Gamasutra has put up a new interview with Capcom's Chris Svensson in which he hinted at a new downloadable title, said that Monster Hunter 3 will have the biggest marketing push for a third party Wii game yet, and explained that Capcom is making more Western developed games than ever, but that they're all in existing IPs. He also mentioned how Versus has become a re-established brand for Capcom, and how Dark Void Zero is doing really great and causing Capcom to look into more things of that nature, though not specifically for the DSi only.
There's a ton more through the first source link if anyone is interested, especially about Super Street Fighter IV.
Here's a couple of other excerpts:
Gamasutra said:Gamasutra: What is the main cultural stopping block -- I assume it's cultural, that's my own words -- that's making Monster Hunter not as big here as it is in Japan?
CS: [sighs expressively] You know, we're taking another run at it with Tri in May, and Tri will have a number of things that we've been asking for a long time in the series. Online, true real online support has been one of the biggest things that we've been harping on, for literally years. This is the first time since the original PS2 introduction we've had an online mechanism for people to play couch-to-couch.
The first PS2 [version] was properly online. None of the PSP versions were full infrastructure. Ad-hoc only. Ad-hoc seems to work fine in Japan. People play on lunch breaks, play in the office, after hours, play on buses, play in the schoolyard. It's just part of the culture. I believe Westerners actually much prefer to sit on their couch and play online with another friend.
I mean, we're a very big country. Traveling to see friends just to play a game head-to-head, where both people have to have their own hardware, is not something I think that has lent itself to broad appeal. The fact that Tri will have both split-screen and online play, I think will allow for some interesting dynamics in terms of community generation that we previously haven't been.
The other part of this is a massive marketing push, the likes of which I'm not sure anyone has seen on a Wii title from a third party, that we'll be seeing across the West when it ships. So, big marketing push. Online play.
The other part of this is Monster Hunter, as a series, is a hard series to learn. It is unforgiving and very, very complex to learn. Very complex systems. Tri is a little bit easier to get into. There's a much gentler learning curve in Tri than there's ever been in any of the other Monster Hunters. That's not to say it's dumbed down, but it's much more accessible.
Source For First Two: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4291/careful_capcom_christian_.php?page=1Gamasutra said:Gamasutra: It seems like Capcom's digital download initiative that was going very strong for the last couple of years is sort of going down.
CS: It's slowly... A little bit. Quite frankly, we just have a gap. We have a number of projects that we are working on actively, and we will be lighting up more. I think we talked about it before; it has been a very successful initiative for us, and we do want to do more of it.
I think we're being a little more judicious in what we select to do and how we approach it. In being more judicious, that also means we're being more ambitious in the scope and scale of what those projects will ultimately be.
We have something we're in the process of lighting up right now that I can't talk about but I'm super excited about. I don't want to be too nebulous here, but fans of a certain franchise will be very happy.
Source: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4291/careful_capcom_christian_.php?page=2Gamasutra said:Earlier this year, Capcom COO Haruhiro Tsujumoto told analysts that the Osaka, Japan-based publisher would only work with Western developers on existing IP. The comment came after lackluster sales of Dark Void and Bionic Commando, two Western-developed titles.
But Capcom U.S. VP of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson said in a new Gamasutra feature interview that Capcom is still committed to a Western-inclusive business strategy.
"I'm not exactly sure what the intent of [Tsujumoto]'s statements were, but I also know that I saw how they were taken by a lot of media, and I think they were not quite interpreted the right way," said Svensson.
"Haru made a statement of something to the effect of 'new IPs are going to be developed in Japan, not in the West,'" Svensson continued. "And I think that is a fair statement. What I think a lot of people interpret that as is Capcom's turned its back on Western development."
He explained, "And I think if you ask [R&D head Keiji] Inafune-san, that's actually far from the truth. We probably have more and bigger projects in development or soon to be in development with Western developers than we've ever had. But, they aren't new IP."
Svensson also explained why 2009's Bionic Commando, developed by now-closed Swedish developer Grin, fell into the "new IP" category for Capcom, even though the series originally released in the 1980s.
"For whatever reason, Bionic Commando was looked at internally as for all intents and purposes as a new IP in the fact that it was a long-dormant franchise that really had no broad awareness," he said. "I would certainly not categorize it as a new IP necessarily, but the effort to re-launch it was not that much unlike what a new IP would've been."
Svensson also said that January's Dark Void, developed by Airtight Games, is "moving along, sales-wise. We're not completely dissatisfied with where it is as a first time at establishing a new property for Capcom." But he added that development for the game was "a bit longer than we had expected."
"...That was, I think, part of what [COO] Haru is harping in on is if we aren't investing in new IP, hopefully we'll not necessarily have a three-plus year project kicking around, so maybe [we'd prefer a] shorter cycle with a quicker path to market."
There's a ton more through the first source link if anyone is interested, especially about Super Street Fighter IV.
Here's a couple of other excerpts:
Gamasutra said:The Versus series is well served by Tatsunoko as an outing. It really happens bring Versus back as a viable brand for Capcom. So, in that regard...
[There's a lot more through the link about how Tatsunoko's success is going and how he feels it became successful, but we're getting a quote overload here.]
Gamasutra said:And [Dark Void Zero is] selling, just for the record, very, very well. We're actually really pleased. In some ways, it's actually exceeding my expectations as to how it did, so we'll actually be looking at some other opportunities. I'm not saying necessarily 8-bit focused, not even necessarily DSiWare-focused, but there's some gained from learning that we take from Dark Void Zero and from Other Ocean in particular that turned out great. I can't say enough good things about Other Ocean. They've been a joy to work with. So, loads of respect to those guys.