught on there the same way it has in the West. Our desire in making them digital in the West is we thought we'd be able to reach more consumers at a lower price point than if we had to put them on a disc and sell them at a higher price point. We thought the value proposition was better for digital for consumers and, at the end of the day it actually makes us more revenue, too.
It's still a seven figure investment for a project of this nature.
For development on these it's not trivial. It's not flipping a switch and you've got something on the other side. It's still a seven figure investment for a project of this nature.
MvC3
IGN: What's up with downloadable content for Marvel vs. Capcom 3? We haven't heard anything.
Svensson: I'm going to ask you to wait and see. We have been more radio silent than I would like us to be.
DR2 off the record
IGN: For Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, I see that project as Capcom admitting the original Dead Rising 2 was a mistake by going with Chuck Green instead of Frank West and removing the camera elements. You obviously see it a different way.
Svensson: I would argue that this is another response to fans. We had a lot of fans that said they loved Frank and wanted more Frank. The team in Vancouver had been reading the boards and reviews and figuring out how to give a better experience and learn what they learned on Dead Rising 2 but still give the fans everything they're asking for. There are a couple tricks left up our sleeve that we haven't announced yet on Off the Record that I can't expose yet. But It will become more apparent how fan-driven this edition is and how it responds to all the criticisms Dread Rising 2 had.
DRM
IGN: You recently went back on the very controversial DRM for Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition on PC. Do you ever see a point in our lives when companies can create software that is protected from pirates but also doesn't intrude on paying customers?
Svensson: Difficult to say. The reality is the only secure mechanism is the network. So unless the network becomes so pervasive that devices are never disconnected it's a challenge. We're there with some of them, like the iPhone. It's always going to be a fine line between content protection and, hopefully not, creating a worse experience for your legitimate users.
The games that obviously don't suffer from this are anything that is network centric, for the most part, or anything that doesn't have an upfront charge, such as free-to-play. If anything it forces companies to move further and further down the line both with network-centric designs and business models.
