After not one, but two Western-developed sales blunders, Capcom is planning to stick with its home turf.
Capcom's president, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, tells the Financial Times that the company is giving up on developing new franchise titles in the West after the catastrophic sales of two of its attempts, Bionic Commando and Dark Void. Predicted to sell in the millions, neither did better than 750,000 copies. Now, Capcom wants out.
We already knew back in December how upset Capcom was about Bionic Commando's less than average debut. However, Dark Void may have been the straw that broke the camel's back.
Without the fan base or movie tie-in of, for example, its successful Street Fighter franchise, Capcom realized that original titles like Dark Void were too risky to keep investing in. From now on, the only reason the company will employ developers from outside of Japan is to build sequels or new versions of their existing games. (See: Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, Dead Rising 2.)
Tsujimoto said he in part blames the changing face of the game industry—now rife with downloadable games, social gaming, and new gaming platforms like the iPad—for the lower sales of new Capcom packaged game titles. He said Capcom will focus its efforts on developing new games for these new mediums instead.
Capcom shuns foreign game developers [FT.com - subscription]