Saturday, October 5, 2013

Capcom Broke - 152 Million USD in Bank


Capcom Broke?!
Originally Published and Copyrighted by Blast Away the Game Review on 10/5/2013

Written by Dustin Murphy



Not long ago I received a phone call from fellow founder, Jesse Olvera, and it was disturbing, he said Capcom was broke. At first I was somewhat in shock over what he said, trying to shake it off, I turned to the internet and researched. What I found was more-or-less confirming the news he said, that alone was not comforting, instead it was downright disturbing. Taking my time to gather my thoughts it came down to what I figured would be how they could save themselves, especially with a confirmed 152 million USD in bank, which is not a lot when going into a new generation of consoles. Instead what we are finding is they may not make it, especially with sales expectations for titles such as Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, and DMC Devil May Cry never met expectations. Instead each of the titles undershot the expectations Capcom set for them. This was bad, and fans have tried to say how they could help themselves, which is just what Capcom needs now.

A few years ago I would have cried out in distaste at some of Capcom and how they approach their on-disc based DLC, it's in truth not appreciative and shuns gamer's such as myself. When coming down to it, I want to walk away from their titles, and of course never look back upon them again. This changed with Lost Planet 3, DMC Devil May Cry, and of course Dragons Dogma. All three games had compelling stories, mechanics, and of course gave us a new look at action adventure titles. Something that this generation has begun to run short of seemingly. Though this is not what that is necessarily about, instead I want to point at what Capcom could do in order to save themselves, and I hope if they are reading this they listen to the fans and writers alike.

When it comes to portable gaming and I think of Capcom I think of one thing only most of the time, and what is that you might ask, well it's simple - Monster Hunter. The series under the name of Monster Hunter has given gamer's a die hard grinding experience some can say titles such as Soul Sacrifice, Ragnarok Odyssey and a few others could be sort of like this, well I would say you are right. When it comes down to Monster Hunter though, there is a following most games have, and that is what could be their saving grace if they didn't shun PS3, XBox 360, and the PS Vita from this. It sounds arrogant to see this, but it something I would suggest they do, something they should do with the gaming community spanning multiple consoles. This no matter what way Capcom cuts it would be profit, which is what they need right now. What else could they do to fix this? Well this one is easy - give us what we want, not what they think we want, this is what is slowly breaking their bank.

That's not the only issue, something Capcom also needs to do is take gamer input and think about it, such as a new Onimusha, or even Onimusha HD Collection. Why would this get mentioned? Because it was a huge series for its time, and it's something we need to see happen, especially if they plan on being around in the next few years. The other biggest thing they could do is actually allow the community to help out, to give them feedback, and of course suggest things to see in future implementations. With that aside it may not be a bad time for them to reboot titles such as Resident Evil. When all said and done, the reboot of DMC Devil May Cry was not all that bad, but of course Resident Evil is dying, slowly. With the series dwindling in sales and barely making sales goals, it will not be surprising if we do not see them around in two or maybe three more years. With all this we can only hope that Capcom takes a few steps to assure their survival, Street Fighter and Monster Hunter can only go so far before doors are shut, lights are flipped off, leading up to the unfortunate shut down of a game company that has left a large mark in the gaming industry.

Personally it would be nice to see Capcom remaster titles such as Super Ghost 'n Goblins, Demon's Crest, and of course the legendary Blue Bomber - Mega Man. We can also only wonder and speculate what Deep Down has in-store for Capcom and if it will truly be enough to save them. Hopefully we don't see another THQ-esque liquidation happen with Capcom. We'll report more as the information becomes available, but with next generation only a little over a month out, this could get nasty.

What games would you like to see come back? What do you readers think Capcom could do to come back or do you think it's to late? Let us know in the comments and we'll make the best one a quote of the day regarding this situation on our page!


Authors Note: Please note that these comments will appear both here and on the Facebook page for Blast Away the Game Review. With these comments of Capcom being broke, we will need to write down and see all their personal news. Please note; Capcom has yet to comment to anyone on this state, and this will be something interesting if they do, and we will report it once it happens.

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