Following the recent announcement that Pragmata has sold more than 2.5 million copies, Capcom’s corporate officer, Yoshikazu Shimauchi, has also said that a sequel to the puzzle-based shooter is quite likely. As caught by Bloomberg, the announcement came as part of Shimauchi discussing the potential for a follow-up thanks to the title’s success.
Shimauchi has essentially reiterated what Capcom said back in June. At the time, the company said that Pragmata’s “strong start” has led the company to “continue our analysis and consider the possibility of developing it into a series.”
Producer Naoto Oyama and director Yonghee Cho had previously spoken about a potential sequel for Pragmata, with both expressing interest in working on it. However, they both acknowledged that the ultimate decision isn’t really up to them.
“I honestly don’t know what the future holds. Like you said, it’s only been a month since Pragmata went on sale, so honestly, what I’m focused on is just trying to get as many people to experience Pragmata as I can,” said Oyama. “I’m focused on Pragmata itself.”
“Of course I’d love to see a sequel,” added Cho. “But I’m not the only one who decides, so unfortunately I can’t really comment beyond that.” He went on to say that this is his “own personal opinion on the matter.”
Pragmata was released on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 back in April, and the team behind it is likely celebrating the recent sales milestone, especially in light of the harsh criticism it got from higher-ups when the game was still early in development.
Earlier this month, developers had spoken about the feedback they got, mentioning that the team was “unable to make compelling puzzles”, “unable to make compelling action”, and was “incompetent at level design”. Interestingly, this feedback would ultimately lead to the hybrid puzzle-solving hacking system that forms the foundation of Pragmata’s action.
The feedback was harsh for quite some time, however, with some of the negative reviews calling it “completely broken”. One internal review even demanded that the developers should “give me back the 2 months I lost working alongside the team. Is this what you’re trying to entertain your players with?” The addition of the hacking minigame was also criticized, with one review saying that it has “fundamentally worsened the game”.
Pragmata’s recent sales milestone comes after the game’s incredibly successful launch, which saw it sell 2 million copies in just 16 days. Capcom, for its part, has said that the project worked out well thanks to a younger group of developers working alongside experienced ones.
In our review, we gave Pragmata a score of 9 out of 10 thanks to its interesting setting and premise, strong character writing for Diana, and a compelling dynamic between Diana and protagonist Hugh. We also praised its action and variety of weapons and enemies. Our only complaints were that Hugh feels like a bland protagonist at times, and that Pragmata as a whole relies too heavily on standard sci-fi tropes at times.
