Capcom Europe To Axe More Than Half Its Workforce Due To Major Restructuring

That's a Mighty setback

We better see a restructure of Capcom of Japan as well. They're the one that put themselves in this position and they're the one that has to get out of it.

First things first, give us back Mega Man and put him in good games again.

They apparently only have something like $150 Million in the bank. Tough times ahead for them indeed...

@astarisborn94 The Japanese part shouldn't be touched it is still doing well.

(Monster Hunter / Streetfighter / Ace Attorney).

I hope they just stop making Western targetted games. (Like all the failed ones).

@Grubdog
Take all my internets.

I thought they considered DmC's sales to be decent, but this is Capcom we're talking about so they most likely deemed it a failure since then. Oh well...sucks that those people lost their jobs :/

Sign of the times, huge sales needed to cover massive production costs. Unsustainable business model.

Hopefully Sega & Capcom will stay close to Nintendo and support the Wii U. They need to listen to what the fans are asking for and get back to basics.
@Cohort You couldn't have said it any better!

At this rate, Capcom will need to sell some of their own IPs and then Sonic will be the only 3rd party fighter in Smash Bros.

@ArkOne77 For all we know Nintendo could have quite possibly helped Capcom out just to make MH4 happen?

A SEGA, CAPCOM and Nintendo alliance would be very nice indeed...

Tough times call for tough measures. My heart goes out to those who are out of a job.

This is expected when you ruin franchises and change Resident Evil into a crappy Gears of War type of poopiedoodledingdonglame game to impress PS360 fanboys

Love how this comes after Mighty No 9 kickstarter, looks like someone in management woke up.
Now bring Monster Hunter 4 over to Wii U in the West!
Make a New Megaman Series
Bring Resident Evil back to its former glorly
Its amazing how capcom can just ignore its strengths in some of its brands .

This is where terrible business decisions and overinflated production budgets/expectations lead you. For shame that so many had to lose their jobs because of it.

I worry about this coming gen. We'll only have indie games and AAA games that are either so good nobody will buy anything else or so disappointing that they lead to the closure of studios

I see tons of fps in the future

Time to bring back the blue bomber!

They should start new IPs. They've done well with Dragon's Dogma and now is the perfect time to establish new franchises.
Also, it is time for RE to either take a rest or take another path. 600+ team is way too much.

And obviously, people wants more Mega Man. Do it.

@unrandomsam: COJ is the company behind the majority of the bad decisions Capcom has made. They turned Resident Evil 6 into a Call of Duty with zombies, they're making Breath of Fire 6 a game that doesn't remotely resemble the original, their handling of Mega Man been shoddy, and they screwed consumers over with Street Fighter X Tekken. The few bright spots Capcom of Japan has left aren't enough to cover the numerous blunder they had over the years.

1) stop making crappy games
2) support Nintendo
3) bring back Mega Man

Hopefully they'll cut their bad business decsions as well

@Yorumi You're absolutely right! There's too many studios trying to release too many AAA games that have astronomical budgets. It's been a long time coming and unfortunately it's going to get worse before it gets better. You will see alot more of the game studios downsizing or closing altogether unfortunately. It's inevitable. That's why you see Sony & Nintendo aggressively going after the indy market, they see the writing's on the wall for some of those studios & know that indy games will play a bigger role in the next gen.

Think they're kicking themselves for the Mega Man Legends fiasco? Let's see... Mega Man seems are as popular as ever (Mighty 9, SSB, VC games) and the 3DS as been the hottest system for months on end. What do you think the sales prospects would be for a portable 3D Mega Man adventure?

Has to be higher than something like Lost Planet. What were you thinking, Capcom?

@Reverandjames I agree, it was a quality game but unfortunately Capcom's pissy attitude towards the hardcore fans for that game cost them alot of good will & sales. Fans can see when companies try to make their games a little too much like other games. They have no one to blame but themselves though. That was handled poorly by them.

While I can't really speak for those games much I really enjoyed the original Lost Planet. The graphics were great at the time and it was western targeted sure but the gameplay and art design was very Japanese. It was actually really unique and reminded me a bit of Metroid and a bit of Mech games. DMC has always been crap, I've never enjoyed that series. It's a cheap arcade thrill with pumped up graphics. Resident Evil took a nose dive after 4. I'm still curious about Lost Planet 2 & 3 but have yet to purchase 2 on steam because it never goes on sale and it's too expensive especially given it's age.

ok actually checked and Lost Planet 2 is only $19 now, not really bad at all.

These may be quality games, but together they all communicate to me a either a complete lack of interest in creating compelling characters, or a company completely out of touch.

Least we have Dual Destinies...

Whenever I read news like this, I feel sorry for the employees and admire Iwata's approach.

But then again, IMO for the most part recent Capcom is a shadow of its former self. I guess flashy graphics don't impress people that much anymore, so of course something like RE6 won't sell. I bought my copy for $20, not long after being released.

I guess people are tired of Capcom spitting in their face? Add in games that need to sell ridiculous numbers to even be profitable and...

@Yorumi
So much this, i bet most of the money these devs, pump into game are for realistic graphics and cinematics and those sort of things, while areas like gameplay and advanced AI are more talent based and much less costly yet they don't focus on them at all, so when u bring out just pretty forgettable games, u may get an initial burst of sales but when people realize what its about and its not also awesome in the other departments sales don't last and therefore the grand sums of money u put in don't come back out.

Maybe it is time, that most of the japanese companys makes a fusion.
Like Nintendo + SEGA + Capcom + etc.

Or I could see a fusion in the future between Sony + Nintendo. Well, that would be interesting.

AKA our scuminess is finally catching up to us and our hard working low level employee's have to suffer as a result.

A better alternative to cutting back on workforce:
Stop making games nobody wants to play. Its as easy as that.
You cant complain that games like DmC werent bought at all. You had people complain about it right from the get go infront of your doorsteps over at the capcomunity and the rest of the net.
You had people complain about your strife to forcefully westernize your franchises, no matter how thin they are going to end up, exactly what happend to Resident Evil 6 and Lost Planet 3.
That people complain about your work is most often the first and most strongest indicator that people wont buy the finished product. If you fail to acknowledge that, its not a problem with your workforce, its a problem with your higher ups.
Fire them, not the people that are just doing your bidding.
People begged for a MegaMan game, a new Street Fighter installment, a real DMC sequel, a Lost Planet that would follow the first one, a Dead Rising that isnt a westernized brown mess and instead a whacky, insane and completely batpoopledooplecacadoodiiepoop crazy fun game like the first two installments.
You didnt listen and you reap the reward for it...oh, sorry, not "you" capcom, but your employes. They must rest their heads on the hackblock because you are blind, deaf, ignorant and greedy.
Go ask EA if you can have half of the "worst and most hated company" trophy.
I wish these people all the best. Maybe they can join forces with platinum and comcept since these companies are, what capcome used to be.
I was once one of the biggest capcom fanatics ever, buying pretty much anything that had their logo printed on but they wont see any more money from me for products and decisions like that.

I can’t believe Capcom continues to make Lost Planet games; each lost Planet game has been awful.
Resident Evil has been terrible since RE4. ( their is still hope Resident Evil Revelations was great)
Capcom needs to work with Nintendo and make Mega Man Legends 3 for 3DS!

Capcom should be fortunate they have Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter. They have less of a chance to go the way of THQ before the end of the decade.

@thefabfour64 Monster Hunter is about the only thing saving them right now. Resident Evil 6 and Revelations both sold well below expections, Street Fighter is lost in the IV series with endless updates, and all their other franchises on on the downturn.

Its not as bad a THQ, but its getting there. And Monster Hunter alone will not save them. THQ had WWE and UFC, two IPs that sell millions with each entry and they ended up going bankrupt. Capcom really has no clue what people want, and their business model is killing them. Their stance on DLC stinks, and this idea that every franchise they have needs to be westernized is hurting them.

Why boggles the mind is why they went in this direction in the first place. They started this generation with tons of goodwill, but in four years they have burned many bridges and turned away their fans.

Monster Hunter will help, but it won't save Capcom. It's only insanely popular in Japan. In the rest of the world, its a niche series. Capcom needs to wake up and realize that they are not immune to going under. Yes, THQ and Atlus may be smaller companies, but at the rate they are going its only a matter of time before they join them. Or at the very least, lose even more standing in the marketplace.

@opeter Nintendo doesn't need to merge with anyone. Why would/should that EVER happen?

Well, if the global economy crisys will continue in the comming years, many things will change for sure.

Especially the videogame/computergames market is quite sensitive and vurnerable.

Did you read the other news on the site?

"Small" Number Of Staff Laid Off At Sega Of America
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/10/small_number_of_staff_laid_off_at_sega_of_america

And so on and so on. Yeah, I know, companys come, company go/close, but things are getting (from financial perspective) harder than in the past decade(s). Today we have so many taxes and there will be even more. The countrys/states are more and more in debts ... more and more people are unemployed, the european social system in some member countrys is almost bankrupt.

So, what I want to say/write is: the number of people who can afford to buy new games (at full price) and to buy new consoles will be smaller. Especially in the "werstern world".

Cant help but think capcom is responsible for its own downfall in recent years, its sad to see people lose their jobs but inevitable for a company that seems so far detatched fron its loyal fanbase

And Japan is no better in economical sense.
And that is, why I wrote, that I can see, that some japanese game company/ makers/publisher will soon merge or buy each other (Tecmo, Capcom, SEGA etc.).

It is absolutely a logical move.

Sad news indeed but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do right ~

Die Capcom, what you did to mega man and the mvc series is too much!