C- Warrior
Banned
There is a thread concerning Clover's break-up, however I think (maybe more importantly) that the news nextgen biz posted up regarding Clover's three most prominent employees is more telling and deserves it's own thread.
Shinji Mikami (RE1,PN03,RE4,God Hand) will stay with Capcom...while that's cool and all the real sad news comes from the fact that Capcom's greatest developer Hideki Kamiya is leaving Capcom and not working with the company in any way, shape or form. He and Inaba want to leave Capcom and "find new challenges in new areas" as they put it.
Hideki Kamiya has created only 4 games in his career, but what 4 games they were. (Resident Evil 2 '98', Devil May Cry '01', Viewtiful Joe '02' and Okami '06' -- all of which have a 92%+ at gamerankings. He probably has the highest gameranking average for all the games he's created right there with Hideo Kojima. In fact, some would say given Kamiya's more diverse creation list he's even 1up-ed the MGS - exclusive designer.
For shame Capcom, the guy created your best games. You should have added an extra zero on that contract if need be. I can agree Mikami has made some great RE games, but his new IP's don't hold up so well. And considering Mikami seems to no longer have an interest in RE titles, it seems his future contribution to Capcom is up in the air. Kamiya on the other hand was creating genre defining million sellers. (global sellers to boot), the guy has no black sheep, no failure, no weak or underwheling game, he's 4 for 4, he's like the perfect game creating machine.
The source material:
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3994&Itemid=2
Q: Can you explain briefly why Clover Studio has been decided to be dissolved?
A: Clover Studio (CS) was established in July 2004 by Capcom in order to create new types of titles. Then, the titles such as Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand were produced. At the same time, R&D at Capcom also produced some new types of titles such as Dead Rising and Lost Planet and they were regarded highly at game shows such as E3. Reviewing the existing R&D organization, we have reached the conclusion that we should be centralizing all the resources rather than running two companies. Therefore, disbandment of CS was decided.
Q: Weve heard that the famous creators such as [Resident Evil creator] Mr. [Shinji] Mikami, [Okami producer] Mr. [Atsushi] Inaba and [Devil May Cry director] Mr. [Hideki] Kamiya have quit, is this true? Why didnt they come back to Capcom?
A: Mr. Mikami had already left Capcom in November 2005 but signed on a separate contract with us. Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya have also left Capcom in June and July of this year respectively. Naturally, we had hoped that Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya to come back to us, however, both of them told us that they wanted a new challenge at a new environment. As far as Capcoms concerned, now all the resources should be used more effectively and more efficiently since they are centralized.
Q: Apparently, CS had 64 staff at the setup of the company, what happened to those people?
A: Actually, only 15 staff [members were] still left in the company at the time of 12th October. They will be transferred to R&D at Capcom although we havent negotiated with them individually yet. However, we will have to examine what sort of organization is required for creating more new titles first.
Q: Will copyright of the titles that were produced by CS be transferred to Capcom?
A: Yes, all copyrights of the CS titles will be transferred back to Capcom as a process of disbandment of the company.
Q: Can you tell us more about Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya? Weve heard that they are setting up a new company.
A: Since they are not our employees any longer, we cant answer this question.
Q: Dont you think of Mr. Mikamis departure as a huge loss? Whos going to produce Resident Evil series from now on?
A: We have a signed contract with Mr. Mikami separately. In any case, we have many creators that have worked on Resident Evil series titles and have enough knowledge of the series. Mr. Mikami will also work in our R&D. By the way, Mr. Takeuchi is producing Resident Evil 5 (hes worked on the original Resident Evil).
EDIT:
Hmmm...
It seems Kamiya is sleeping with both sides...
Kamiya (on left with shades) standing next to the guy with the suit is the CEO of Capcom, Tsujimito.
And then we have (from left to right) Inaba, Kamiya, and Kojima.
Ruh-oh. Kojima productions ftw?
Shinji Mikami (RE1,PN03,RE4,God Hand) will stay with Capcom...while that's cool and all the real sad news comes from the fact that Capcom's greatest developer Hideki Kamiya is leaving Capcom and not working with the company in any way, shape or form. He and Inaba want to leave Capcom and "find new challenges in new areas" as they put it.
Hideki Kamiya has created only 4 games in his career, but what 4 games they were. (Resident Evil 2 '98', Devil May Cry '01', Viewtiful Joe '02' and Okami '06' -- all of which have a 92%+ at gamerankings. He probably has the highest gameranking average for all the games he's created right there with Hideo Kojima. In fact, some would say given Kamiya's more diverse creation list he's even 1up-ed the MGS - exclusive designer.
For shame Capcom, the guy created your best games. You should have added an extra zero on that contract if need be. I can agree Mikami has made some great RE games, but his new IP's don't hold up so well. And considering Mikami seems to no longer have an interest in RE titles, it seems his future contribution to Capcom is up in the air. Kamiya on the other hand was creating genre defining million sellers. (global sellers to boot), the guy has no black sheep, no failure, no weak or underwheling game, he's 4 for 4, he's like the perfect game creating machine.
The source material:
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3994&Itemid=2
Q: Can you explain briefly why Clover Studio has been decided to be dissolved?
A: Clover Studio (CS) was established in July 2004 by Capcom in order to create new types of titles. Then, the titles such as Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand were produced. At the same time, R&D at Capcom also produced some new types of titles such as Dead Rising and Lost Planet and they were regarded highly at game shows such as E3. Reviewing the existing R&D organization, we have reached the conclusion that we should be centralizing all the resources rather than running two companies. Therefore, disbandment of CS was decided.
Q: Weve heard that the famous creators such as [Resident Evil creator] Mr. [Shinji] Mikami, [Okami producer] Mr. [Atsushi] Inaba and [Devil May Cry director] Mr. [Hideki] Kamiya have quit, is this true? Why didnt they come back to Capcom?
A: Mr. Mikami had already left Capcom in November 2005 but signed on a separate contract with us. Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya have also left Capcom in June and July of this year respectively. Naturally, we had hoped that Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya to come back to us, however, both of them told us that they wanted a new challenge at a new environment. As far as Capcoms concerned, now all the resources should be used more effectively and more efficiently since they are centralized.
Q: Apparently, CS had 64 staff at the setup of the company, what happened to those people?
A: Actually, only 15 staff [members were] still left in the company at the time of 12th October. They will be transferred to R&D at Capcom although we havent negotiated with them individually yet. However, we will have to examine what sort of organization is required for creating more new titles first.
Q: Will copyright of the titles that were produced by CS be transferred to Capcom?
A: Yes, all copyrights of the CS titles will be transferred back to Capcom as a process of disbandment of the company.
Q: Can you tell us more about Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya? Weve heard that they are setting up a new company.
A: Since they are not our employees any longer, we cant answer this question.
Q: Dont you think of Mr. Mikamis departure as a huge loss? Whos going to produce Resident Evil series from now on?
A: We have a signed contract with Mr. Mikami separately. In any case, we have many creators that have worked on Resident Evil series titles and have enough knowledge of the series. Mr. Mikami will also work in our R&D. By the way, Mr. Takeuchi is producing Resident Evil 5 (hes worked on the original Resident Evil).
EDIT:
Hmmm...
It seems Kamiya is sleeping with both sides...
Kamiya (on left with shades) standing next to the guy with the suit is the CEO of Capcom, Tsujimito.
And then we have (from left to right) Inaba, Kamiya, and Kojima.
Ruh-oh. Kojima productions ftw?
