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Ono implies Capcom won't greenlight a AAA game sequel without over 2 million sales

Mesoian

Member
To be fair to Capcom, 2 million copies is a pretty common cutoff point in the industry.

However, it's normally only done by companies that have more than two IPs that fit that criteria.

When you don't have many, you usually invest in some that sort of worked to see if you can get them going or make bets on notable new IPs, but I don't think they're doing either.

I mean, while 2 million copies sold through is a pretty good metric for building up a franchise, publishers don't usually set up games with a 4-8 million sell through goal prior to release.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
If we include the expansion Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, Dragon's Dogma sold a combined total of 2.2 million units.

Good, thats gotta count. Hopefully.

Capcom not going port-crazy with Dragon's Dogma is so bizarre. Its an amazing game that just did not fucking reach its audience at all. It should have had a PC release, and hell, it should have then had a much better IQ, framerate fix-up PS4/Xbone release too.

I'd call it the defacto lost gem of the previous generation really.
 
I hate to say this, but I hope Capcom decides to go the way of THQ fairly soon. I don't see much future in them using their IPs to their full potential, much better to pass on the torch than let it be buried with them.
 
I did point I feel like the console makers (Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony) are the only major publishers willing to publish retail titles that won't break a million And those titles are quickly go down as well.
 
It really is a failure in management, though.

Their biggest and most popular AAA franchise has had a grand total of four main console sequels since 2002, most of which underwent significant changes during development due to a lack of direction for the series. Is Resident Evil 7 coming anytime soon? 2015? 2016??

Compare that to Activision and Ubisoft, who get their flagship AAA brands out there every year (twice this year for Ubi). They are maximizing their business while popularity is high and consumers are willing to buy these annual sequels, whereas Capcom is spending tons of money on each new sequel and only getting a sporadic return on investment.

That's why 5.9 million for RE6 is considered a disappointment for them. They've failed to adapt to the realities involved with making the AAA model sustainable. If they can't figure out a way to get their AAA Resident Evil games out every holiday, they shouldn't plan on making any more of them.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Street Fighter isn't even AAA. That game can be made for under 10 million.

Not sure on the source, but mikez usually knows what he's talking about and IIRC during the Skullgirls IngieGoGo he mentioned cost to make a Street Fighter 4 character from scratch was like 1 million. Don't forget characters in fighting games basically ARE the gameplay, they are not cheap and the more you add the more you need to test each.
 

impact

Banned
I wouldn't want anyone but Capcom to make Monster Hunter/Dragon's Dogma/Street Fighter.

I love Monster Hunter but I'd love to see it done by a team that would actually push the franchise and give it a chance to shine on something other than a cramped mobile device. I'll probably be skipping MH4U for that reason unless it gets ported to a console or PC. Dragons Dogma was cool for the 20 minutes I could endure the technical mess for too, I guess. Resident Evil would clearly be better off in anyone else's hands too.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I mean, while 2 million copies sold through is a pretty good metric for building up a franchise, publishers don't usually set up games with a 4-8 million sell through goal prior to release.

Well, the 2 million bar a lot of publisher use is more "When we take the cost of making the game and marketing it, we want to sell at least 2 million copies in order for this to have been worth our time to make, even if it's marginally profitable at a lower number."

EA, THQ, and ZeniMax/Bethesda all had mentioned this bar at some point or another last generation, though EA's has moved up as the company has vastly reduced the slate of games they release.

Activision has a *very* high bar and Ubisoft generally has reported they're unhappy with AAA retail games that only do 2 million in that they're below expectations.

Take-Two doesn't usually share satisfaction levels, but they seem to aim for at least that high or higher.
 

Eusis

Member
If we include the expansion Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, then Dragon's Dogma sold a combined total of 2.2 million units.
So there IS a chance!

I do hope they decide to be at least somewhat ballsy and go with that, albeit making DAMN sure to get a PC version in there this time. Aesthetically at least DD looked in line with many PC RPGs and at worst would've probably gotten a few extra hundred thousand sales there. The new hardware may also be able to better realize what the game wanted to do too.
 
RE6 did almost 7 million and they were disappointed with the sales? JFC! The way they acted about the sales was dumb and more DLC should've been released for it.
 

Greenzxy

Junior Member
They need 2 million for AAA? That's not too-too bad.
That means Deep Down sequel is an automatic no though. That F2P.
 

Opiate

Member
So is Devil May Cry dead too?

I'm sure it's getting border line. Presumably you've noticed release lists have been shrinking. Well, this is how that happens: it's less that games stop selling, and more that the sales they garner are no longer sufficient to justify the increasing budgetary needs. First, the games which sold 100k were no longer viable on AAA budgets, probably by the PS2 era. Then the games which sold 1M were not viable as AAA properties at the beginning of the PS3 era. Now, games require 2M+ to be viable.

As budgets keep increasing, the required sales keep increasing, and increasingly fewer properties reach the bar.
 

RM8

Member
If it comes to absolutely no sequels at all, I'm honestly fine with sequels on mobile - or simply low-budget games on many platforms. Is there really no money to make with stuff like their 2D Bionic Commando games and Mega Man 9 / 10? They have so many franchises that can be used in inexpensive ways.
 
Not sure on the source, but mikez usually knows what he's talking about and IIRC during the Skullgirls IngieGoGo he mentioned cost to make a Street Fighter 4 character from scratch was like 1 million. Don't forget characters in fighting games basically ARE the gameplay, they are not cheap and the more you add the more you need to test each.

Uncharted 2 had a budget of 20 million. mikez is overpaid.
 

BadWolf

Member
RE6 did almost 7 million and they were disappointed with the sales? JFC! The way they acted about the sales was dumb and more DLC should've been released for it.

RE6 is also their third best selling game to date.

Their expectations sound ridiculous.
 

TalonJH

Member
I'm kinda tired of only having AAA games and small indie games. Bring back the mid tier. A lot of their franchises are basically just wasting away. Not everything has too be cutting edge big budget. Rely more on art style.
 
So who's killed off more franchises, Capcom by not making any new games, or EA when they buy a company that eventually falls. And........go.
Capcom is sitting on at least a dozen or a couple of dozen IPs and not using them. The only 2 franchises, or games that became franchise,s that I can think of right now, they killed are Burnout and Dead Space. They did kill a lot of individual games that could have become series.
 
Good, thats gotta count. Hopefully.

Capcom not going port-crazy with Dragon's Dogma is so bizarre. Its an amazing game that just did not fucking reach its audience at all. It should have had a PC release, and hell, it should have then had a much better IQ, framerate fix-up PS4/Xbone release too.

I'd call it the defacto lost gem of the previous generation really.

I think DD was in development at this weird time where Capcom was still incredibly unsure of PC and was only giving it token support (year+ late ports without expansions, rare sales). When that slowly started to turn, they seemingly deemed it as not worth the resources to port the game or that it was too late or whatever wrongheaded decision they made.

Capcom's hesitancy to accept PC gaming from 2008-2012 (and still with some late ports now) really bit them in the ass, but I am not sure they understand why.
 

BadWolf

Member
Not sure on the source, but mikez usually knows what he's talking about and IIRC during the Skullgirls IngieGoGo he mentioned cost to make a Street Fighter 4 character from scratch was like 1 million. Don't forget characters in fighting games basically ARE the gameplay, they are not cheap and the more you add the more you need to test each.

Didn't SNK mention that it cost them around 100K per character in the new KOFXIII style?

1 million for an SF4 character doesn't make sense to me.
 
If we include the expansion Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, then Dragon's Dogma sold a combined total of 2.2 million units.

AChance.jpeg
 
I'm kinda tired of only having AAA games and small indie games. Bring back the mid tier. A lot of their franchises are basically just wasting away. Not everything has too be cutting edge big budget. Rely more on art style.

This so much, why must it be those two extremes only for the most part? For someone like me who doesn't like most big budget AAA games and has a hard time getting into indies, the gaming future really doesn't look rosy at all. Well, at least Nintendo is here to stay...
 

Toki767

Member
I'm kinda tired of only having AAA games and small indie games. Bring back the mid tier. A lot of their franchises are basically just wasting away. Not everything has too be cutting edge big budget. Rely more on art style.

The mid tier these days are basically 3DS/Vita games.
And HD remasters
 
Man that is sad, but it's basically the market reality at this point so I can't blame Capcom. Still, some of the company's decisions are truly baffling, like the Dragon's Dogma PC situation.
 
I'm sure it's getting border line. Presumably you've noticed release lists have been shrinking. Well, this is how that happens: it's less that games stop selling, and more that the sales they garner are no longer sufficient to justify the increasing budgetary needs. First, the games which sold 100k were no longer viable on AAA budgets, probably by the PS2 era. Then the games which sold 1M were not viable as AAA properties at the beginning of the PS3 era. Now, games require 2M+ to be viable.

As budgets keep increasing, the required sales keep increasing, and increasingly fewer properties reach the bar.

At the same time, they seem to be experimenting with RER2's episodic download nature. So, the assumption with that is that they knew it wasn't going to sell AAA numbers yet they greenlit it anyhow.

I know that RE is a safe bet on their end, but if that game succeeds it'll make them more likely to continue with that approach. Hopefully, it won't be limited to just more RER sequels.
 

Korigama

Member
No thanks, they can keep their mini-game and vehicle silliness.

Itsuno and co or no sale.
MGR had neither of those.

I've pretty much accepted that Devil May Cry is dead (Itsuno and crew are free to prove otherwise, but I don't honestly expect it, especially when they prioritized Dragon's Dogma over DMC5 and that's part of why we got DmC in the first place). At least DmC won't be taking its place.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Didn't SNK mention that it cost them around 100K per character in the new KOFXIII style?

1 million for an SF4 character doesn't make sense to me.

Capcom spending 10x what SNK spends seems extremely accurate actually. Plus that's sub-720p pixelart compared to 3D models. And it really all depends on how much you want to/can spend, SG art is far higher res, higher framecounts (highest in the world apparently), about 250k per char
 
I bet the Ace Attorney sales numbers on iOS alone are through the roof.
It will be interesting to see the HD collection's sales
If indeed it does, then the series is going to get ported to iOS due to poor 3DS sales. :(

Also I know Japan is getting a new game, but chances are slim for localization. We did not even get AAI2.
 
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