Capcom Planning on Shortening Development Time, Releasing More Games Per Year

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