Capcom Won't Greenlight Sequels If A Game Doesn't Sell Over Two Million Copies

The only ones remaining are Resident Evil, MH and STF.

Good Bye: Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, Lost Planet, Onimusha, Megaman, Okami and Ace Attorney (is for portable but it is AAA).

Someone has been talking to Ubisoft.

What in the name of all is good are they trying to achieve?

This means that fans can simply boycot them out of business. This is a stupid sense of thinking.

And that business philosophy irked their core, destroying the possibility of ANY series reaching 2m sales.

Well, Capcom is going to slowly bleed to death. Also Darkstalkers Resurrection didn't have the best version of Darkstalkers 3 in it anyway. How did they expect it to sale?

Does Capcom have any franchises left that they use that pulls in big money except street fighter and monster hunter?

Satoru Iwata, please save them from themselves and pull out your checkbook.

What?! How incredibly idiotic is that??? Capcom can't expect niché games like Darkstalkers Ressurection to sell millions, especially when the game could use A LOT of improvement! It's just ridiculous to only want high-selling series, especially when many games from Capcom get worse and worse nowadays!
Besides, I highly doubt that any of the MegaMan Battle Network games ever reached even one million, but they even made an entire successor series with MegaMan Starforce!

You want millions, Capcom? Then make a damn effort for it!

So all we gotta do is buy less than 2 million copies of the next MH, RE and SF, to stop them from making ANY games from that point onwards? Now that is something I'd love to see.
"Oh, sorry, none of our franchises meets our criteria anymore. We'll just lay back and do nothing. Bye."

@shigulicious haha probably. Some of my favorite franchises are probably dead forever now. R.I.P.!

@Ryu_Niiyama Is there a bigger version of your avatar or some longer movie it's been taken from?

Having Revelations 2 skip Wii U won't help them to reach those 2 million. Every bit helps!

And since every bit helps, I will do my part to have Capcom NOT achieve those 2 million. They will keep milking the same cash cows until they run dry.

@KeeperBvK Ho ho you!

Comment: So long Lost Planet, DMC, Dead Rising and Dragons Dogma, its been nice knowing you.

If that is the position Capcom is taking at the moment, they should either sell or at least lease the rights to the unsuccessful franchises and give someone else a chance to risk a sequel. I bet Nintendo could do a Megaman sequel proud.

Well thats stupid. Going to be reading an article in 2-3 years about Capcom filing for bankruptcy. Then Mega Man will finally come home to Nintendo.

@shigulicious Not really. Ubisoft made the smart decision to start developing smaller, download-only games (like Child of Light) along with their usual AAA fare. That's something Capcom could definitely learn from.

Anyway, this isn't really surprising. Capcom is a zombie. A Nintendo buyout would be a dream come true (and truly, a master stroke in my opinion, thanks to IPs like Megaman, Street Fighter, Monster Hunter, and Resident Evil). Sadly, I'm not holding my breath.

Okami was fun. But hey, if they ever hit a low note on monster hunter...

Are any of their ip's for sale? That'd be something else.

Edit: imagine okami and monster hunter in nintendo hands...

People are quick to judge Capcom for this but Nintendo have done pretty much the same thing for all of this century.

Nintendo must buy megaman and Okami!

Bankrupt can't come soon enough.

Well in that case if Capcom really wants to become nothing more than a bloated AAA publisher who'll only cater to the masses then do us all a favour and sell the rights to all the series that you feel do not meet your excessive criteria to smaller companies who actually hold a sense of realism and will carefully develop and market games to smaller yet arguably more dedicated audiences who will provide long term support.

...as Revaltions 2 is going to be episodic , like the Telltale Games business model. Does this mean if they don't hit 2 million sales on episode one they wont release any other episodes? So we will be left with an unfinished series like the half life episodes.

If they keep releasing eshop only, with terrible advertising, then yeah they're not going to sell that much. Are they really this stupid?

@KeeperBvK I have a larger version of it yeah, but it comes from the Natural Ni Koishite Music Video by Perfume. Why?

@ferrers405 I really don't think Ace Attorney counts for this. Even though the games are good the production value is no where near any of the others. Still I wouldn't think Mega Man would be all that expensive to make either.

@ricklongo Ubisoft adjusted to the fact that the Montreal government is not handing out as much cash to game developers. It is easy to produce a lot when someone else is paying the development costs. However, I would say their business model still depends a great deal on government handouts.

Capcom is basically saying that they cannot afford to finance games that cannot make a profit right now. I would argue that to automatically cut of a series just because of a bad work doesn't make sense long term as every series has a stinker in it's history.

@Kaze_Memaryu
Battle Network 4 reached over 1 million, according to VG chartz (obviously it may not be the most accurate source). But with saying that I don't think any Mega Man game has sold 2 million copies during an original release.

They should at least consider selling or leasing out IPs which don't meet the nonsense 2 million sales criteria, there are plenty of developers which could do great things with them. How does a brand new Kamiya-directed Devil May Cry developed by Platinum sound? One can only dream though...

@FX29
Tch, and that's probably only because BN3 was so rich in content. Because BN4 was a major departure from BN2/3's style.

Wow... there is only a few of them that they develop that even reach this... let me think. resident Evil, Monster hunter and street fighter? I personally cannot think of others....

@Spoony_Tech yeah but they said AAA, not console AAA, however i too dont' expect this to be their police for portable.

All I want is for Capcom to make HD versions of Mega Man Legends 1 & 2 and then finally make Mega Man Legends 3. If the don't want to put the money up for it. Then they should start a kickstarter campaign to see what kind of demand they get.

Why the arbitrary 2 million number? Squeenix did like 10 million copies of Tomb Raider and still lost money. Shouldn't it be about making a profit, not the number sold? Game makes a profit, make sequels, game is a money loser, don't make more.

Can somebody explain to me the significance of 2 million copies? Why not 1 million, or 3 million, or 2.5 million? Shouldn't the budget of any game dictate how many copies it needs to sell?

JUST HOW IGNORANT ARE THESE PEOPLE?!

Wait a second. Didn't RE: Revelations sell less than 2 million? It did, didn't it? Quit talking Capcom. NOW.

@Nintenjoe64

I don't think this is true. Nintendo has waited a long time to release sequels/further games in some franchises (i.e. Starfox), but other than Earthbound, I can't think of very many occasions where Nintendo "retired" a major series indefinitely due to alleged lack of sales.

Capcom's in their last days, they won't be around for much longer unless another company buys them out.

Guess Capcom only makes Street Fighter and Monster Hunter now, eh? Maybe Dragon's Dogma... sell Mega Man, and hell, the whole company to Nintendo.

Capcom sucks now anyways.

@Kaze_Memaryu The only megaman games selling over a million I can recall (and think I'm right) are Megaman 1 and 2, X, and Battlenetwork 2 and 3.

Capcom has been acting foolishly the last 5-7+ years. I'm not surprised.

It sometimes takes multiple tries to get thing right. Just because a particular game in a series doesn't sell well doesn't mean you should retire the series...it just means you need new ideas for the series. Look at what happened with Zelda! Four Swords Adventure sold terribly, and then Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword knocked it out of the park. Every series has its bad spats, and its a waste of the goodwill associated with the series to retire it early because OMG LOW SALEZ.

Nintendo should just buy Capcom and get it over with to make Legends 3 a WiiU exclusive.

Plus how can you expect good sales when you lock game content on a game that's already finish and make us pay for it?

@liljmoore

An old, but interesting article partially on that subject and the subject of Capcom's troubles in general: http://n4g.com/user/blogpost/zerocrossing/524017

So your saying I won't get another Dragon's Dogma game despite that genre of game and setting being really popular right now.

......Blarrgh

Reminds me of how Square expected the Tomb Raider reboot to sell something like 7 million in less than a month. I wonder what they thought Okami would sell despite the lack of advertising and promotion of that game.

It's terrible but it takes something like CoD or FIFA to get a guaranteed 10-20 million sales. The days of experimental quirky games are going. Thank god for indie and, dare I say it, Nintendo platforms lol

Wow this company is going to die,and they want their games to sell 2 million copies? Well capcom can't wait to see you burn.

@KeeperBvK

I doubt even 1 single sale would stop Capcom from making another RE no matter how bad they continue to get

Capcom have ALWAYS been like this, guys. Ever hear about how Keiji Inafune had to make Mega Man 2 on his own time, because the first game didn't sell enough? It's ironic how that very same attitude has now brought that very same series to a halt.

@Nintenjoe64 Fire Emblem says "hi" by the way

You could just make smaller games that fans will buy to make a quick profit, and stop investing so much money in crap mobile games....
Nah, that be smart.

@TwilightV

Yep, on wiki it says it hit 1.1 millon, however they look ar RE and Monster Hunter as a franchise. Resident Evil 7 is a ways out tll they get the new engine settled, and this lets them play with a non traditional delivery method

@HyperSonicEXE
I agree, the only reason why BN4 sold well was because of the build up from BN2 and 3 which were some of the best games in the BN series. BN4 itself is mediocre.

@rjejr

Well Tomb Raider did well but the game was in development for a while and was at least three different games before we got the final product. That coupled with the big blow out AAA marketing didn't help things. Dues Ex by the end of 2011 had sold 2.18 million and since the game didn't have troubled development or big marketing budget that was all profit,

Unsure why Capcom wants 2 million in particular.

Phoenix Wright had better be exempt from this....

@Damo please correct the article as your source didn't bother to translate properly, they are talking about AAA games not every game.

The Darkstalkers thing is unrelated, it wasn't triple AAA but bombed anyway despite alot of demand from fans.

You want $2 million Capcom, give me my Mega Man Legends 3 & Resident Evil Revelations 2 for 3DS and/or Wii U. If you can't do that then go ahead continue on sinking.

Don't know if that cuts out Dragon's Dogma, but if it does...* clears throat * NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

@Nintenjoe64 So since a game like Xenoblade didn't hit a coupla million why are they making a sequel then? Or niche games like Pikmin for that matter?

I like this, they are one of the only companies who aren't bogged down by there old franchises, they can continue to evolve and make new games. Lets be serious for a second, monster hunter, dead rising, and phoenix wright were all very original games when they were released, and now they get to do it again.

They could sell the properties they don't use anymore. But megaman is in more games than ever now, and even though he doesn't have his own game series anymore he still is likely one of there most profitable characters.

@Ryu_Niiyama the girl just reminded me A LOT of a friend of mine, so I was curious to see a bigger version the clip. Thanks.

@sinalefa They made a bigger mistake not bringing Revelations 2 to 3DS than WiiU.

I wonder if the CEO's of Ubisoft and Capcom are BFF's? They sound similar these days. Well friends, buy your old capcom games now because apparently not a lot is coming our way. This seems like a bad business move and the CEO sounds whiney! Capcom's expectations will rub fans the wrong way and cost them sales.

@XFsWorld

Agreed.

Then Okami is a dead series...Won't they please just sell it already, preferably to Nintendo so they can hand the project to Platinum Games! Or just sell it to Platinum Games.

So… when Smash gets past 2 mill, are they going to Greenlight a new Megaman fighting game?

Sounds like a great way to fail. So what is their new direction? Even more predictable Resident Evil (a franchise which no longer has strong direction), Street Fighter, and Monster Hunter sequels? More experimental new titles to see which might be the next franchise to bankroll?

The high cost of development now is killing niche titles.

@XFsWorld

Especially considering that the 3DS version of Revelations 1 sold as much as, or more than, all the other releases combined.

@XFsWorld Here's the problem, they wanted to build Revelations 2 on much more powerful hardware. Putting it on the 3DS would have either resulted in a gimped port or gimping and holding back the other versions. The 3DS is the weakest system on the market right now, and I doubt even the "New 3DS" would have done any better.

Capcom had two choices. Either make it on the 3DS and hold back on things the development team wanted to do in order to expand the world and gameplay, or in an attempt to make 3DS owners feel better give a gimped port that would likely be trashed anyway.

It's been obvious from day one that Revelations 2 is a console game. The only handheld on the market right now that could handle a port is the Vita. I don't understand why people want a 3DS port. Do people want a gimped port that will be trashed by everyone while they play superior versions on other hardware?

I can understand people being upset with the Wii U not getting a version, but let's just give up on the 3DS version. Like it or not, the 3DS hardware is what is keeping it from getting this game.

Still waiting on that Ghost Trick sequel...

So are they announcing a sequel to Minish Cap soon?

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.
..
...
Just kidding, they hardly seem in a fit enough state for Nintendo to give them that franchise again any time soon.

Not every game has to be a million seller.

And not every game needs a dev team of 100s of people.

Why are so many game companies forgetting to make fun games, not just games for profit?

So then that puts the nail in my Battle Circuit/Tech Romancer/Captain Commando/Rival Schools/Son-Son dreams.

@rdenton85 True.

There's a great Kotaku interview with David Braben about how the games industry was just as driven by profit 30 years ago. These companies all exist to make money. Games these days cost a lot to make. Teams of 100 people are pretty common, all those people are far above minimum wage too, for three years or more.

Everybody does this, especially Nintendo.

Wow smart move Capcom to continue to piss off your remaining fanbase. Gosh here's hoping that they come to an end soon

Capcom's gonna go bankrupt with this attitude

@TwilightV VGchartz only talks about physical copies. Maybe digital sales brought it up to 2 million.

some games are ok and not that good and the sequel fixes the problems and adds new stuff. usually part 2 is better that most part one or three. just my opinion

Nintendo,just buy Capcom..

Are they trying to follow Nintendo's tactics? If a particular game doesn't sell well, the series would end? Kinda like how the fate of Fire Emblem, Star Fox were.

So that concludes it. Nintendo ought to buy Capcom cause if they don't, we'd never see another Strider, Mega man or even Monster Hunter.

The only thing that differentiates a capcom from an activision, ubisoft, or EA is that they don't have a strong franchise in a popular genre they can milk to death. It -could- have been the RE series as a survival horror game, but they kinda turned it into a zombie shooter. Oh, also Capcom doesn't start with a vowel! 😎

Two million is a bit steep, I think. Sometimes the original of a game is mediocre but sequels end up being amazing. Look at Red Steel. Look at Assassin's Creed. Look at Killzone. Look at Kingdom Hearts (in my opinion, at least). If sales completely flop, then sure, don't approve a sequel, but there's precedent for a sequel's fixing the original's problems, and two million is a bit steep anyway.

Keep in mind that, by Capcom's logic, neither Star Wars: The Old Republic nor Star Wars: Battlefront sold well enough to warrant making a sequel, and everyone knows those were both amazing games (and Battlefield's sequel was incredible).

@Peach64 Except that whenever Nintendo makes a game, it ends up doing well and when it doesn't end up doing well, either Nintendo should've made the game by themselves instead of a third party dev or should focus soley on marketing aspects.

Look I agree that companies exist to make money but the problem is that they require consumers who know their products most of the time and if the consumers are getting disappointed about it, then the process is only going to make it worse for the companies and not to the consumers because in the end, you make games for a specific audience and if that audience isn't satisfied, then the company has a problem.

Another company approaches fiscal suicide by banking on a couple of worn horses and relying on a short-term vision instead of playing the long game. It just makes me appreciate Nintendo even more. Yet another Japanese games company rife for a merger/takeover. Mainly because they turn their backs on their history and their fans.

Their prerogative, of course, but this seems like a big risk. It's banking on a sequel doing as well as the prior version, and if they mess that up, they kill off another franchise.

A better model might be to develop good games and make sure they are profitable. If you're only hunting whales, you won't have a reputation to bank on anymore. I mean, I look at their games for the GCN, and there are several I still love. Makes me think good of them and look at what they bring out next. If there's less of that, there's less goodwill, less ethos, and less chance of surviving a couple of games that bomb.

Good luck to them. But I can't say they'll be missed. Hopefully someone can pick up their IP when it's time.

This is kind of a waste.
The franchise's themselves are good, but what Capcom produces with them isn't.
Rather than declare the franchise's a bust, Capcom ought to have attempted to breathe fresh air into them.

With Capcom's logic, all that they're accomplishing is heading straight toward bankruptcy. It's sad, because I'm certainly more than happy to throw Capcom some money if they just release some effing games that I want. I guess that's too much to ask.

Wow, that sucks about Darkstalkers, i really wanted a new game. So I guess I won't be seeing a new Dead Rising or Strider game either? Well, at least there's Monster Hunter 4 and the rumored Street Fighter 5 to look forward to.

@Captain_Gonru But before DmC, the Devil May Cry series did sell well. Devil May Cry 4 sold about 3 million units. The reason why DmC didn't sell well was because the reboot changed so much about the original story and characters that it polarized many fans. Devil May Cry certainly isn't a Mario or Call of Duty-level franchise, but a large enough fan-base does exist to warrant a sequel to the original series in my opinion.

Besides, Platinum's games are almost all comprised of over-the-top action games. With your logic, they should only be making Bayonetta 2 and nothing else.

@Bulbousaur
Don't forget how they dumbed down the combat. They tried to incorporate various styles of Dante in the original series, but it ended up in a dumbed down jumbled mess. The game was much easier, style was much easier to accumulate and they had two buttons for dodge! Plus the timing was needed to be less precise in this game than any other DmC which was newbie friendly, but not how the original series was.

Plus no hard-locking and all that stuff. And obviously the game itself. One of the fights' dialogue just had Dante and the boss (don't remember who), consisted mainly of them cussing each other.... >.< Seriously.....

DmC was fun, great actually, but it was NOT a great Devil May Cry game. It would have been better to be called as a spin-off series or totally away from Devil May Cry altogether. The game would have been much better received then, as it wouldn't have been compared to the amazing games that preceded it.

Looks like there will be no more Devil May Cry. Adios Dante, looks like Bayonetta has replaced you.

Plus Platinum makes tons more action games anyway. Now I will go play Metal Gear Rising....

Maybe you should stop with the expansions then

@Caryslan Personally I wouldn't buy Revelations 2 on 3DS anyways. I would buy it on another platform because like you said, I know it would be gimped. I'm just thinking bout others, like Capcom is losing a chunk of money not having it on 3DS since they are so money hungry. Hmm but if it did come to Vita I would buy it for that platform.

Welp.
It was a good run.
Farewell, Mega Man. May your cybernetic soul rest in peace.
;_;

Maybe these companies need to stop aiming for sky high budgets. How many smaller budgets games could Capcom have released with the budget used for Resident Evil 5 for example? What I'd give for a nice hi-res 2D Castlevania on the Wii U for example. I honestly believe developers are shooting themselves in the foot with these huge high budget, 100+ hour games. It's great when it hits but when it doesn't it hurts, and hurts allot.

Capcom are basically digging their own grave - while it can seem attractive to pump all your money into one or two "big AAA" games, eventually people will get bored of those and what has happened to the games you've left to rot? All the good will they had has gone & you've left yourself no where to go.

Capcom would be well served to start up the Megaman Legends 3 project up again, license Darkstalkers to a company that knows what to do with it and build up some good will. If people expect bad service from a company, they won't buy a game no matter WHO is on the cover.

It's this why I haven't seen a new Megaman and Darkstalker game and they stuck at cameos now????

If that is the companies policy for making new games, I doubt I mention that to consumers especially ones who like Darkstalkers etc.

A major flaw with the "previous installment must sell 2 million copies" system, is that it makes fresh IP's impossible to get greenlit.

@BLPs Probably ZX Advent.

Well I was hoping for a true Dragon's Dogma sequel. I'll just replay Dark Arisen.

Does this also mean that they'll no longer be releasing their classic games via Virtual Console and PSN?!

@KeeperBvK Awesomesauce! Your comment made my day! I would love to see this too. Capcom made some of my favorite games back in the days of NES and now they don't make games that I'm interested in. I have not liked a Resident Evil game since 4. Street Fighter IV didn't do it for me. Every time I try to get into Monster Hunter, I don't like it. The only Capcom game that I've enjoyed recently (even though it's not that recent) was Capcom Vs. Marvel 3. We still play that game!

Whatever happened to Ghost & Goblins, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, Mega Man, 1942, Bionic Commando, Power Stones, Okami, Strider, the Disney licensed games, and Viewtiful Joe?

@liljmoore @FX29 Ah, good to know. Thanks for the heads up!

But that just shows how demanding Capcom is. Two millions are a heavy task, and small games can make a difference, as well. Or are they gonna tell us all now that MegaMan was a loss title from the beginning?!

@dkis007 Wow that's a sad thing even though it's true..

Ghost Trick is almost a standalone game. The only way they could do a sequel is if they make a story about what happens to Sissel after he rejects Ray's request for help.

@Kogorn733 Nintendo did not retire Earthbound; its creator did, and not because of sales.

If they really go by this motto 100% of the time, they are going to start rehashing Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, and Strret Fighter a lot. I sure hope Ace Attorney isn't considered AAA.

Capcom, just quit and give up. This is worse than being bought or just quitting all together.

Renew your deal with Nintendo for Monster Hunter. That's all I ask. Maybe give your poor blue bomber to Nintendo too, but your too stubborn to do that.

Capcom has like no money though....so it kinda makes sense that they want big games that will make money.

this kind of attitude is ridiculous. If that's how they feel, sell their IP's that won't be getting new installments and let it be over with. sheesh....

@SMEXIZELDAMAN Or lose even more.

@dkxcalibur Some of those have had something quite recently. Bionic Commando Rearmed 1 & 2 not too long ago / 1942 had something that was on XBLA (As did Final Fight) not played either but I want to / Ultimate Ghosts n Goblins was on the PSP / Strider was very recently given a new entry / DuckTales Remastered happened.

I can already see the grim reaper waiting outside Capcom's HQ.

And they know Resident Evil 7 will be a disaster after the hatred for RE6 ... reason they're doing the RE1 HD release, that's a guarantee sell to get the core RE fans somewhat back in their good graces for RE7 and Revelations 2

done with Capcom. Give me MH4U on Wiiu or no.

Smash bros 3ds has sold almost 3 million copies already, if you make a quality game players want they will buy it, nintendo please buy out capcom and make these games, exclusive or not players want these games!

Good bye, Capcom. Say hello to EA and Ubisoft, once everyone finally gets sick of their same-olds. They all have franchises I'd love to see returning (Timesplitters, Red Steel, ZombiU, BG&E, Mega Man,...) but I cannot support these arrogant corporate a-holes any longer. After MH4U that is. I'll even NOT get AA trilogy. Got the DS games, and if they're too cheap to release it physical, don't bother at all. Nintendo better get ready to purchase some IP's.

CAPCOM is in a bad position right now so I can see why they would think this way but this really sucks for the rans. Guess it's official.
R.I.P. Megaman and Darkstalkers.

@Emblem
I concur with your comment (although I'll admit being initially mislead by this article's title); Misleading titles such as this article's title is what makes people flood the news article section with negative comments about Capcom.

Darkstalkers rocks man! More people should be into that series. Granted, I'm sure some have the previous releases and didn't bother with resurrection but it's still a quality download and doesn't cost much either. I really prefer the PSP version but it's too bad it can't be played with an arcade stick. All in all, you can't go wrong with perfect arcade ports even if it wasn't the best version. They all rock anyways.

@HyperSonicEXE If it meant that they were mainly going to try one off games and have a no sequel policy under 2,000,000 that might actually be good. Sadly I don't think it does.

@unrandomsam
It certainly doesn't appear that way.

Although I suppose Xover would count as that. Kinda.

This is the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot with a rocket launcher.

gg no re, Capcom.

@Shambo Great say goodbye to quality and hello to mediocrity.

People don't seem to understand how business works. Obviously it's not worth their time to make a game that's not going to turn a profit. And evidently, anything under 2 million sales isn't enough to turn a profit.

You can get mad about it, you can talk crap about them for it, but it's simple mathematics. When the cost of the game exceeds the return, it's not a viable option.

With that said, I imagine the 2 million mark is 2 million because of the cost of development these days. They could, perhaps, cut their costs with certain franchises in order to lower the threshold of required sales. But gamers would have to accept that the game isn't going to be AAA. And if I know gamers, they'll never accept anything less than AAA nowadays.

this stupid industry is about to implode in any minute. and well deserved.

@JaxonH Hardly any of the AAA's actually fulfil the defined criteria. One of the A's is supposed to be critical acclaim (i.e 90+ metacritic). One is for being innovative which nearly all of them fail at. The final one is supposed to be for financial success. The first Bayonetta would be something like AAD. Call of Duty would be ACA. There is basically nothing that is AAA. Because the stuff that sells really well is not innovative so cannot get the A for that. GTAV probably counts as AAA.

@unrandomsam

Well regardless of how you define AAA, I was referring to one thing only- production value. Games cost a lot of money to make nowadays, and as a result need to sell a lot more to see a return. They could make middle-market games, but like every other developer they want to maximize their profits, and the largest profit margins lie with big-budget titles.

Nintendo and Platinum Studios, please buy the good IP's that they won't revive. What ever is left over, let Sony and Sega or something fight over them. Then, Nintendo, please buy Sega.

So instead of just making smaller games with known IP's that could see big returns (hello Megaman), they're just going to pump more money into like... two (?) franchises and hope each installment continues to do gangbusters? I'll say it once again, some companies deserve to fail.

I will be positively gleeful if/when Revelations 2 fails to reach that mark.

Today is the day I quit caring about Capcom.

Mega Man doesn't sell 2mil+?

I'll say it straight up.
I bought Darkstalkers / Night Warriors for Morrigan and Felicia.
Capcom's art team from the 90s was GOLD. Throw in Rose, Cammy, Chun Li, Sakura, Roll and the girl from Final Fight (can't be bothered to check now) and you've got a nice, diverse cast.
But holy cow Capcom, you're surprised Sony gamers didn't like 2D fighters, especially tech fighters like Darkstalkers? Look at the D-pad!!
Put Darkstalkers on the Wii U or 3DS, with, you know, a PROPER D-pad and see how it plays.
Dualshocks are decent controllers and 3D gaming is pretty good with them, but even Microsoft knows you need to connect those dots.
What a useless gift I got.. Blazblue and SFA3 for my PSP.
Almost unplayable.
Ys Seven on the other hand? Oath in Felghana, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Dissidia FF / 012, KH: Birth by Sleep, Lunar and Star Ocean are all great on the PSP. Fighters (especially 2D) are HORRIBLE.
Code of Princess, SFIV, Blazblue.. great games for the 3DS.
Even Alpha 2 on the VC controls better than those PSP fighters.
Resurrection was, honestly, a HUGE step down from Darkstalkers 3.
Ah well, at least I still have Tatsunoko vs Capcom (Tatsunoko vs Capcom vs SNK would be the ultimate though).
Why doesn't Capcom do 'Capcom VS Allstars and pull from all the versus series'?? THAT would sell.

I really don't want Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft to buy Capcom or any other major third-party studio. Why not let Bandai Namco buy out Capcom? Out of all the major third-party companies in Japan, they seem to have no real issues.

Street Fighter V, droooooool

I can't help but be a little irritated at this.

Might as well just start selling the franchises now.

This is a little misleading. The won't greenlight AAA sequels if the predecessor didn't sell 2 million. That doesn't necessarily apply to Darkstalkers, Mega Man, Ace Attorney, or even Street Fighter. It really only applies to stuff like Resident Evil, DmC, Dragon's Dogma, or Azura's Wrath.

So this is pretty much non-news, as most studios won't greenlight sequels to AAA games that didn't sell 2 million.

If Capcom files for bankruptcy in the future, will they lose their rights to their franchises? (I'm guessing no). So would Nintendo be able to purchase Megaman?

@Ryu_Niiyama RE is capcom game, I think. And it sells quite well.

Capcom won't?

More like Capcom can't. They won't be around in 10 years.

I bet if people didn't take to the internet to whine about everything Capcom does, they'd take more interest in listening to the fans.

The Wind Waker HD remake has sold roughly only 2 million copies when you included both physical and downloadable versions. Capcom expecting a repackage of two Darkstalkers games to sell this much via download only is just plain delusional.
Moving the Resident Evil Revelations series away from the DS will probably be a mistake too.
The videogame industry is an extremely difficult industry to be successful in right now. You really have to be on your game with business decisions to make it anymore. I just don't see Capcom having the leadership to make it much longer. They will be sold off to someone else before too long. Lets just hope the new owner will be able to restore some of the former magic the company had.

@rjejr Bingo. Obviously this makes no business sense. This sounds like a way to try to make people freak out that their favorite series is going to be cancelled and buy 2-3 copies of games than any real business strategy. Most Capcom PR statements have backfired on them recently anyway. They seriously need new management.

Well, I guess the only major Japanese third-party developers left are Sega, Konami, Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo, Square-Enix, and arguably Natsumi, with Platinum Games making their way up.

And this is why bold and experimental titles are dieing out in the AAA market.
A title must be sold before its even through planning phase, else its considered a failure.
I sound like a broken record, but:
Dear Capcom, if you would have followed this practice back in the day, your current best selling franchise Monster Hunter would have been left in the drawer. On paper, the franchises concept sounds utterly ridiculous and borderline unplayable.
If it wasnt for the brave and bold among you (no, not caped crusaders), one of your best franchises would have never existed.
To find a diamond, you sometimes have to leave your comfortzone.

Thats why the indie scene booms, because most devs there dont have said comfortzone. A few examples:
Minecraft = Went for a "lets fusge graphics and go for creative gameplay" approach.
Outlast = Survival horror turned up to 11/10 by omitting any form of combat.
BIT.TRIP Series = Even minimalistic would be an overstatement and yet, it hit a certain nerve.
Papers Please = "Doing your job simulator" prevailing through atmosphere alone.

And the list could go on for eternity. There are so many examples for fantastic games, that werent meant to sell and yet, were exactly what people wanted.
Whereas games like Watch_Dogs and Destiny, which sold like cracy are considered utter failures by the players themselfes.
Lets take Watch_Dogs for instance, and scratch ALL direct combat and replacing it with more hacking. THIS would have been creative.
There is a quard that needs to be taken out ? Fake a call and when he answeres it, overload his phone so it explodes, taking him out for a few minutes. There was no need to turn it into your everyday shooter,

@raghouse Frankly, Capcom needs a new everything...Everyone among their decision makers seem to suffer from neurologic problems.
Just look at the deal they struck with Marvel vor Marvel VS Capcom.
The deal was handled in a way, that if it should run out, capcom would loose distribution rights to the entire series.
THAT is something people do, if they dont have a clue how to run such a business.

@raghouse - "They seriously need new management."

Or at least spokepersons who aren't idiots. Though I think Capcom is still better than Ubi in that regard

@ferrers405 Atleast Dead Rising 3 could propably sell that 2M with Xbox One & PC combined. Lost Planet series is propably doomed because last game was so different from previous games. I really enjoyed fast co-op action in Lost Planet 2.

@justastone Xenoblade was popular.

@Kogorn733 games like F-Zero, WaveRace, 1080 Snowboarding, Disaster Day of Crisis, Geist haven't had sequels because the last/only game in the series failed to sell as well as Nintendo hoped.

@WaLzgi if you're referring to the first game, that wasn't released this century. Obviously Nintendo's bar isn't set at 2 million copies but if a game sells poorly it more than likely gets buried.

@Einherjar The indie scene has changed though as well in terms of what it is making. World of Goo is a prime example for me. When it was described to me I didn't think I would like it but it was brilliant. There seems to be less stuff like that (Or I just cannot find it) and more influenced by Megaman and Super Metroid because it is an easier sell. That is why I like Edelweiss so much they make what they want to make not what they think will be an easy sell (funnily enough Capcom published some of their stuff on Steam).

@unrandomsam World of Goo is a great example. Again, a game thats sounds bogstandard, boring and way too artsy on paper and yet, works like a charme.
And you are right that the indie scene has changed drastically.
They too try to hop on "best seller concepts" instead of following their own vision.
Thats why we so Minecraft, Flappy Bird and Angry Bird clones all over the place.
And it would be a lie if i said that the mainstream market is completely devoid of creative titles. But its far from being the norm.
Also, dont get me wrong, i love the occasional game like Shovel Knight, that makes no fuss about being influenced by great NES classics such as MegaMan. What differentiates it though is, that it actually stays true to the limitations these old games offered, instead of going for a general pixel art style and calling it "8bit nostalgia" while featuring anything but 8bit.
But its nice as long as its occasional and doesnt get overused.

But wait, that would mean no more Devil May Cry....

But may be this means there is a small chance of my dream crossover game happening one day: Bayonetta X Dante: Angel May Cry

Someone needs to keep making DMC.

I'm a bit surprised by the vitriol against Capcom here, and the criticism for wanting to focus on big sellers (and therefore likely big money makers.)

This is completely BS .... Every Megaman game has sold WAYYYYY more than 2 million. GIVE US A NEW MEGAMAN GAME ALREADY... I don't care if you keep it inline with the 2d sidescroller or reboot it for today's standard of a third person/first person perspective with full camera control......drool

If it isn't for Monster Hunter, Capcom is irrelevant in the gaming industry. IMO anyways.

@ferrers405 AA is getting two sequels: Dai and 6.

So uh, this doesn't include Ace Attorney, I'm guessing? They are pretty cheap to make, after all. Being visual novels.

@unrandomsam Everything that you listed I'm aware of but most of the titles you list are nothing more then remixes of the original, for example Ducktales HD. Why isn't there a "new" ghost & goblins? It doesn't have to be a retro title or remix. They could get creative and come up with a unique experience based off of the basic concept, like when Nintendo came up with Mario 64.