Support NeoGAF

[CrimsonCrescendo]

(original article title is a bit over dramatic)

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/capcom-is-in-a-sad-sorry-state-right-now

The issue is the company's marquee titles haven't set the world of fire for a few years now. Street Fighter V continues to limp along following troubled launch. The game can cause hype at EVO, but it's only sold 1.7 million copies to date. SF5 reached 1.6 million in sales in May, meaning they sold 100,000 copies in total. Worse, this mean the game has only sold 300,000 units since May of 2016. Capcom's original estimate back in 2014 for SF5 sales was 2 million, and the game is still limping towards that target.

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard was another major title that was supposed to break out for Capcom, but the game has only 3.7 million copies sold. That's good, but below expectations. Capcom wanted to sell 4 million copies of Resident Evil 7 by the end of the last fiscal year on March 31, 2017, but it's only within spitting distance as of June. Resident Evil 7's pace is similar to Street Fighter V's: it had sold 3.5 million copies as of March, meaning it only sold 200,000 units in three months.

Much more at the article.

While the article is a bit over dramatic, the core of it is on point. Capcom has found difficulty is obtaining it's sales goals over the past generation. As mentioned, Street Fighter V still hasn't reached it's 2 million sales goal two years later. Resident Evil 7, while not posting bad numbers in the slightest and is profitable, has hit a brick wall in terms of sales longetivity and has the steep decline of 1.5 million under Resident Evil 6 in the same time frame.

Also in the article is the fact that Dead Rising still hasn't reach a million sales when the original sales goal was 2 million. The franchise is most likely dead in it's current form.

Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite has also had mixed reception due to it's meme worthy character models which look to be of poor craftsmanship and a lacking roster (no X-men at all).

There's much more at the article, but the bottom line is that Capcom is struggling this generation. Their new company wide engine, Panta Rhei, has been MIA for almost 4 years, same as Deep Down. They've failed to create any lasting new IP in the past 5 years. Their games are missing their stated sales targets. They have more dead IP than active IP at this point and it would seem likely they have lost another major IP (Dead Rising) since the fourth entry crashed and burned. And none of of their mobile initiatives have worked out for them. Capcom is in a tough situation.

 

[Toki767]

Where have most of their profits been coming from? Monster Hunter?

 

[alr1ght]

Mega.....nah.

More ports.

 

[Nintendo's Witch]

How the mighty has fallen. Sad.

 

[udivision]

Where have most of their profits been coming from? Monster Hunter?

Yes.

It makes MHWorld's position all the more interesting.

 

[Toxi]

Mega.....nah.

More ports.

Megaman sells like trash on average.

 

[Crossing Eden]

This in combination with their attempt at a replacement for MT framework completely falling through really explains their incredibly slow output this gen.

 

[13ruce]

It's kinda sad tbh they have a great selection of IP's and to see em slowly go down is a sad thing to see.

Hopefully MH worlds will do well in the west.

 

[gutter_trash]

SFV doesn't even have an industry standard ARCADE MODE, we are still waiting!

Hell, you have Ultra Street Fighter II released on the Switch with a regular ARCADE MODE

 

[Jawmuncher]

Im curious just what capcom could really do at this point. They seem to be rather hard headed and then wonder why things didn't work out. Dead Rising 4 being the most recent example.

The worst thing is that so often they're only a few steps away from a good spot. But for whatever reason don't quite reach it. Which is a big reason why I think people are so hard on capcom. Not because they hate them, but because they know capcom is capable of better all around.

Hopefully they start shaking things up whether it be people or at least those people's ideas and go back to trying some bew things along with bringing back some older IPs. Capcom can definitely come back stronger than ever if they play their cards right.

Where have most of their profits been coming from? Monster Hunter?

Mobile, Monster Hunter, and Resident Evil last I recall.

 

[alr1ght]

Megaman sells like trash on average.

Sure, it's not going to sell like RE6, but it wouldn't cost anywhere near that to develop.

 

[Gunslinger]

I think if MvC:I fails and judging from the impression online that it may very well then this will be the end of Capcom fighting game division. And we are back to the dark ages of Capcom fighting games. As Evo will become a Melee tournament and will fade into obscurity as before.

 

[ShinMaruku]

Capcom will do fine, they must actually find their place on the market rather than aping other things.

 

[Atheerios]

And if Monster Hunter World follows the trend...

 

[spannicus]

Capcoms glory days are over. Lump em in with Konami.

 

[jooey]

I think if MvC:I fails and judging from the impression online that it may very well then this will be the end of Capcom fighting game division. And we are back to the dark ages of Capcom fighting games. As Evo will become a Melee tournament and will fade into obscurity as before.

Give me a break.

KOF tournament.

 

[JayEH]

They really don't know what they want to be anymore. They had a couple of big misses last gen but those were all entirely their fault and anyone could pinpoint the problems with those titles. Now they're in a position where they're super risk averse and they want AAA results but don't put in the money for it. They never learn from their past mistakes and keep on trucking.

Seriously SFV should have been a homerun after SFIV but they took the brand name for granted and we got half a game at launch. Then you would think Marvel would then be the homerum since they know they fucked up with SFV. Nope they think the only reason SFV bombed was because of story mode so we have a game with a lackluster roster and artsyle.

DmC should have never happened. DMC4 was the peak of the franchise in sales and even exceeded their expectations but they made the genius decision to reboot it. They abandoned the DR fan base lately with 4 even though all the other games had solid sales. Now DR is dead.

There's countless other dumb decisions they've made the last decade. It's so frustrating watching this company with such a great history and clearly still full of talented developers stumble over and over again.

 

[kadotsu]

They need a mobile hit. It seems so weird to me that a publisher with so many recognizable characters can't seem to get a gacha game going. They also seem to have forgotten how to create excitement for their titles. Their fighting games seem to get a negative reaction nowadays and the MHW reveal was almost botched because they gave too little information initially.

 

[sibarraz]

I think if MvC:I fails and judging from the impression online that it may very well then this will be the end of Capcom fighting game division. And we are back to the dark ages of Capcom fighting games. As Evo will become a Melee tournament and will fade into obscurity as before.

Not happening.

Tekken and Smash still has a strong scene, Anime scene has a strong following, KOF gives the international credentials and at this point evo is like wrestlemania, even if you don't like fighting games, there is still a chance that you could watch it.

And at this point I doubt that Capcom will stop doing fighters (at worst marvel), they will just pour less resources on them, which considering the assets of SFV and MVC:I will be very interesting to see. But if companies like SNK or Arc System Works are capables of releasing profitable games with just a fraction of what SFV did, Capcom could do the same

 

[timberger]

They have made so many bad decisions over the years it was only a matter of time before they started catching up with them.

Can't help but wonder what'll become of them if Monster Hunter World fails to catch on. What else do they have left to fall back on at this point?

 

[FaustusMD]

Capcom needs to start preparing a new Street Fighter that is much more like 4 than 5. Nothing can "save" SF5 and its reputation with the general gaming public now. SF6 or "Street Fighter Alpha" or whatever they decide to call the next one needs to be multiplatform with single player content ready out of the gate and less of a focus on the competitive side of things. Forcing casuals to worry about ranked matches and tracking every match so deliberately isn't going to get them on board the same way the NRS games do. There have just been too many missteps with 5, its launch, its microtransactions and economy, etc. To get the general audience back, they need room for the detractors to say, "OK, I hated 5, but 6 is great!".

For Resident Evil, they need to knock it out of the park with RE2make. Nothing else really matters if that doesn't live up to expectations.

 

[Dahbomb]

Welp, time to go all in on DMC5 then.

 

[Mediking]

They seriously gotta restructure and rethink how they are as a company.

 

[ReaperXL7]

It's not even like you can say that good fighting games can't sell well since NRS, Bamco, and Nintendo seem to do fine. The obvious reason is because those companies put a lot of TLC and meat into the games for people who aren't FGC tournament players.

I never did really look into all of the stuff out there about how Sony helped them fund the development of SFV but it was never going to be successful once word got out how bare bones it was as a complete package.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

Their executives and shareholders have to be the most out-of-touch and clueless in the whole industry. Konami's were malicious, but I think Capcom's flatout have no idea what they're doing or any semblance of long-term strategy. It's insane how the past 5 years have been failure after failure for them and they're even throwing the few good things they still have under the bus. MVC Infinite is already a complete laughingstock, and at their current pace I'm not holding my breath for Monster Hunter World to be the breakout they want it to be. One of the few series they still have trucking along respectably (Ace Attorney) can't even get physical releases worldwide, or the games by its own creator localized anymore. They couldn't get Street Fighter V asap funded without Sony and they pissed that completely away.

I don't know where the hell they're going to go from here if their MH World gambit doesn't pay off. But it's depressing that at this point I wouldn't even be phased if they went under.

 

[Neptonic]

Should have stuck with MT Framework

 

[Lulubop]

I think if MvC:I fails and judging from the impression online that it may very well then this will be the end of Capcom fighting game division. And we are back to the dark ages of Capcom fighting games. As Evo will become a Melee tournament and will fade into obscurity as before.

Lmao

 

[Josh5890]

Capcoms glory days are over. Lump em in with Konami.

If someone told me at the beginning of the decade that Konami and Capcom would fall and SEGA would have an excellent rebound, I would've laughed

 

[Dr. Carroll]

I think what some people in this thread are overlooking is the importance of appealing to casual gamers as well as "fans". For example, I believe it's fairly well documented that most people aren't interested in playing fighting games in multiplayer mode. So a fighting game without a strong SP component was always going to struggle to find traction. Similarly, Capcom screwed up with Umbrella Corps because they forgot that people bought Operation Raccoon City because it was playable solo. Games that lack SP struggle to build momentum without some silly "hype train" because people say, "Oh, nobody is else is playing this, so it's dead, so I won't bother."

If someone told me at the beginning of the decade that Konami and Capcom would fall and SEGA would have an excellent rebound, I would've laughed

SEGA have problems of their own. Their AAA titles like Alien: Isolation underperformed, Sonic hasn't sold well for years, and PC ports of their games on Steam are not doing that great.

 

[DR2K]

Capcom puts no effort in their games and expects them to sell like they're making the effort. It's across the board for all their games this gen.

 

[Jawmuncher]

I think what some people in this thread are overlooking is the importance of appealing to casual gamers as well as "fans". For example, I believe it's fairly well documented that most people aren't interested in playing fighting games in multiplayer mode. So a fighting game without a strong SP component was always going to struggle to find traction. Similarly, Capcom screwed up with Umbrella Corps because they forgot that people bought Operation Raccoon City because it was playable solo. Games that lack SP struggle to build momentum because people say, "Oh, nobody is else is playing this, so it's dead, so I won't bother."


SEGA have problems of their own. Their AAA titles like Alien: Isolation underperformed, Sonic hasn't sold well for years, and PC ports of their games on Steam are not doing that great.

Umbrella Corps did have a SP mode called the experiment. It's there though not very good. Just turns into using the brained to smack everything.

Which goes back to dumb ideas. Capcom trying to go into Shooter Esports with a budget Unity RE spinoff from nothing but new employees was a recipe for disaster.

 

[The Last One]

Capcom puts no effort in their games and expects them to sell like they're making the effort. It's across the board for all their games this gen.

To be fair RE7 definitely had tons of effort. The rest of their games though...

It seens they're putting effort in MHW at least.

 

[Ahasverus]

They need a big executive shake up, else they're going the Konami route.

At least Resident Evil is good again.

 

[Laughing Banana]

If Monster Hunter World fails to live up to their expectations, what would that mean for them?

 

[Floody]

It's mostly just of their own doing too. Whenever it looks like they might have a hit on their hands it's quickly lost by poor showings, bad releases or they just expect too much.

Monster Hunter World is looking really good for example, but most have probably already written it off after the alright E3 showing. Why they haven't shown of a 4 player hunt (for the west, there's a Japanese demo of it) is just mind blowingly dumb. The average consumer loves them some co-op.

 

[CrimsonCrescendo]

They need a big executive shake up, else they're going the Konami route.

Thing is, Konami had business outside of gaming that was very profitable. Capcom doesn't. Capcom keeps failing like this, they're just screwed.

 

[Claude Augario]

Megaman sells like trash on average.

So what you're saying is that Mega Man Legends 3 would sell more than Street Fighter V.

 

[hamchan]

Half their output seems to be ports from past generations.

(I'm hoping they port everything to the Switch though so I guess I'm feeding them.)

 

[Plum]

Might as well drag this image out again:

Nah but seriously Capcom's definitely in a bad position but I don't think they're making the right moves to justify it. I've been vocal before in how I don't think Monster Hunter: World will be anywhere near a break-out hit for them especially with the opportunity cost of leaving out their growing Nintendo-side fanbase. Though even outside of Monster Hunter they've made a shambles of so many of their previously big franchises: Street Fighter V was a wholly avoidable fuck-up, MvCI reeks of "cheapness" which is not something you want, Dead Rising might as well be dead and Mega Man is dead. Resident Evil 7 is the only "good" move I think they've made in the past few years and that's only because I loved the game and it still sold well, just not well enough for Capcom in its current state to see as "fine."

I think Capcom's issue is that they put too many eggs in too few baskets. They aren't fostering anywhere near the niche appeal they could be fostering so they're relying on the aforementioned tent-pole franchises to keep them afloat. If they fuck up Monster Hunter as well then it'd take a much more business-savvy person than me to get them out of that hole.

 

[antonz]

If Monster Hunter World fails to live up to their expectations, what would that mean for them?

Its going to mean a severe tightening of the belt for Capcom. Capcom would not fund SFV even after the success of SFIV. Which is why Sony stepped in and put the money in as they felt they could get a big exclusive. Instead its shown that SF is very much not platform specific for success it succeeds when its on as many platforms as humanly possible.

Capcom is in for rough times as they try to figure out where to go from here

 

[leroidys]

People keep saying that Capcom will never do SSFV, but IIRC they only said that they won't release anything that splits the user base, and won't release huge drops of content (characters) at once.

 

[DR2K]

To be fair RE7 definitely had tons of effort. The rest of their games though...

It seens they're putting effort in MHW at least.

No it didn't. It's a low budget jump scare FPS game. It's failing all sales targets that 5 and 6 hit easily.

 

[F0rneus]

RE7 is the only truly great thing Capcom has done in years. ONE game. They couldn't get a goddamn Street Fighter game out with an Arcade mode. They killed great franchises like Devil May Cry, by releasing a dumbed down remake no one asked for....

Whatever happens is their own fault...

 

[RedAssedApe]

everyone one of you is buying sf collection for switch/ps4/xbone though

 

[okita]

Lots of bad decisions, i don't think it's the right time for MvsC:I , they should focus in improvements to SFV and while doing that try to improve the view of the public about the game, after that is achieved go for another fighting game. Too late for that though.

 

[Leafhopper]

I think if MvC:I fails and judging from the impression online that it may very well then this will be the end of Capcom fighting game division. And we are back to the dark ages of Capcom fighting games. As Evo will become a Melee tournament and will fade into obscurity as before.

Capcom only players attempting to form a thought and failing miserably. There is a hell of a lot other games that will be fine without that there or SFV for that matter.

everyone one of you is buying sf collection for switch/ps4/xbone though

I don't buy collections of games I already own.

 

[Ridley327]

Should have stuck with MT Framework

Interestingly, Monster Hunter World is running on it. Granted, it helps that the team has been working on MT Framework since 2011, but one does have to wonder what Capcom could have saved in time and money by iterating on it further rather than wasting effort on Panta Rhei for something that is looking to be vaporware.

 

[Aters]

Capcom was too successful at console games last gen, which actually hindered them from exploring new markets. Now every other Japanese 3rd party is rolling in that mobile cash while Capcom still relies on the more and more expensive AAA titles. In the "go big or go home" AAA scene, they are simply not big enough. Their fate is on the wall. Unless they somehow find another goldmine like MH, they will soon fall into irrelevance.

They need a big executive shake up, else they're going the Konami route.

Pretty sure Capcom would gladly switch position with Konami.

 

[JayEH]

everyone one of you is buying sf collection for switch/ps4/xbone though

Of course because their old shit is still good. Quite sad the best capcom games this gen are ports. Probably among their best sellers too.

 

[ianpm31]

MH Worlds and REmake 2 will determine the direction of capcom