It’s a good time to be Capcom : millions of gamers are buying and playing their games from Monster Hunter to Resident Evil and Street Fighter. But how much of this success is due to do with Capcom’s decision to “go west” and make their games more stylized to the western gaming market?  

Head of Capcom Research and Development, Keiji Inafune certainly seems to be obsessed with this theme:Five years ago, Capcom was at the very bottom of the industry, it was up to me to figure out how we were going to get us out of this pit. I realized the key word we had to focus on was globalization. It’s not that Capcom hasn’t had global hits, but there was a long time when key products weren’t selling around the world.

Our big challenge to ourselves with Dead Rising 2 is to try and find the right blend between  western design and Japanese design.

What we are trying to do with Lost Planet 2 is different. We want to take a Japanese designed game and make it a success in the west.

The truth is that this Japanese / Western theme has nothing to do with anything! The simple truth is that, if Capcom had just applied a little more common sense to their development projects, they could have been selling twice the amount of software and making even more money … both in the West and East!  This unnatural western obsession has obviously made them blind to the real issues at hand.

The Real Issues

(1) Dead Rising

Problem  : Of all the criticisms of the original from the dumb AI to the unforgiving story progression and awkward transceiver (making it compulsory made the player unfairly vulnerable ) it was the dodgy game save points that made the game too frustrating.

Solution : Fixing the save system by offering the player a choice … play as originally designed or offer more save points. At the very least, offer to save the game before imposing an unexpected and  difficult ”boss” character upon the player !  

(2) Monster Hunter

Problem : great game but doesn’t sell outside of Japan.

Solution : Make single player more accessible by introducing difficulty levels. At the very least, introduce proper multiplayer into the game. Let’s do away with this notion that everybody who owns a PSP has lots of friends who also have a Psp and a copy of Monster Hunter! 

 (3) Resident Evil 5 

I think enough has been said on the problems regarding RE5. This game has sold over 4 million copies - just imagine how many copies it could have sold if Capcom has spent a bit more time thinking about what it was must have been like for some gamers to play this game. It’s virtual enforcement of co- op (due to the abysmal single player AI ) made the single player campaign far too frustrating. And I don’t want to get started on the controls : but how can anyone at Capcom not “get it”  when they watch an impatient  gamer standing still and wildly slashing at an enemy, all the while hoping that at some point the knife might make contact if the enemy moves a little closer?     

What’s more worrying , however, is the near future : Capcom don’t seem to be willing to learn from their mistakes or show any signs of addressing the real issues. For Dead Rising 2, Capcom have thrown away the old code and started from scratch, employing Canadian developer Blue Castle Games to make the sequel. Blue Castle Games might well do an excellent  job but all that experience and knowledge gained from making the first game has effectively been thrown out in order that the sequel can be more westernised.

And the new “Monster Hunter Unite” , out now in Japan, doesn’t look like much will change there either : the same camera system , no targeting and no difficulty settings. We will apparently get a new AI partner in single player but I am sure Capcom will shove some more HP onto the monsters to make up for it! 

Last word must go to Dan Brady, CEO of Blue Castle Games, developer of the new Dead Rising 2 : What we are showing you today is something completely new. It is not based on the engine used in Dead Rising one, this is a completely unique and original engine written specifically for Dead Rising 2.Let’s keep our fingers crossed then !

Editor's note: Roger is somewhat of an industry insider (undercover!) and writes with a certain viewpoint that is a bit different than you normally see here at ALT+F4. For more of Roger's opinions on games and the gaming industry you'll find a few posts a week here or you can visit his site any time @ http://www.gamebusinessdaily.com/

Comments (0)