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Capcom Vows No More "Major" Exclusives
In its latest annual report, posted on Thursday, Osaka, Japan-based Capcom confirmed that it has the capability and business strategy in place to go multiplatform all the time for major releases.
The company said, "...All major titles launched during the next fiscal year or thereafter will be developed as multiplatform games.
"We will aim to increase revenue and dramatically increase the number of users by launching, for example, Resident Evil 5, the newest addition to our biggest franchise (projected 2.3 million units), Street Fighter IV (projected 1.7 million units) and Bionic Commando (projected 1.5 million units)."
All three of the triple-A, high-profile titles will appear on multiple platforms.
Capcom and other developers have learned in order to mitigate rising development costs of new-generation consoles, multiplatform development is practically a requirement.
Capcom also said that multiplatform development has been a key factor in its Westward growth, which has outpaced that of most Japanese game makers.
The company said its MT Platform has enabled efficient cross-development between Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
The publisher also reaffirmed its interest in "friendly" acquisitions of Western companies, while also stating such activity with domestic Japanese is not part of its plans.
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This proves that Xbox 360 and Wii are probably going to be receiving more "exclusives" from Capcom.
Using the word "major" is just a political way of saying, "Games are 'still' going to be released exclusively for Xbox 360 and Wii (just like always) but they won't be 'major' games such as Street Fighter, Resident Evil, or Devil May Cry."
In other words, new game franchises are definitely candidates to be released as exclusives for the Xbox 360 and Wii, simply because the Wii requires different gameplay, and the Xbox 360 is ALWAYS the game system that developers should use to design "new" game software, because it allows experiments and testing of software to be used so much more efficiently and effectively.
I think Japanese developers are seeing the benefits of the US market and focusing their developement on that. The console market in Japan right now from what I've read is much slower than its US counterpart. That's why you're seeing more Western style games coming out of Japanese developers (lost planet, dead rising, even square enix (and correct me if I'm wrong) has the Last Remnant which is at least a timed exlusive for the 360 supposedly has more western style gameplay were developed/published by Japanese companies). Lost Planet and Dead Rising both sold a million copies worldwide for 360 (with a large percentage of those sales going to US). If they want to rely more on US sales, the 360 has about a 2:1 edge over the PS3 in install base in the US. It only makes sense they'd gamble new IPs on the 360 then port them to the PS3 if they prove successful.
This proves that Sony is on the right track. Sony has already stopped to invest on 3rd parties and is investing strong on 1st and 2nd party developers.
This is the way to go.
If EA is ready to spend 2 billions on Take-Two, I don't understand how they don't jump on the Capcom opportunity, knowing there is way more synergy and opportunities to be found through that specific deal (more franchises, excellent dev studios, huge back catalog, arcade experience, hollywood experience, opening the Japanese market, the latter on its own is worth the acquisition).