So don’t panic, but Capcom’s annual report is out and the company wants less time between sequels. How will it do that? Why, shortening development time of course!
We wish this was a joke.
Some key points from the report:
– “We launch sales of popular series titles held by the company approximately every 2.5 years. This is because the development of a single major title usually requires 3-4 years. In the event that there are few hits, it will be difficult to create a series title every year and earnings will be adversely impacted. For this reason, it is important either to maintain a large number of popular titles or shorten the sales cycle to ensure stable earnings.”
– “Among the multitude of major titles held by Capcom – such as Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Lost Planet, Dead Rising and many others – we will promote shortening of the sales cycle in pursuit of further earnings stabilisation and growth.”
It only gets more insane from there. In order to “create a large-scale development structure for shortening the development process”, Capcom will hire an additional 1000 employees over the next decade, mostly graduates. They’ll also increase the number of titles released in a single year.
“Necessary to create a large-scale development structure for shortening the development process”, so Capcom will “strengthen” in-house development by hiring an additional 1000 staff over 10 years, most of which will be graduates. This will also mean more titles in a year, but Capcom is also looking to a hybrid development, wherein the core game will be developed in-house and process-work will “outsourced to outside development companies”.
Source: Eurogamer
