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Capcom reinvesting MH4 profits into new 4 billion yen internal Japanese mobile studio

Threi

notag
Well at least EA, Ubisoft, and Activision aren't putting all their eggs into the mobile basket...because they still care about gamers
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Please tell me it's a studio working on next-gen games, just sitting in a fucking truck hence 'mobile'?
resized_megaman-meme-generator-meanwhile-in-capcom-s-basement-468352.jpg
dying

But real talk Capcom needs to check itself so we can get more SF and MvC games out of them before they implode.
 

Espada

Member
Yeah, that's not a good sign at all. Are there any big Japanese gaming companies who aren't shifting over to mobile? Jesus, I don't even want to think about how low their output will be this gen. It really sucked being a fan of Japanese games and constantly being teased for stuff that's mobile-only.
 

vocab

Member
Another japanese company out of touch with reality. Jesus christ. A company with so many iconic characters, and IP's, and this is the shit they do.
 
Are mobile games really that lucrative for publishers? Games like Angry Birds and games that are easy to play with a phone definitely sell well and why wouldn't they? However, how successful are games that Capcom would make? How did that Deus Ex mobile game fare and other games with a long story?

To me it just seems like a mobile phone game should be basic and very simple that you can play for 5 minutes and have a good time. There's no way that I'd want to play Dragons Dogma 2 on my phone because I'd probably have sensory overload with incoming texts, notifications and other distractions. It just seems bad to me and not very appealing.

The problem is quiet a few big developers only see two paths to make money

Make a AAAA game on the PS3/360/PC/PS4/X1 that is drastically over budget and needs to sell insane numbers to make a profit cause they're chasing that CoD money that will get bought used or discounted almost instantly if it doesn't become a massive hit at $60

or

Make a cheap ass F2P mobile game with iap that doesn't require any quality control or effort that can perpetually make you money.

You notice some of the companies pushing mobile hard are the AAAA "wait you mean we can't sell 10 million copies of Tomb Raider?" aka SE and Capcom while companies like Namco and Atlus just continue to do their thing and do well by it.
 
"You know, maybe we should do this mobile thing. Everyone says we should. Let's put EAD Tokyo on the scene and test the waters with a new mainline Mario game."
no parents gonna buy their kid a cellphone just to play a videogame
i wouldnt anyways if i was a parent
i honestly dont see how mobile games are fun anyways
your severely limited with what you can do cause of the controls
 

AAK

Member
Let us have an ode to the great Capcom franchises we can kiss goodbye:


Thank you for all the memories. I guess we're gonna be stuck with Resident Evil, Street Fighter, & Monster Hunter sequel after sequel.
 

Big-E

Member
Reinvesting 4 billion yen into mobile games doesn't seem like the answer. Aren't mobile games suppose to cost next to nothing to make so why invest that much money?
 
Well at least EA, Ubisoft, and Activision aren't putting all their eggs into the mobile basket...because they still care about gamers

Its basically EA, Ubi and Activison that have caused this mess. By raising the stakes so high that a game cannot fail, Some publishers have no choice but to look elsewhere.
 
When the PS3 / 360 released, development investment increased from 15 billion JPY ($146.5 million) to 30 billion JPY ($293.0 million). The great thing about mobile and portable game development is that the expectations are lower (much lower for mobile) in terms of development commitment from the staff.

Essentially, Capcom wants to invest heavily in the smartphone gaming realm as an avenue for future growth opportunities. Capcom's mobile sector has been lagging recently, and they want to invest in it to increase their operating margin in that area.

The president of Capcom says the way for Capcom to dedicate resources to mobile development (in terms of both expertise and flexibility) is to increase the percentage of in-house development dedicated to it. To this end, Capcom is using 4 billion JPY ($39.1 million) of the revenue from Monster Hunter 4 to create a new studio in Osaka (where Capcom's HQ is located), and they are ramping up development staff accordingly.

The new center in Osaka still has a possibility of being multi-purpose, though.
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
no parents gonna buy their kid a cellphone just to play a videogame
i wouldnt anyways if i was a parent
i honestly dont see how mobile games are fun anyways
your severely limited with what you can do cause of the controls

But parents do buy their kids cellphones. And they do buy their kids videogames on those cell phones. A new Mario on a cell phone?! Bought with a touch of a finger.

You see, all of this? This is what people like Jason Rubin (the guy behind the shit fest Nintendo comments as of late) wants. Capcom has valuable IPs. Why not share them with a huge base? Right? Right?

<fucking grumbles and walks away> =(
 

Sandfox

Member
no parents gonna buy their kid a cellphone just to play a videogame
i wouldnt anyways if i was a parent
i honestly dont see how mobile games are fun anyways
your severely limited with what you can do cause of the controls
Children play on either their parents phones or use tablets and most people like mobile games becaise they are cheap/free, addictive, convenient since people always carry a phone around and short games that they can play minutes at a time.
If they're are best hope and our true defenders


.............................

They all make mobile games too...
 

Espada

Member
Honestly not surprised. Nintendo and Sony fucked up by letting mobile games dominate the Japanese market.

There's nothing either of them could have done to stop or slow this. As I've had it explained to me, Japanese lifestyle is filled with commutes and so mobile is their chosen form of gaming. How do you interest someone in console gaming who is barely home, doesn't want to the high price for a console game, and would rather play on their phone?
 

Glass Rebel

Member
What could they have done to stop mobile games from catching on?

They couldn't have prevented mobile games from gaining a foothold, especially since games for feature phones were a thing years before iOS and Android. It's undeniable though that the 3DS had a slow start and the Vita was (relatively speaking) a disaster. They both underestimated mobile gaming and are paying the price right now.

There's nothing either of them could have done to stop or slow this. As I've had it explained to me, Japanese lifestyle is filled with commutes and so mobile is their chosen form of gaming. How do you interest someone in console gaming who is barely home, doesn't want to the high price for a console game, and would rather play on their phone?

I'm not talking about consoles.
 

Riposte

Member
Naturally, I'm hoping this is merely a cash cow on the side. This isn't what I meant when I said I wanted more internal development!
 

KHlover

Banned
Yeah, that's not a good sign at all. Are there any big Japanese gaming companies who aren't shifting over to mobile? Jesus, I don't even want to think about how low their output will be this gen. It really sucked being a fan of Japanese games and constantly being teased for stuff that's mobile-only.
Pretty sure Nintendo will stay on consoles only
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Reinvesting 4 billion yen into mobile games doesn't seem like the answer. Aren't mobile games suppose to cost next to nothing to make so why invest that much money?

Mobile is very high margin in Japan, so they want to get more high margin titles.

This is also why they're going massively DLC heavy and investigating f2p.
 
Are mobile games really that lucrative for publishers? Games like Angry Birds and games that are easy to play with a phone definitely sell well and why wouldn't they? However, how successful are games that Capcom would make? How did that Deus Ex mobile game fare and other games with a long story?

To me it just seems like a mobile phone game should be basic and very simple that you can play for 5 minutes and have a good time. There's no way that I'd want to play Dragons Dogma 2 on my phone because I'd probably have sensory overload with incoming texts, notifications and other distractions. It just seems bad to me and not very appealing.

Pretty much all Japanese pubs are heavily banking on mobile gaming at this point.

Konami for example make way more money from mobile/social games like Dragon Collection than developing Metal Gear/PES games.
 
I'm glad I've stopped caring about this stupid company.

Seriously, I'm fine with EVERYTHING you've killed Capcom... but I still need more Ace Attorney's from you, that's all I want, I already survived them killing Mega Man so I think I can deal with everything now.
 

Elvick

Banned
But parents do buy their kids cellphones. And they do buy their kids videogames on those cell phones. A new Mario on a cell phone?! Bought with a touch of a finger.

You see, all of this? This is what people like Jason Rubin (the guy behind the shit fest Nintendo comments as of late) wants. Capcom has valuable IPs. Why not share them with a huge base? Right? Right?

<fucking grumbles and walks away> =(
But he said parent's aren't going to buy their kids cellphones *FOR GAMES*. And they don't. No one buys a phone to watch Netflix, but people download it there. Doesn't mean they bought the phone for it.
 
I didn't see the word "mobile" in the title at first and had assumed that Capcom had regained their senses.

The developers and publishers that chase the elusive profits of mobile gaming seldom seem to actually do so.
 

Sandfox

Member
They couldn't have prevented mobile games from gaining a foothold, especially since games for feature phones were a thing years before iOS and Android. It's undeniable though that the 3DS had a slow start and the Vita was (relatively speaking) a disaster. They both underestimated mobile gaming and are paying the price right now.

Even if the 3DS didn't go through its early drought and the Vita was selling better mobile still would've been more appealing to casual games for the reasons why its popular now.
 
The problem is quiet a few big developers only see two paths to make money

Make a AAAA game on the PS3/360/PC/PS4/X1 that is drastically over budget and needs to sell insane numbers to make a profit cause they're chasing that CoD money that will get bought used or discounted almost instantly if it doesn't become a massive hit at $60

or

Make a cheap ass F2P mobile game with iap that doesn't require any quality control or effort that can perpetually make you money.

You notice some of the companies pushing mobile hard are the AAAA "wait you mean we can't sell 10 million copies of Tomb Raider?" aka SE and Capcom while companies like Namco and Atlus just continue to do their thing and do well by it.

Pretty much, very few publishers even want to try to make cheaper games anymore. If they can't have it all they don't want any of it.
Remember when AA games were a thing?
 
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