Christian Svensson spoke on the Capcom Forums about what's behind the business end on deciding if they're going to create a new IP (Intellectual Property) or end up building a game off of one of their current franchises.In the wake of the economic situation, what are the chances of you guys bringing back some dead franchises? — Gabriel
The economic climate is less of a factor than where we are in the hardware lifecycle.
First, some generalities (not specific to Capcom):
As we enter the back half of the cycle (hard to tell sometimes, but we think we're in the back half), new IP becomes increasingly challenging, and reliance upon franchises and licensed properties across the industry tends to become the norm. This is in response to the fact that lower price points on hardware later in the cycle tend to attract a more price sensitive/brand driven consumer and early adopters tend to become a bit less active or at least, less influencing of retail decisions than they were earlier in the hardware cycle.
To be clear, this transition hasn't really happened yet because hardware prices haven't yet declined to the point where they are impulse purchasable. If you look back at the last cycle, more than half of all PS2 unit sales occurred at $149 or less... we're not there yet, but I think we'll be there soon and so my project planning now assumes that by the time games being greenlit today come to market, we will be in that situation.
So as this happens, we have looked to our back catalog to see what opportunities there may be. I know you guys think that everything we do is gold and should be brought back, but not everything is appropriate or has the awareness you guys think it does (seriously, how many people have ever heard of Vulgus... how many media folks, whose job it is to be knowledgeable about the industry, have ever heard of Vulgus? It's a very, very small percentage).
Bionic Commando was a stab in this direction. And while not a household name, it's a title that we'd been asked for for years from the Capcom community and the media. At minimum, the media knew the game and that helps us get on their radar so they can enlighten their audiences.
I've found digital channels have become a great opportunity for us because it allows us to meet the needs of an avid but niche audience, without the need to be the 1 million+ sellers that retail products do in order to be successful. Our digital strategy continues to evolve, but games we've done with the goal of fan service, have tended to meet their sales goals, and make people happy. In my book, those are always our two highest objectives.
I'd like to also say that what's said above isn't to say we're not doing new IP (because we are). It's just that new IP is more of a challenge than it is at the front of the cycle. We're anticipating those challenges.
