Capcom shafts the PS3 again? Reeves being too kind
Capcom is a great software publisher with awesome titles such as Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5. Dave Reeves, soon to be the former SCEE president, recently spoke amicably about the long relationship between Capcom and Sony. However, it seems like the software publisher hasn’t been doing Sony any favors recently.
I am a huge fan of the games Capcom make, with Street Fighter IV being my all time favorite fighter ever. I currently have over 3,000 Battle Points to my name in Street Fighter IV (I know it’s impressive). I also thoroughly enjoyed Resident Evil 5 as you can view my review of it here. Dave Reeves recently also spoke highly of Capcom during a press event hosted by the publisher.
Reeves indicated that he decided to give his farewell speech at Capcom’s annual press event to honor the long relationship between the two companies. It did seem a bit odd that he would pick Capcom’s event to do his farewell considering that the company has not been all that supportive this generation.
Capcom was criticized for bringing over a lackluster port of Lost Planet and has yet to bring over Dead Rising to the PS3. Considering Capcom’s clear announcement that the company will only be making multiplatform titles, many were confused with the decision to only announce Lost Planet 2 for the Xbox 360.
Capcom also received a good deal of flak from the decision to cancel Monster Hunter for the PS3 and instead bring it to the Wii. I understand that Sony and Capcom have had a 15-year relationship, but recently I really can’t see any love there. It could all just be a case of “money before bros” as Microsoft has been known to throw down a check or two.
However, judging from Reeves’s nostalgic and amicable attitude towards Capcom, the relationship could be changing for the better. After all Reeves did talk highly of the success of Monster Hunter Portable, which sold over 3 million units in Japan alone. I am sure someone high up at Capcom is happy about it.
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May 1st, 2009
Dead Rising rocked (finally some Capcom love for Microsoft after years of Sony exclusives).
BTW (I really don’t know), when did they announce that they would only do multiplatform titles or that Dead Rising was coming to PS3?
May 1st, 2009
Everyone knows Dead Rising is coming to PLAYSTATION 3 like all Xbox exclusives do.
And yeah they definitely give Sony some really good.
May 1st, 2009
Carl, I said Dead Rising has yet to come to the PS3.
Quote from Capcom last year:
“As a measure to counter the soaring costs of software development for the next-generation consoles, which has been a cause for concern, we have shifted our focus to the multiplatform strategy. …all major titles launched during the next fiscal year or thereafter will be developed as multiplatform games.”
Ivan, yes Dead Rising 2 is confirmed by Capcom to be coming to the PS3.
May 1st, 2009
*Story Updated*
Story linked to Dave’s previous story with Capcom talking about their multi-platform strategy.
May 1st, 2009
On the topic of exclusives making their way across from one platform to another, what do you think the chances are of Sega porting Valkyria Chronicles to 360? It seems like a big possibility, i.e it’s a 3rd party game, Sony don’t sign exclusive deals (apparently), and it doesn’t seem to be the type of game that is taxing on a system.
May 1st, 2009
Harry the sad thing is, JRPGs/RPGs in general, at least japanese themed ones, just don’t sell well on the 360…
Which is why Mike was bringing up the points of why Monster Hunter wasn’t released on the PS3, that thing would be a HUGE system seller on the PS3….imagine the graphics and online components, i mean the psp version rocked, so i can only imagine a “next-gen” version….either on PS3 or 360, but in order to fully realize its graphical and full potential, it would have to be a PS3 exclusive….hehe couldn’t resist the fun!
May 1st, 2009
Have you seen the sales numbers for the Monster Hunter Wii game this week? Sony AGAIN beat the Wii in Japan. Looks like Capcom thought it could cash in more with the Wii, and the decision is proving to bite them in the ass.
Harry, Valkyria Chronicles was originally being designed as a 360 exclusive, but then they decided to drop it and switch to the PS3 at some point. SEGA never mentioned why they changed.
At first the game didn’t sell well, but since they dropped the price, it’s managing to be a top selling PS3 title at the momnet. I think a 360 port might be unlikely, but it they do a sequel, it will probably be multiplatform.
gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23247
May 1st, 2009
Barnabe,
I didn’t know VC was meant to be a 360 exclusive. If it had remained so, I might have gotten myself a 360. Either that, or I just wouldn’t know that I’d been missing out on the greatest game of 2008.
If they do a sequel, I’d almost PREFER it to be multiplatform, as PS3 owners as a group let me down big time by not buying this game. Sega gave us a brilliant exclusive, and you blighters completely ignored it. Jerks.
-Arvis
May 1st, 2009
Well… it didn’t initially do well due to more than a few reasons.
1- It was released during the busiest quarter of the year, which means more competition. The game went head to head with very well established/promoted franchises (COD Waw, Gears 2, Resistance 2, LBP, etc)
2- it was a new IP with NO marketing or promotion behind it.
3- It is kind of a niche genre. The strategic elements will automatically turn some people off.
4 – Lack of trophy support. Since the game was originally released in Japan a few years ago, it got grandfathered in. It is a stupid reason for people to pass the game by, but I’ve seen a lot of people complain about it on a few other blogs. It’s sad, but I really think this helped hold it back.
The developer has already stated that he is interested in doing a sequel. The game has manga and anime spin offs already. Although it didn’t initially sell well, it’s become kind of a cult hit, and is going on to do pretty well (even if it is being sold at discount).
SEGA has been putting most of there resource into the Wii lately (which isn’t paying off). Hopefully they will be smart enough to do a sequel to one of the best games they’ve ever made…
May 1st, 2009
Well, with Sega giving me Valkyria DLC, Virtua Tennis, and Alpha Protocol, they are my unofficial Favorite Developer At The Moment.
I’ve seen “No Trophies, No Buy” many times on websites and have often wished I could send those users a virus that will make their computer monitor grow an arm that will punch them every time they say something stupid like that.
You are, of course, right about all the points you made, and I am proud to say that I was a small part of spreading the word about the awesomeness of the game when it first came out. However, when PS3 owners STILL whine on and on about not having enough RPGs and then completely pass over one of the best ones I’ve ever played, it makes me ashamed to be in that group with them.
-Arvis
May 1st, 2009
I’m guilty. The single reason I would buy a 360, is for the JRPGs, and I still somehow managed to miss this. Lesson learned.
White Knight is still far off. Cross Edge looks…. like a SNES game, but I’d like to see more of it. The only previews I’ve seen, don’t really show any of the gameplay.
May 1st, 2009
“Carl, I said Dead Rising has yet to come to the PS3.”
I think the only form it is going to come to PS3 is Dead Rising 2… sorry if that is what you meant by that… I misread and thought you meant 1.
The last quote I heard involving PS3 from Capcom (Dave’s article in October – “Capcom ditches PS3 for the Wii – Developers leaving Sony in droves”) was: “Due to high development cost of titles for PS3, we have decided to switch the platform to which we release our Monster Hunter 3 title.”
“I understand that Sony and Capcom have had a 15 year long relationship, but recently I really can’t see any love there.”
Well… Nintendo and Capcom have had a 25 year relationship… maybe they were just going back to their roots with the bestselling system? Not to mention the higher dev costs mentioned above? Not much room for love if you want to stay in business though, especially if said lover is charging you hundreds of thousands of dollars for the free downloads you had put on their network because they are really popular (to the tune of millions of downloads).
@jojo
“Harry the sad thing is, JRPGs/RPGs in general, at least japanese themed ones, just don’t sell well on the 360…”
Truth is, there doesn’t seem to be that many great ones out yet on both consoles, period. Those that are exclusive aren’t selling that well on either console either. Though considering Star Ocean and Tales of Vesperia are both doing just as well as, and in many cases better than previous iterations on PS2/PSP at this time in their shelf lives, I would say there is a pretty good chance that if Valkyria on 360 had launched side by side with the PS3 version that it would be selling better on 360 by this time, but who knows.
May 1st, 2009
gamer.blorge.com/2007/10/11/capcom-ditch-ps3-for-the-wii-developers-leaving-sony-in-droves/
May 1st, 2009
So… that was the year before last… sorry… what it looks like is Capcom had Monster Hunter 3 planned for the Wii since, and starting late last year with their investor’s report (and likely better multiplat dev tools) cited the same problems (development cost) from a year earlier as being the reason they need to do future multiplatform titles. The good news is it looks like they got around PS3 development costs. The bad news is it wasn’t in time for the Monster Hunter 3 launch.
May 2nd, 2009
Jojo,
RPG’s haven’t sold craploads in either system. If VC was an easy port to 360, what would be stopping Sega from doing it and making some extra $$$? I would probably pick it up.
May 2nd, 2009
I think you mean JRPG’s Harry… Fable 2, Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, and Fallout 3 have all sold over 2 million on 360.
“what would be stopping Sega from doing it and making some extra $$$?”
Maybe Sony signed an exclusivity deal with Sega.
May 3rd, 2009
Carlb, sorry, JRPGs.
I am pretty sure some dude from Sony said that they don’t sign exclusive deals with third parties… unless it was another lie?
May 3rd, 2009
I heard that too Harry ??? Another lie !! Only time will tell …….
May 3rd, 2009
I would have to guess that VC only made it to the PS3 because of it’s main target audience being Japan. SEGA had a lot of success with Yakuza 3 being only available on PS3.
JRPGs are pretty much targeted for the Japaneses. I think if they manage to sell outside of Japan, it’s just icing on the cake. It’s too bad the west is the bigger market, and developers want to cash in as much as possible. Hence less RPG’s.
May 3rd, 2009
“JRPGs are pretty much targeted for the Japaneses.”
Barnabe… I would say developers have “cashed in” with Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Dragon Warrior, Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, and others before, and they are likely to do it again.
@Harry and Spidey,
“I am pretty sure some dude from Sony said that they don’t sign exclusive deals with third parties..”
Really? Does this mean MGS4 is coming to 360 now? Awesome. However, I did just read a little while ago about how David Jaffe, an “ex” Sony employee, had a contract with Sony for three exclusive games through his company Eat Sleep Play over the next few years.
“Another lie !!”
May 3rd, 2009
CharlieB,
I think the MGS4 horse has bolted, the effort to port it 360 would not justify the $$$ made, as it’s lost all of it’s hype due to being out for so long. Still, it would be nice to see it on there so the people who kept saying ‘MGS4 is impossible on the 360′ can eat a big slice of humble pie.
May 3rd, 2009
HaroldS,
You may be right, but considering it has been out for less than a year and a game like Oblivion was still able to be ported to PS3 a year later and sell well might make it worth the effort.
May 4th, 2009
i think there would be a fair few fan boys on the 360 side who wouldn’t buy the 360 version of MGS4 just cause it was claimed and then made fun of the fact that it wasn’t possible on 360.
i do find it funny that they make a little joke about 360 in the game and everyone went up in arms yet no one really cared about the FPS jokes or the ones on how war is basicly a means for the worlds main income
May 4th, 2009
MichaelD,
I wouldn’t be throwing the word ‘fact’ around as often as you do, humble pie has a bitter taste to it.
May 4th, 2009
harry, in that last post was more me quoting alot of the ps3 fanboys then me saying “fact”… MGS4 can be done on 360… it wouldn’t look identical, and it wouldn’t be on one DVD, but those “facts” you guys don’t seem to care about (the disc swaping stuff)
May 4th, 2009
How do you know it couldn’t be done on one disc? Do you have a contact in Konami?
May 4th, 2009
no but i did pop the game into my blu ray drive on my comp and found out just how much space it took up, though it did have every lang on the game and for a blu ray laser to read better it is better for the information to be closer together and not as compressed, though i’d like to see someone compress 50gb down to 10gb without the most massive of installs/loadings (longer then the ones currently on the game)… for 360 to get the game in the same form as that as the one on ps3, it’ll need more then one dvd, though you could prob save alot of room on the cut scenes alone, also in no way shape or form am i saying its not possible on 360, as i was saying some posts before, i said MGS was making fun of it only being on PS3 and needing disc swap if on 360
May 4th, 2009
Mick,
Did you notice the amount of times data was duplicated on the disc?
May 4th, 2009
I’ve heard this before, but really do not know… how many times harry?
*resumes playing from 4 disc Lost Odyssey hard drive install*
May 4th, 2009
Buggered if I know, I was hoping MichaelD was going to tell me.
Up to disc 2 yet? That funeral at the end of disc one goes for too fricken long.
May 4th, 2009
Carl, Asides from Final Fantasy and a few others, JRPGs will never sell as well as GTA4, Halo, Gears, etc in EU, AU, and US. They will sell and do well, but there never really top selling, record breaking sales.
May 4th, 2009
“I am pretty sure some dude from Sony said that they don’t sign exclusive deals with third parties..”
I’m surprised nobody jumped on this. This is patently untrue. What Sony said is that they don’t PAY for exclusives. Let’s try and keep what few facts we actually talk about straight, shall we?
-Arvis
May 4th, 2009
Arvis,
“What Sony said is that they don’t PAY for exclusives.”
So it still stands that they are going against this by paying Eat Sleep Play for 3 exclusive games over the next few years.
Barnabe,
You could also say aside from Duck Hunt, Gears of War, and a few others, that shooters will never sell as well as Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, Pokemon, etc. in EU, AU, and US. Or… aside from GTA, Resident Evil, and a few others, that action titles will never sell as well… Or… aside from Halo, Call of Duty, and Half Life, FPS titles will never sell as well… etc.
The point is that only a relative few titles in each genre, if any, has ever reached the sales heights of JRPG’s (5-31 million), and there is new IP all the time, so I wouldn’t write off JRPG’s in general just because Valkyria or Vesperia hasn’t sold well yet. Neither one had anywhere near the marketing behind it as Mass Effect, Fallout 3, or Oblivion, at least here, as far as I can tell.
Another factor is most of the titles we are talking about have seen most of their success from the series, not necessarily the first title within the first few months (which is where Valkyria and Vesperia are still within their first year – yes you could argue that they may be part of a “series” but this is not clear from their titles like “Final Fantasy XX, or Dragon Quest XX, etc.).
May 4th, 2009
Damn Chris, splitting hairs, aren’t we? I thought you were smart enough to know what I meant. Next time I’ll be a little clearer for your benefit.
May 5th, 2009
Harry,
Still on disc one: I just saw an evil looking mouse get released, drink soup (I didn’t know mice liked soup), get poisoned, have a plant come out of it’s ass, then get burnt to a crisp within the span of a few seconds. I love RPG’s :}
May 5th, 2009
haha CarlB, at least he didn’t have sex with it. Have you met up with the 2 kids yet? They live near the place where the queen lives (can’t remember the name of it for the life of me). There’s a pretty tough battle at that point with a heap of guards, so make sure you’ve leveled up a little before you have the battle, otherwise you’ll be trying for hours like I was!
May 5th, 2009
Harry,
There’s a huge distinction. And you know that, so… I don’t know why I let you bait me into responding unnecessarily.
Carl: DID they pay for exclusivity? Or are they simply paying a developer (who already has great rapport with Sony) to act as a sort of 2nd party for a short period?
talkplaystation.com/why-eat-sleep-play-are-exclusive-to-sony/
I know you guys like to throw spikes down in front of the Sony bandwagon, but at the least you can attempt to be fair.
-Arvis
May 5th, 2009
(sorry double-post)
Just FYI, in that video Jaffe says why he prefers Sony, said he’s exclusive to them for the time being because he WANTS to be, and even says that he take creative freedom OVER more money as a rule.
Now, if you still think they’re paying for exclusivity, find me a link.
-Arvis
May 5th, 2009
“DID they pay for exclusivity? Or are they simply paying a developer (who already has great rapport with Sony) to act as a sort of 2nd party for a short period?”
Wouldn’t these be timed exclusives then? In which case they would still be paying for exclusivity? It’s possible Eat-Sleep-Play is not getting anything at all extra for those games to stay exclusive to Sony, even if they are only timed exclusives. I simply believe this is improbable, especially considering how much Sony values Jaffe because of his past work for them.
“we have a three-game contract with Sony. Those games are PlayStation 3. We have started development on the first of those three games a couple of weeks ago. Realistically, that game will see the light of day at the end of 2009, maybe a little later or sooner, we’ll see how things go.”
http://kotaku.com/353899/twisted-metal-ps3-coming-in-late-2009
Jaffe has had a long term relationship that has been exclusive to Sony. He admittedly has no experience with Microsoft. His company is in a contract for PS3 exclusivity for three games. I find it hard to believe Sony is not paying Eat Sleep Play for those IP’s for the duration written into the contract. Exclusive contracts usually involve money being paid to the IP creator, after all. I doubt Sony would just leave it up to Eat Sleep Play as to whether these games will be exclusive or not (timed or not).
“aid he’s exclusive to them for the time being because he WANTS to be”
Of course he does, as he has no experience with any other company and Sony will continue to pamper him because he is a star developer they do not want to let slip through their fingers to the competition. Just because he “WANTS” to be exclusive to Sony and is and because he prefers the only company he has mainly dealt with over the past decade or so doesn’t mean Sony will not pay him for that exclusivity or write it into the contract. ♠
May 5th, 2009
@ Chris,
No, you’re comparing oranges with oranges. But don’t worry, as I said earlier, I am going to be a lot clearer in my posts for your benefit.
May 5th, 2009
I love it how the PS3rd fanboys keep asking for links!!
May 5th, 2009
Sorry if this turns out to be a double post, I forgot to break the link, so it is currently awaiting moderation… anyway:
“DID they pay for exclusivity? Or are they simply paying a developer (who already has great rapport with Sony) to act as a sort of 2nd party for a short period?”
Wouldn’t these be timed exclusives then? In which case they would still be paying for exclusivity? It’s possible Eat-Sleep-Play is not getting anything at all extra for those games to stay exclusive to Sony, even if they are only timed exclusives. I simply believe this is improbable, especially considering how much Sony values Jaffe because of his past work for them.
“we have a three-game contract with Sony. Those games are PlayStation 3. We have started development on the first of those three games a couple of weeks ago. Realistically, that game will see the light of day at the end of 2009, maybe a little later or sooner, we’ll see how things go.”
kotaku.com/353899/twisted-metal-ps3-coming-in-late-2009
Jaffe has had a long term relationship that has been exclusive to Sony. He admittedly has no experience with Microsoft. His company is in a contract for PS3 exclusivity for three games. I find it hard to believe Sony is not paying Eat Sleep Play for those IP’s for the duration written into the contract. Exclusive contracts usually involve money being paid to the IP creator, after all. I doubt Sony would just leave it up to Eat Sleep Play as to whether these games will be exclusive or not (timed or not).
“aid he’s exclusive to them for the time being because he WANTS to be”
Of course he does, as he has no experience with any other company and Sony will continue to pamper him because he is a star developer they do not want to let slip through their fingers to the competition. Just because he “WANTS” to be exclusive to Sony and is and because he prefers the only company he has mainly dealt with over the past decade or so doesn’t mean Sony will not pay him for that exclusivity or write it into the contract. ♠
May 6th, 2009
The fact remains that Sony has not paid any publisher to keep a game or franchise exclusive to their console. Eat Sleep Play is a developer, and Sony is publishing three games for them. Simple as that.
-Arvis
May 6th, 2009
Oh. Okay. So in other words… they are paying a third party developer for PS3 exclusivity.
May 7th, 2009
Or buying the publishing rights for timed exclusivity, e.g Ghostbusters in Europe.
Really? Ghostbusters? If they really wanted a timed exclusive, shouldn’t they have aimed a little higher than ‘Ghostbusters’?
May 7th, 2009
Eat Sleep Play is working FOR SONY for the time being, since they can’t publish their own games like Ubisoft or Capcom can. How exactly does that make them 3rd party? If Eat Sleep Play were developing under Capcom’s banner, and then Sony paid Capcom to keep the game(s) on the PS3 only, that would constitute “paying a 3rd party for exclusivity,” which is what Microsoft makes an art form of.
Harry, Sony owns the rights to the Ghooshbusters movie, so… I think they figured they should use it somehow. Although I am baffled as to why it’s in Europe only…
-Arvis
May 8th, 2009
“Eat Sleep Play is working FOR SONY for the time being, since they can’t publish their own games like Ubisoft or Capcom can. How exactly does that make them 3rd party?”
They are not a Sony-owned studio.
Sony purchased the publishing rights, and in so doing, made the games exclusive for the terms written into the contract.
Eat Sleep Play is a third party developer independent from Sony.
Eat Sleep Play could have a third party publisher (like Ubisoft, Capcom) or make a PSN/XBL game instead, but Sony likely outbid them or otherwise made staying exclusive to Sony in ESP’s best interests.