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

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Because they don't care, they put as little effort into them as possible.
Clearly, but it's disappointing to see. I don't want these games on mobile to begin with, but if they have to go that route, they could at least put some real effort into them. It's not as if mobile platforms are limited in that regard. You could do a whole lot more on an iPhone than the 3DS, for instance (visually speaking only).

An RPG could conceivably work just fine too.

Mega Man, though? Hell no.
 

Ferrio

Banned
Japanese developers chasing the puzzle and dragon's money reminds me a lot of developers chasing that World of Warcraft money.... and that worked out great.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Was that really one of the biggest recent turning points? I've kind of wanted to try and find a longer history on the rise of smartphone gaming in Japan.

Also, for all the doom-and-gloom pessimists in the thread:

Konami's Dragon Collection and the general profits from DeNA and GREE were a big deal, but a lot of that revenue was featurephones.

The push into smartphones specifically (you will see many Japanese financial releases refer to them as "native apps" since they're not a browser piping data to a feature phone) was heavily impacted by Puzzle & Dragon and that LINE match-3 game I forget, since they showed that apps natively built for smartphones could not only make a ton, but started impacting featurephone games heavily.

This isn't necessarily bad news though since a game made for smartphones can do a lot more than one made for featurephones, which were dominated by the "tap to win" type of games we would so often see.
 
amhate.jpg
 

Salex_

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.

Look at all of those quality IPs along with Megaman that they're just sitting on. What the fuck is Capcom doing? It doesn't make any sense for them to waste millions on Remember Me and Lost Planet 3 over a new Viewtiful Joe, Megaman, Dino Crisis, Rival Schools, Onimusha, etc.
With Japan we're on the cusp of a nigh completely dead console generation given the shape of the Wii U and the current line-up for the PS4.
I thought Japan's PS4 launch lineup was good for them? Yazuka, Dynasty Warriors, Idolmaster, etc.
 

Tripon

Member
With Japan we're on the cusp of a nigh completely dead console generation given the shape of the Wii U and the current line-up for the PS4.

Man, I'm very interested to see how this looks. I'd be sad as heck for Japan's gaming scene, but it'll be like watching a car crash. You have to see it, even though you know its a horrible event.
 

yaesir

Member
Incoming Puzzle and Monster Hunter Quest for mobiles.

This is sad news but I can see where they are coming from, they have a responsability to bring in as much money as they can and the profit rates from mobile are just higher. At the rate they were going before they would not survive.

If this does fail i wonder who will buy them or their IPs, whoever does will control japan and have, honestly, a huge amount of untapped potential on their hands. Capcom has so many series that could be used it's not funny when they are used so badly.
 
Contrary to popular belief, Capcom (and SE) are actually one of few the big Japanese pubs that still make most of their money from traditional packaged games. For some pubs like Sega and Konami for example, packaged games don't make even 10% of their total revenue.
 

Fantastical

Death Prophet
Pretty much the only thing I care about from Capcom now that they've killed effectively killed Resident Evil is Ace Attorney. I hope we get another stateside. :(
 

Tripon

Member
Contrary to popular belief, Capcom (and SE) are actually one of few the big Japanese pubs that still make most of their money from traditional packaged games. For some pubs like Sega and Konami for example, packaged games don't make even 10% of their total revenue.

That's because Sega and Konami has diversified enough away from gaming interests.
 
Know what would be just dandy; if this studio would also make 3DS games, at least then it wouldn't look like the worst thing ever. I'm content if they do both more 3DS and alongside mobile, not just mobile development only.

I mean Aquamarine says it looks like it could be multipurpose which MAYBE would mean just that? At least make a minority part of the output from this 3DS games, show us you're not "wasting" hard earned MH4 dough on mobile stuff only. :(

Actually, 3DS ports if able would be perfectly fine as well, as long as of course other proper teams are making new original 3DS games.
 
OK Guys, we did this before. Let's list off where we want Capcom's ips to go.

Mega Man, Ghosts and Goblins, Okami (maybe Sony they need a Zelda too) should go to Nintendo

Fighters to Namco

You guys keep it going
 
Look at all of those quality IPs along with Megaman that they're just sitting on. What the fuck is Capcom doing? It doesn't make any sense for them to waste millions on Remember Me and Lost Planet 3 over a new Viewtiful Joe, Megaman, Dino Crisis, Rival Schools, Onimusha, etc.

The way Capcom sees it, the market has already said they don't want any more of those.
 

Femto.

Member
Puzzle & Dragon pretty much cemented the growing trend of Japanese publishers going full steam ahead on mobile: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...8m-in-april-alone-market-cap-exceeds-nintendo

Just wow.

Well if this investment does go well for Capcom I just hope it helps them push out of the hole they have dug themselves into.

This might be wishful thinking but I hope this *curent generation* is when the Japanese developers come back to their former selves.
 
not all of Japanese devs will go full on Mobile(abandon other platforms)
Namco wont do it
Nintendo wont do it
Platinum definately wont do it
Konami wont do it
if for some reason hell does freeze over ill go full PC because fuck mobile its a plague that needs to be thrown into the sun and watch it burn in agony
 

Negator

Member
not all of Japanese devs will go full on Mobile(abandon other platforms)
Namco wont do it
Nintendo wont do it
Platinum definately wont do it
Konami wont do it
if for some reason hell does freeze over ill go full PC because fuck mobile its s plague that needs to be thrown into the sun and watch it burn in agony

If all Japanese devs go this route might as well quit gaming altogether.
 

Glass Rebel

Member
Neither is relevant to the consumer these folks are targeting. I don't know why you think dedicated gaming handhelds would sway these people. Neither of the companies is to blame for this, it's simply people preferring free/cheap games on a communication device.

People go where the games are. The last months have shown that 3DS and Vita can sell with the right software and maybe if both would have made a better effort we wouldn't have such a situation at hands.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I thought Japan's PS4 launch lineup was good for them? Yazuka, Dynasty Warriors, Idolmaster, etc.

Well, one of those is a cross gen game, another a late port that barely looks any different, and the IDOLM@STER game won't be out for quite a while.
 
not all of Japanese devs will go full on Mobile(abandon other platforms)
Namco wont do it
Nintendo wont do it
Platinum definately wont do it
Konami wont do it
if for some reason hell does freeze over ill go full PC because fuck mobile its a plague that needs to be thrown into the sun and watch it burn in agony

lol
 
Glad I didn't buy Ace Attorney 5. They'll just turn that money into AA6 iOS.

To be fair if any one capcom franchise could go to mobile and still be fine its Ace Attorney... Course the HD port was complete shit but gameplay wise visual novel/detective games would work great on smart phones.
 

NewGame

Banned
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.

If Monster Hunter 5 is some sort of iOS game heads will be rollin'.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Sounds a lot like the PS4 launch in North America and Europe...

With the West though we have cross-gen games that look notably better and sometimes have notable additional features a la Battlefield 4, lots of first party exclusives that are at least somewhat relevant, and a strong line-up to follow up on that including a lot of next-gen exclusive games.

Every Western publisher is basically full on committed and it's very hard to find a single notable Western publisher releasing a current-gen only game going forward.

In Japan they have the launch titles, some games that only exist as logos, MGS5, a fighting game, and a few Square Enix titles that I would be surprised if they were out before Fall 2015.
 
With the West though we have cross-gen games that look notably better and sometimes have notable additional features a la Battlefield 4, lots of first party exclusives that are at least somewhat relevant, and a strong line-up to follow up on that including a lot of next-gen exclusive games.

In Japan they have the launch titles, some games that only exist as logos, MGS5, a fighting game, and a few Square Enix titles that I would be surprised if they were out before Fall 2015.

and people think the PS4 is going to sell well in Japan, hahahaha.

Is MGS popular in japan? it's the only game I can see selling some PS4's in japan next year(and it would just be the prologue)
 

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
I know I shouldn't take pleasure in the failures of a company, but right now I really REALLY wish the mobile game bubble pops and leaves all these companies trying to make a fast buck high and dry. Ugh.
 
I know I shouldn't take pleasure in the failures of a company, but right now I really REALLY wish the mobile game bubble pops and leaves all these companies trying to make a fast buck high and dry. Ugh.

a company going bankrupt over mobile is the only way to kill it permamently
it may be a bad thing but its the only way to be sure mobile stays dead
 
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