• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Capcom focusing on cross-gen games, 2.5 year development cycles

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I'm guessing some of this applies to handheld cross-gen.

capcomcrossgen9ajh0.png


Source: http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/data/pdf/annual/2015/annual_2015_01.pdf
 

Toki767

Member
Have they even put out a cross-gen game yet? I don't really count DmC since that was released later.

I guess Revelations 2.

2.5 year development cycle is pretty nice though. Not that they ever really did yearly titles.
 

Venom Fox

Banned
2.5 year Dev cycles are pretty short, but I suppose for games like Resident Evil and Dino Crisis (you know it's coming) it should be enough.

Still 2.5 years for the Dev cycle with DLC being made during that 2.5 years is a squeeze and will probably lead to full time crunch for those poor bastards.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Have they even put out a cross-gen game yet? I don't really count DmC since that was released later.

I guess Revelations 2.

2.5 year development cycle is pretty nice though. Not that they ever really did yearly titles.

Dragon's Dogma Online.
 

Lingitiz

Member
2.5 year Dev cycles are pretty short, but I suppose for games like Resident Evil and Dino Crisis (you know it's coming) it should be enough.

Still 2.5 years for the Dev cycle with DLC being made during that 2.5 years is a squeeze and will probably lead to full time crunch for those poor bastards.

2.5 years is pretty reasonable IMO. Not too short and not long enough to get overambitious and bloated. DLC usually hits preproduction with team members whose part of the game is already finished anyways.
 
RE7 definitely sounds like a 2016 title to me. RE6 came out in Oct. 2012 so it's already been three years as of this month. That thing's gonna get announced any day now.
 
2.5 is actually pretty good for a development cycle. Whatever gets Capcom back on track can only be good.
That being said, prepare DMC5 to have backtracking.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
RE7 definitely sounds like a 2016 title to me. RE6 came out in Oct. 2012 so it's already been three years as of this month. That thing's gonna get announced any day now.

Pretty much what we're all waiting for. Plus with the anniversary next year.
They'd be dumb not to.
 
They note their existing pipeline is 3-4 years, so that would be on track to that.

I figured it would be next year regardless, just... "seems" right for some reason. I guess it's a possible 2017 title, but I don't think so.

^^didn't consider it being the anniversary, yeah, that's happening
 
REmake was crossgen and i imagine that RE2make will likely be, too. Capcom is going to be dragged kicking and screaming into current gen exclusive development, if ever. Likely they'll keep letting Sony and MS pay the bills for their current gen exclusives
 

Vena

Member
Cross-gen?

I'm sorry, I thought it was 2015.

3DS <-> NX would be cross-gen, and there are a LOT of active 3DS users in Japan. I suspect that, outside of PS3/PS4/Vita releases, that this is referring to 3DS/NX going forward as well.
 

Akiller

Member
Hmm, it's not the first time they talk about dev cycle,though it was 1.5-2 years last time they talked about it iirc.
 
Have they even put out a cross-gen game yet?
Strider?

Anyways, so if they are gonna go for 2.5 years dev cycle, then that means new DMC by the end of 2016.... right?

Edit: Oh, DmC was 2013. So yeah, it seems that their 2.5 years dev cycle strategy doesn't apply to DMC games then :(
 
Focusing on cross-gen now, as most developers are finally leaving behind the old consoles? Did they not see how well MGSV did on last gen hardware??? What a stupid decision.

EDIT: If it means with Nintendo's NX and 3DS, that makes sense. But I won't give them the benefit of the doubt.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
3DS <-> NX would be cross-gen, and there are a LOT of active 3DS users in Japan. I suspect that, outside of PS3/PS4/Vita releases, that this is referring to 3DS/NX going forward as well.

Monster Hunter XG cross-gen confirmed!

Seriously, though, the reference to both home and handheld consoles makes me think they're referencing 3DS- next Nintendo handheld as well, not just PS4/PS3/One/360. Especially considering when they're concentrating their efforts on cross-gen releases, i.e. 2015-2016-2017.
 

Squishy3

Member
Strider?

Anyways, so if they are gonna go for 2.5 years dev cycle, then that means new DMC by the end of 2016.... right?

Edit: Oh, DmC was 2013. So yeah, it seems that their 2.5 years dev cycle strategy doesn't apply to DMC games then :(
It was almost two and a half years between DmC and DMC4SE. :p
 
They say "cross-gen", but that doesn't mean they aren't making current gen titles, so much as they want to make titles for both the old dead(but huge install bases) consoles and the new, growing consoles. So Street Fighter V is next-gen, but they also released Ultra SF4 on old consoles a year ago. Resident Evil 7 will be next-gen only, but REmake HD and Resident Evil Zero HD will be cross-gen.
 
It's nice that they have a plan to get out of their rut, I suppose. I think it's a good rate for putting titles out, if they can actually make it - not overdoing it and causing fatigue, but not so infrequent the brand diminishes.
 

Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
Wasn't it a while ago that Capcom said they wanted shorter dev times?

2.5 years is a solid amount of time for any of their IPs though.
 
and 2016 will mark 4 years since RE6, time to let RE7 out the oven, b. 20th anniversary of the series, so first half has that ugly Umbrella Corps and RE0 HD as the appetizers, then RE7 in October.
 

TreIII

Member
They say "cross-gen", but that doesn't mean they aren't making current gen titles, so much as they want to make titles for both the old dead(but huge install bases) consoles and the new, growing consoles. So Street Fighter V is next-gen, but they also released Ultra SF4 on old consoles a year ago. Resident Evil 7 will be next-gen only, but REmake HD and Resident Evil Zero HD will be cross-gen.

And in the same vein: whenever the new Mega Man toon shows itself, it'd be safe to presume that they'd likely try to find a way to have a game on every platform that can run it.
 

GSR

Member
2.5 years seems to be pretty much exactly their dev cycle for Ace Attorney 6. AA5 released July 2013, AA6 will probably be out around summer next year. Allow a few transition months in there and boom.
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
2.5 year development cycles for main games.

Spin-off titles filling the void.
 

Vena

Member
Monster Hunter XG cross-gen confirmed!

Seriously, though, the reference to both home and handheld consoles makes me think they're referencing 3DS- next Nintendo handheld as well, not just PS4/PS3/One/360. Especially considering when they're concentrating their efforts on cross-gen releases, i.e. 2015-2016-2017.

MH5 is likely going to be the actual cross-gen release, rather than MHX. Unless they do MHX(G) and, potentially, MH:Stories NX (as I have been dubious of for a long time) for next year, and we see MH5 in 2017 with no cross-gen. But I doubt it. The MH fanbase on the 3DS is far too enormous to skip over in 2016 with a mainline release, and they can do as they did with 3DS to N3DS and give the NX variant an enormous texture (and even a model) bump. (Honestly, I don't even foresee a MHXG but a MHX-DLC release, as I think Capcom is more into trying to service their games going forward than just keep releasing new disc packages. The fatigue on that is, also, showing with the drops in MH4 -> MH4G where many players just didn't feel the desire to rebuy the bulk of the same game.)

But the mention of it now feels like its more aimed at the 3DS <-> NX transition than the already existing-but-passing PS3/PS4 transition (by next year the PS3 active and healthy base will be extremely diminished, but the 3DS one will likely still be fairly active given its... 20+ million body count). Potentially, this also refers to cross-gen Vita -> NX for the handheld side of things getting eaten up by the only handheld left on the market. 2016 to 2017 is way too late for the PS3, and will be running into EoR for the Vita from a tech/toolchain perspective.
 

Clawww

Member
They say "cross-gen", but that doesn't mean they aren't making current gen titles, so much as they want to make titles for both the old dead(but huge install bases) consoles and the new, growing consoles. So Street Fighter V is next-gen, but they also released Ultra SF4 on old consoles a year ago. Resident Evil 7 will be next-gen only, but REmake HD and Resident Evil Zero HD will be cross-gen.

exactly what I'm taking away from this, also. putting out something like re7 for the xbox 360 would be fucking absurd guys
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
MH5 is likely going to be the actual cross-gen release, rather than MHX. Unless they do MHX(G) and, potentially, MH:Stories NX (as I have been dubious of for a long time) for next year, and we see MH5 in 2017 with no cross-gen. But I doubt it. The MH fanbase on the 3DS is far too enormous to skip over in 2016 with a mainline release, and they can do as they did with 3DS to N3DS and give the NX variant an enormous texture (and even a model) bump. (Honestly, I don't even foresee a MHXG but a MHX-DLC release, as I think Capcom is more into trying to service their games going forward than just keep releasing new disc packages. The fatigue on that is, also, showing with the drops in MH4 -> MH4G where many players just didn't feel the desire to rebuy the bulk of the same game.)

But the mention of it now feels like its more aimed at the 3DS <-> NX transition than the already existing-but-passing PS3/PS4 transition (by next year the PS3 active and healthy base will be extremely diminished, but the 3DS one will likely still be fairly active given its... 20+ million body count). Potentially, this also refers to cross-gen Vita -> NX for the handheld side of things getting eaten up by the only handheld left on the market. 2016 to 2017 is way too late for the PS3, and will be running into EoR for the Vita from a tech/toolchain perspective.

I suppose it depends on what are Capcom's plans for NX launch. I feel that they surely want to have a major role from the get-go, and a Monster Hunter at launch would drive both sales and the audience to the platform. It's also true that, despite MH4 Ultimate's great success over here, they've yet to announce MHX for the West, despite the gameplay being possibly more appealing to Western fans than traditional Monster Hunter games. That's what leads me to a second MHX release (MHXG, let's call it like that) slated for next year. For Japan, they could release it at a lower price, with what's not in the vanilla version being sold as an update to the vanilla's owners (a similar approach to what Level 5 did with Yokai Watch 2 last year).

But it's also true that Monster Hunter Stories could be a decent candidate as well, depending on when it releases: if it's a Holiday 2016 release, then I could totally see that happening; still, I think it'll be released quite earlier.

Actually, pardon my ignorance, but do we know if Monster Hunter X features online multiplayer? I don't remember if it was discussed for the title in the recent past.
 
Top Bottom