Capcom attributes company success to the shift away from individual-driven development
Capcom president and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto recently spoke with Famitsu (via Automaton) leading up to the company's 43rd anniversary (as of June 11). It was during this talk that Tsujimoto revealed the shift that has seemingly allowed the company . . .
Capcom president and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto recently spoke withFamitsu(viaAutomaton) leading up to the company's 43rd anniversary (as of June 11). It was during this talk that Tsujimoto revealed the shift that has seemingly allowed the company to survive for so long. According to Tsujimoto, Capcom has made a conscious effort to shift away from individual-driven development. In other words, games are being developed without an over dependence on the vision of a single creator. "In the game industry, when a title becomes a series, it often ends up depending heavily on a particular developer, becoming what you’d call an individual-driven title," said Tsujimoto on the matter. "If that person doesn’t make one, there’s no next installment. The direction of the series becomes tied to the ideas of a single creator. "Of course, this wasn't something that simply happened overnight. Additionally, Capcom was well aware that this sort of shift introduced some major risks, but they were willing to try the new approach. "We discussed the issue with the central figures behind each franchise and ultimately agreed that we should abandon that approach. What we came up with instead was the idea that every title should essentially be rebuilt from the ground up," continued Tsujimoto. "We didn’t mind even if sales temporarily declined as a result, and by switching to a team-based approach to game development, Capcom changed dramatically. "Needless to say, this risk is paying off big time for Capcom as they are now experiencing their most profitable era throughout its 43-year history. While a significant portion of these profits come from their Resident Evil and Monster Hunter franchises, their third best-selling series, Street Fighter, is also playing its part in this period for Capcom. We recently received word thatStreet Fighter 6 crossed the 7 million copies sold milestone. Needless to say, Street Fighter 6 is one of the franchise's most successful entries. Street Fighter was originally designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, though neither of them are still with Capcom. After the Capcom fighting game drought that followed roughly after Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, Yoshinori Ono would take charge of the series for a time untilhis departure from Capcomafter being with the company for 27 years. These days, the Street Fighter series is where it's at today thanks to the efforts of the Street Fighter 6 development team, which consists of Director Takayuki Nakayama and Producer Shuhei Matsumoto, who tend to be heavily involved with communications with the fans. It's interesting to note that Masahiro Sakurai of Sora Ltd. , creator of the Super Smash Bros. series, once talked about something similar to this. More specifically, he emphasized theimportance of a series eliminating its dependence on its creator. As of right now, Sakurai believes that the Super Smash Bros. franchise is unable to continue without his direct involvement. Of course, Sakurai believes that this is a major problem, but is unsure of how to solve it. "Also, I've been doing too much of the work myself, so I'd need to resolve that, too. The current Super Smash Bros. has too much of my personality poured into it," said Sakurai on the matter. "In order for a long-time series to continue thriving today, we need to think about eliminating the series' dependence on just one person’s vision. "Regardless, Capcom has demonstrated that it is possible to successfully shift to individual-driven development cycles.