Industry veteran Capcom has revealed that remastering past titles will be a key part of its business moving forward.
In a recent Q&A session, the firm pointed to the success of the recent Resident Evil HD remaster, which became the fastest-selling title in PlayStation Network history. Capcom is planning more digital exclusives like this, claiming that the shrinking nature of the physical games market makes it harder to achieve bumper sales. The company recently posted its lowest annual revenue total in ten years.
Here's what was said:
HD remasters of our catalogue hit titles will be one of our key business activities. Overseas, it is becoming difficult to sell these lower-priced and re-mastered titles at stores because of the declining number of stores and sales area limitations.
Therefore, we started aggressive digital download sales activities. These activities created new demand for these titles. For example, overseas download sales of Resident Evil (HD Remastered) in the past fiscal year were far higher than we expected. It is not a risk but rather the growth of the download sales channel gives users more options. We regard this as growth in opportunities to have allow access for more people to enjoy our games.
The recent HD remaster of Resident Evil skipped the Wii U eShop, and Monster Hunter aside, Capcom's plans for Nintendo formats are relatively meagre. Hopefully if the company is gearing up for a truly digital future, we should see some of its vintage games come to the Wii U - or its eventual successor, the NX.
That Capcom is focusing so much on past glories rather than trying to come up with new ones if rather depressing, and follows the sad news that Konami is putting all of its eggs in the smart device basket.
[source mcvuk.com, via capcom.co.jp]
Comments 72
Well if this is the case...Okami on Wii U please?
Capcom has a magical way to fall into these "revelations" that fans have been clamoring for. Easily one of the most wanted games out of Capcom is a Remake of Resident Evil 2.
Forget HD remasters, Capcom. We need a HD REMAKE of Resident Evil 2!!
Well, since the only Resident Evil game I have played is Revelations, I wouldn't mind owning a couple remasters. It just sucks that they most likely won't be coming to Nintendo systems any time soon. That is where I would prefer to play them.
I don't see Capcom producing an HD remake of Resident Evil 2. They would essentially have to remake the game from scratch unlike the first game.
Expect HD remakes to mean "slight upgrades to games we know we can get on sale in a matter of a few months".
How about a HD remake of MH 4 on Wii U?
I don't mind remasters/remakes of older games but I dont understand why every "new" game needs to be an AAA production. I thought Ubisoft might start a trend with their UbiArt titles and you would see more indie type games from the major publishers but it hasn't gone that way.
"Capcom looking to make a buttload of money while doing as little actual work as possible"
Vintage Capcom!
It's just a way for them to make lots of money with fairly little effort, but so long as the games look great then that's cool with me. Also, being on Nintendo is kind of a must for me.
Bet you they won't do any Mega Man games....
HD Remasters? I woke up on the Pushsquare side of bed this morning.
Viewful Joe and Killer7 on WiiU please
So they may do what sega is doing to there genesis and arcade game add hd or 3d and sell them again so snes capcom 3d classics with some gba to for the 3ds
Too bad the WiiU is skipping the HD RE-make, because my girlfriend is such a RE fan and I'd love to play it with her. Oh well, at least I have ZombiU.
So sad. If that's how they want to do this then I guess I'll be reading of their demise in the next few years
Capcom is releasing Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition HD next month on PS4/X1, with updated 1080/60fps graphics and tons of new game modes & extras. Really looking forward to that one!!!
Ducktales 2 Remastered thank you Capcom
If they're not on Wii U I don't care. Seems a bit odd given the Monster Hunter franchise has a home on 3DS; I was under the impression that 3G on Wii U performed better than expected as well. If anything these remasters would sell better, so I don't get why they're skipping.
sigh. I would at least understand if they were not remastering remasters. Can I get Onimusha HD trilogy (or remake? Remake is better.) or one more release of Okami HD for current systems?
I bet all of them will skip Nintendo consoles.
Devil May Cry on Wii U? Marvel Vs Capcom 2 on Wii U? NAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH they'd never.
hey to whoever wrote this article, its now common knowledge that the NX is not the successor to the wiiu or 3ds, its a totally separate platform, you guys actually reported on that.
Good to hear this but the big question is will any of these games actually make it to the Wii U.
Yes I remember their new games. They used to be good.
All the companies who used to be good were good when they made games at 1/8th to 1/10th the cost of today's games, and that is why they are failing. They want big sellers, not a large series of small sellers. That is why we have an indie surge over the last few years as people get tired of the big budget, bugs, and day one patches guaranteeing their games won't work right in 10 years. Capcom, Konami, and so on only have themselves to blame for this.
Considering some of the Digital Remasters include Resident Evil, Devil May Cry 4, and a better version of Ultra Street Fighter 4, I'd be more than happy to throw money at them.
When Nintendo remastered old games, no one complaint?
As long as the new version is improved for modern hardware then it's all good. It introduces younger gamers to good games from the past.
I would love to see Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry remastered.
Just don't mess with Monster Hunter and i'll be happy.
And I was hoping to play Mega Man Legends 3 on my 3ds, but we can't always get what we want, can we Capcom?
Chip n Dale
As long as they keep on being great with monster hunter they can re re rere re re release all the other stuff with 4 pixels never seen before and I don't care.
Seriously, if not for monster hunter, capcom wouldn't be news to me
I used to defend Capcom and try to support them but this is silly. I see where the haters are coming from now.
Well their could easily port their XBLA/PSN titles to the PS4/XBONE/Wii U download stores and slap a "HD Remaster" sticker on them (Even though they are HD, now they're "Shinier" HD. XD)
As for RE, honestly when they finish bringing out Zero, I truly believe all we're going to see of 2 and 3 are HD Upscales of the Dreamcast/Gamecube ports....
@Ev0s I dream for the day of a Megaman Legends Remastered. The style is ripe for an HD remake!
People, they're focusing on HD remasters, not HD remakes. HD remasters are of PS2 or PS3 games, as all they have to do is up the framerate and resolution.
They're doing this because, well, it's all they can afford on their own. Capcom can't afford AAA console development without being backed by one of the platform holders.
@audiobrainiac Good luck on Marvel Vs Capcom on anything, until they solve their licence problem with Disney they can't make or sell anything related to that franchise anywhere.
Chip n Dale Remastered
The misadventures of tron bonne has been released on a psn.. A Remaster of The MMLegends collection games on PSN, WiiU and 3ds would work wonders,
Gaming has reached the "remastered for DVD!" era.
There are enough AAA games out there now that no-one has played them all, and none will have to be made for the next ten years.
They certainly have a large back catalog to select from. Over 30 games each on the NES and SNES, not to mention their arcade hits which even with the same titles were often different from their console counterparts.
While it'd be nice to have killer 7 on the wii u I won't hold my breath for much Nintendo support.hopefully I'm wrong i know sony have sfv but I'd love for Nintendo to fund a new street fighter alpha.
Well they should start with HD Remix for Wii U (Cannot see how they could lose on that one).
Remastered? Then I guess Powerstone is out of the question.
It's not nice but makes sense. As I've been saying a lot recently, it's why sales figures matter. They exist to make money at the end of the day, and producing new games these days is a gamble, especially in Japan where console and handheld game sales have decreased dramatically in the face of mobile gaming.
It's not nice but it's certainly not stupid. They're going with a business plan that makes money as opposed to something that's been losing them money for a while.
@liljmoore Viewtiful Joe would be awesome. Clover studios made some great games for Capcom. An Okami remaster would be welcome too.
Okami on Wii U would be INCREDIBLE.
Please Capcom, PLEASE...
Onimusha and Breath of Fire would be very very nice.
The 194x games in glorious HD. I'll buy. Also, I know it'll never happen.
@Rapido I like to see an HD Onimusha Blade warriors with online modes
Release them on wii u and I might buy them then you damn people!!!!!
What is that alien concept you call 'new games'? You know what would be fun? A low-definition GBA or GBC remaster of some modern games. Or the pixely type of indie games on GBA cartridges, like say, Lone Survivor. I would buy that for my GB Micro. But I'm kind of low on anything to give about download-only HD remasters of remakes, on probably every console but Wii U. Especially if I played and physically own the original, the 'original' remake, and the original 'rebirth' on DS. Not even sorry, Capcom.
And Konami... Change your name, you're a disgrace to the Konami name I know.
How cool would it be if Nintendo bought, or was licensed, the rights to mega man and put sakurai in charge. It seems nintendo got the third person shooter/platform thing down with Splatoon. I can only dream of what they could do if given the opportunity to develop a mega man game.
@Kmno Yeah i had to go find a physical copy of UMvC3 on PS Vita because you can't download it from PSN. Such a shame, not that they ever planned on bringing it to any Nintendo systems. Tatsunoku vs Capcom was fun on Wii. Wouldn't mind seeing THAT on the eShop.
Konami is not "putting all their eggs in the smart phone basket," they are just focusing more on it. Metal Gear Solid V is still coming to PS4 and XBO.
@DESS-M-8
Oh I don't know about that. Head on over to the Swords and Soldiers II article--clearly many Nintendo fans don't want to pay money for anything that doesn't have Mario or Link emblazoned on the front.
@Quorthon
Its pretty sad really. The not wanting to pay for anything crap.
Capcom is slowly becoming more and more irrelevant. Only a matter of time before they go the Konami/Sega route....
Capcom 5 HD. That'd be fun.
This doesn't surprise me considering the constant reiterations of Street Fighter games over the years. I see a lot of "Boycott Capcom games for on-disc DLC and other practices," maybe people are voting with their wallets and hurting them for bad decisions. A HD remaster is a safe bet for sinking little into production and hopefully ending up with profit by the end.
Well, as a PS4 owner, the word "Remastered" kinda causes my gag reflex to go off at this point.
Also, there are Remasters / Remakes, and then there are Capcom Remasteres.
Basically: Just re-release a game and call it an "enhanced remastered edition".
DMC 4 ? Just port the PC version to PS4, add some mods and call it quits.
RE4 PC ? Nah, just take the PS2 game, no one will notice the texture quality anyways.
REmake HD ? You mean the game with the prerendered backgrounds ? Oh what a doozie. Just run them through Photoshop, upscale them and poof, "Remastered" Edition. Oh, and jiggle physics. Gotta be next gen.
But overall, im so fed up with HD rereleases, remastered edition and whatever you want to call them.
It had its reason on the PS3. The leap from the PS2 was quite big, especially in terms of picture quality.
But now, they are mainly a quick cashgrab for devs, serving no real purpose then to act as a "crowd pleaser" so no one can complain about missing backwards compatibility.
And towards Capcom: Nope, just nope. Hope all you want, you missed your chance to please your audioence more times then i have hair on my head.
@audiobrainiac
Sadly it seems that that game too has low chances of being sold again due to licences problems. It's a shame though for such great games being brought down by this things.
@nesvc Actuallt a fun game. I'd like to see it again.
Remember when new games were a thing? NOPE!!! All I remember is Street Fighter II followed by the remake, followed by the remake, followed by the remake, followed by the remake, followed by the remake. Isn't it time for another Street Fighter II remake by now?
@AlexSora89 you could buy RE 0, 1, and 4 for Wii and play them on the U.
Capcom should just follow in "Ducktales" footstep and remaster every single game following with "Street Fighter II" featuring all the characters from "Super". I honestly would love to see an SFII that resembles SFIV but without all the extra crap graphics.
Even EX is better in presentation. Just get rid of all the uneeded Zooming and "Etc Sports/Gatorade graphics" and go back to Two.
This also means that Chung-Li power Gauge is cut enough and when she lands an block kick she gets hurt. Orginal Chung-Li fireball and Ryu sister have white panties and does not look like an freak of nature. I mean ewwh red panties oh why oh why
@Einherjar DMC4 also includes 3 bonus characters, I wouldn't call that a lazy rerelease. :/
@Dark-Link73
I could do that, hmm.
@CanisWolfred Well, Vergil was brought over from DmC and Trish from DMC2 while Lady is technically the only new character, but from the looks of it, is basically the Kalina Ann moveset from DMC3.
And if this is anything liek DMC3 SP, those characters are just that, characters, no storyline etc.
But yeah, its one of the more reasonable ports with added content but then again, its merely a port of an already good looking and well running game.
Id personally be far more interested in a reimagination of DMC1 fo rinstance.
Or a new "real" game in the series.
@liljmoore With its very stylized art style, I don't think HD would do much for Viewtiful Joe.
I have mixed feeling reading this article - not so for the criticism aimed at Capcom for this stance in some comments.
Consider this: we all (Nintendo hardcore) judge Capcom much like we would the Big N - a titan of the industry as we like to remember it 'back in the day'. The industry is changing however and whereas Nintendo has always been able to rely on their hardware to offer consumers old and new that priceless taste of the Nintendo "experience", Capcom on the other hand, has always only been able to rely on its software to win hearts and minds.
During the NES and SNES era, the Capcom logo was as good as the Nintendo Seal of Quality - in a market rife with shovelware and no internet for reference - you knew you were onto a winner when the game said Capcom. Their games were literally head and shoulders above the competition. Nowadays however, in an industry dominated by western culture and genres not of their immediate expertise, Capcom have found themselves marginalised and struggling to profit from an ever growing industry in which so many young gamers are ignorant of Capcom's pedigree and owe them nothing.
It is only natural that Capcom should look to restructure and focus on their back catalogue and us mature fans that have made them titans in the first place. It is cheaper for them in the long run reproducing classics and may well just keep them in the industry that much longer, winning them new fans from the universal approval many of their classic franchises hold. It is for me a smart business decision and worth a few grumbles on the internet from those who refuse to examine the big picture.
@Einherjar True, a new game would be nice. But a neew game isn't going to cost me $20...
@CanisWolfred Id be willing to pay a hundred bucks for a properly made new DMC game to be honest, as long as they stay FAR away from anything remotely as incompetent as Ninja Theory.
In Fact, id pay a months salary for a proper new MegaMan game sigh
@Tender_Cutlet Sorry, but once i hear or read the word Capcom, the first things that come to my mind are:
Im sorry, but my hate doesnt come from nostalgia glasses, my hate comes from them turning into a complete pile of rubbish due to sheer incompetence and idiocy.
I literally turned from someone who said "If it has a capcom logo on it, just buy it, dont ask any questions" to "avoid at all costs"
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