Back in the day, Capcom boasted some of the most creative and ambitious gaming talent in Japan next to Sega and Nintendo. They'd take a simple idea, inject enough insanity and depth into it, and polish it up to perfection. A Blue Robot with an arm gun that can steal other robots powers? Cool. A game where martial arts experts across the globe duke it out? Done deal. A survival horror game with a rotating cast of characters who fight off a zombie plague from an evil corporation? whatever floats you. Some white-haired anti-hero who unleashes absolute hell on any demon who challenges him? Neat. No idea was too weird for the company. But as game development costs grew, and the company's financial status started to crumble, Capcom began to take fewer creative risks, and the company started scaling back its once prolific output on consoles, in favor of its established safe-bets.
One of the last major peaks of creativity for Capcom, was the Capcom 5. A 5 game deal with Nintendo to develop and publish 5 unique, and original titles, all exclusive to the Nintendo GameCube. These 5 games were, P.N.03, Viewtiful Joe, Dead Phoenix, Killer 7, and Resident Evil 4. Shinji Mikami, creator of Resident Evil, headed the project, and things seemed to go according to plan at first. But Capcom's declining revenue, the GameCube's poor sales, and mis-management killed the deal before it had any real chance to thrive. Dead Phoenix was cancelled, P.N.03 was rushed out the door, and VJ, Killer 7, and Resident Evil 4 were all ported to the PlayStation 2.
Today, Capcom has tried to rebuild itself by doubling down on competing with western AAA developers using their Big IP like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, with re-releases of its older catalog spruced in between. But as recent as late-last year, the company has expressed interest in the idea of workshoping new, original IP using a lower-budget and a digital release. The idea is that at least one of these concepts stick, and can be nourished into a bigger property overtime, similar to what Ninja Theory did with Hellblade. With that in mind, you think its time for Capcom to try its hand at another "Capcom 5" of sorts? A collective of a handful of original, lower budget titles, released on consoles and PC, with the hope that some of them can make it big in the future.
One of the last major peaks of creativity for Capcom, was the Capcom 5. A 5 game deal with Nintendo to develop and publish 5 unique, and original titles, all exclusive to the Nintendo GameCube. These 5 games were, P.N.03, Viewtiful Joe, Dead Phoenix, Killer 7, and Resident Evil 4. Shinji Mikami, creator of Resident Evil, headed the project, and things seemed to go according to plan at first. But Capcom's declining revenue, the GameCube's poor sales, and mis-management killed the deal before it had any real chance to thrive. Dead Phoenix was cancelled, P.N.03 was rushed out the door, and VJ, Killer 7, and Resident Evil 4 were all ported to the PlayStation 2.
Today, Capcom has tried to rebuild itself by doubling down on competing with western AAA developers using their Big IP like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, with re-releases of its older catalog spruced in between. But as recent as late-last year, the company has expressed interest in the idea of workshoping new, original IP using a lower-budget and a digital release. The idea is that at least one of these concepts stick, and can be nourished into a bigger property overtime, similar to what Ninja Theory did with Hellblade. With that in mind, you think its time for Capcom to try its hand at another "Capcom 5" of sorts? A collective of a handful of original, lower budget titles, released on consoles and PC, with the hope that some of them can make it big in the future.
