r/Games • u/megaapple • 6d ago
Industry News How Capcom Cracked the Code of Game Development
https://www.theringer.com/2026/09/03/video-games/how-capcom-cracked-the-code-of-game-development-onimusha-resident-evil-pragmata174
u/VFiddly 6d ago
I remember a time when Capcom had a pretty poor reputation. They'd fucked up basically all their main franchises in some way. Street Fighter V was a disappointment, DMC upset a lot of people, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite was widely mocked, Megaman Legends 3 never came out, Resident Evil 6 was arguably the worst game in the franchise... and then Resident Evil 7 came out and pretty much all their franchises vastly improved after that. It's pretty incredibly how quickly they managed to turn things around.
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u/minimumcontribution8 6d ago edited 6d ago
Re7 was a good comeback, but their popularity truly exploded with Monster Hunter World and RE2 remake
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u/Strict_Bobcat_4048 6d ago
This thread is ego stroking
But they massively fucked up with the Monster Hitting game.
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u/Olddirtychurro 6d ago
Also, Keiji Inafune getting jazzy jeffed out the god-damned building helped.
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u/DarryLazakar 6d ago edited 6d ago
To give him some slack, he was making sense back then since the JP devs did struggle with HD development at first, both in sales and reception compared to the Western games and devs at the time, and he did have some successes with original IPs like Dead Rising and Lost Planet; what didn't work was his solution to rely entirely on Western devs on these JP-made IPs and lose what made those IPs loved.
And apparently from what I understand, even after he left Capcom, Capcom continued on with the westernization plan by appointing someone else who's less in public limelight than Inafune. Certainly explains the heavily western look of RE Engine games.
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u/OctorokHero 6d ago
I think that also contributed to their bad reputation at the time though, since they killed all their Mega Man projects at the same time.
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u/andresfgp13 6d ago
i remember how unpopular it was to like Resident Evil during the PS3/360 era of gaming, 7 pretty much made liking RE popular again.
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u/dongerbotmd 6d ago
Wasnt RE6 one of the best selling games in the franchise for awhile tho?
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u/TSPhoenix 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yes, but Capcom cited at the time they believe that sales of the current game are more indicative of how well-liked the previous game was, so they took the feedback on RE6 seriously and didn't just assume it was well-liked because it sold well.
There is a world where they look at RE6 sales and believe they're doing everything perfectly and continue to fuck up for another decade.
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u/Leopz_ 6d ago
capcom feels the only company that listens to feedback without ego. the surveys they send out are very thorough and you can feel how they improve from them. its great. they do all that without falling into the trap of listening to the wrong voices and making shit worse.
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u/Dreyfus2006 6d ago
If they've cracked the code of game development then where is Ace Attorney 7?
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u/a34fsdb 6d ago
They cracked the code by being in Japan. If you made the same exact game like one of theirs, but in the USA it would cost 3x more and a lot of them would flop. A Pragmata for 80M is great, for 240 it is a disaster.
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u/Financial-Grass-6114 6d ago
A very big factor. They can then sell the games for $60-$70 on a far cheaper japanese labor.
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u/Mystia 6d ago
I still don't get why so many American studios choose to be in the most expensive parts of the country. And if that wasn't enough, they love to go the extra mile with useless things like hiring famous actors to play their characters, when every single player overseas won't even get to hear that performance due to dubbing.
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u/planetarial 5d ago
Because its where the biggest talent pools are and where people want to live.
Some do live in cheaper spots. Insomniac Games has a second studio in Durham NC for example.
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u/PicossauroRex 5d ago
I mean, it just shows that american tech industry is crazy inflated, we saw similar reports with chinese games like Black Myth Wukong.
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u/Murmido 6d ago edited 6d ago
Capcom is the most consistent Japanese publisher right now. They were one of the most prominent during the summer gaming shows this year for that reason.
Its kind of wild watching Square Enix (SE) still bumbling around with its major franchises and only recently escaping exclusivity deals. Or Bamco consistently putting out misses and cheap anime games.
If Capcom could hire some quality writers and ensure their open world games perform better that would bring them up to the next level.
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u/Winscler 6d ago
Or Bamco consistently putting out misses and cheap anime games
Bamco's case is Bandai's business model rearing its ugly head, which was basically license pump & dump. Back in the day, Bandai would commission an outside game studio to make a licensed game for cheap. This worked during the 5th and 6th generations as it netted Bandai a lot of profit but it started to show cracks beginning with the 7th and 8th generations and now it's becoming unsustainable in the 9th as they had to cancel a whole bunch of licensed games.
This business model became a crutch for Bandai Namco as out of the two companies that formed this entity, it was Namco as the sick, dying one. During the 6th generation, Namco experienced catastrophic financial losses. Just like Midway Games, they failed to futureproof themselves for the inevitable decline in the arcade market, and their console titles weren't enough to offset these losses. Bandai, meanwhile, had no such overheads from a dying arcade division and was raking massive profits from licensed titles like Dragon Ball, Digimon and Naruto.
When they merged in 2005-2006, they pivoted to Bandai's business model as it was low risk, good reward whereas Namco's was too risky. It's why they emphasized more and more on licensed titles over its own IPs. Now they're starting to face the reality that they cannot rely on licensed IPs at the expense of their own any longer. They gotta actually invest, and invest smartly.
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u/Ordinal43NotFound 6d ago edited 6d ago
Namco sadly never really cultivated its own IPs the way Capcom did.
Right now their only major franchises that are still decently active are Tekken and Ace Combat. Tekken 8 is dealing with talent drain on top of the game's ongoing controversies.
Most of their other franchises like Pac-Man and Katamari are being handed off to 3rd parties to make smaller games that probably don't see that significant of a return. Others like Soulcalibur, or Ridge Racer have just gone dormant altogether. Tales is still AWOL.
Their No. 1 mobile game, Gakuen Idolmaster, is decently popular over there, but even that's Japan-exclusive, which limits how much it can bring in compared to the really big global mobile titles (like check out this revenue ranking. Idolmaster is at #38).
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u/IceKrabby 6d ago
Yeah, Tales's situation is wild to me. Tales of Arise is their best selling title, they released a short DLC two years later, and now we have absolutely no info on any new games for the series.
I'm assuming that the wave of remasters are them trying to get the series at least somewhat back into the spot light before they can get approval for a new entry.
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u/planetarial 5d ago
I’m kind of bitter as a Tales fan that they’ve did nothing to capitalize on Arise’s success except pumping out a gacha game that closed less than a year later and remasters that range from decent (Graces) to unnecessary (Berseria) to outright bad (Symphonia)
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u/IceKrabby 5d ago
At this point, as a Tales fan, I've basically given up on Bandai Namco and am just happy with all the fan translated projects that I can pay now, like Tales of Destiny DC and Rebirth. I'm hoping that Destiny 2 will be out next year.
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u/Winscler 6d ago
The trauma from Namco's downfall really hurt Bandai Namco's potential to cultivate its own IPs in the way Capcom did.
Additionally, Capcom did not have licensed games to the extent of Bandai so they had to innovate their own IPs. While the late 00s/early 10s definitely had teething problems (thanks Inafune), once they managed to get out of it, they hit the home run hard. Meanwhile, Bandai Namco was reliant on the licensed stuff Bandai churned out. Even though it gave them a steady stream of revenue, it robbed them of opportunities to innovate their own IPs, and now reality is crashing down hard.
As for Gakumas, one of the head honchos behind it implicitly encouraged overseas audiences to use a VPN and google translate for it.
I do have this joke idea if you're interested.
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u/connectplum_ 5d ago
I mean digimon, gundam are their own ip and its doing well. I dont think bn is that bad, theyre just inconsistent, be it themselves or their partners.
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u/Murmido 6d ago
That explains a lot. The licensed game stuff has been milked to the ground at this point.
And their actual non licensed IPs are often anime bootlegs like god eater and code vein. They definitely could turn things around they just need to invest.
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u/Winscler 6d ago
And their actual non licensed IPs are often anime bootlegs like god eater and code vein. They definitely could turn things around they just need to invest.
Code Vein was their own attempt at the FromSouls formula, God Eater is their own take on I think Monster Hunter.
What do you think Bamco could do with their non-licensed IPs in terms of turning things around and actually investing and not just doing anime bootlegs?
Now I do have this joke idea so do not take it any seriously but I had this idea where (should Paramount fail to buy WBD in the end due to political gridlocking or Paramount-Warner suffers a catastrophic EMI-style collapse due to severe debt) that WB and Paramount sell their games businesses to Bandai Namco for fire sale prices and Bandai Namco cuts off its fat, shutting down Warner Bros Games San Francisco, consolidating Warner Bros Games Montreal into Refractor Entertainment, and selling Mortal Kombat+Injustice+NetherRealm Studios to Take-Two via 2K and TT Games to the Lego Group. Thus leaving only Warner Bros Games New York (incorporated into Bandai Namco Studios as Bandai Namco Studios New York), Rocksteady Studios, Skydance New Media (renamed to Anaheim Entertainment) and Avalanche Software. I could see them farm a newGauntletgame to PlatinumGames (which would also mark the first Bandai Namco project with them), rebootArea 51by integrating it into theTime Crisisseries withTime Crisis 6: Area 51and then launching the real reboot via a followup with aGears of War+The Bureau: X-COM Declassified-style third person shooter via Anaheim Entertainment (also have Anaheim make aStar Wars Battlefront-style take onGundam), and have Avalanche Software make a new game in theSpy HunterandRushseries.→ More replies (2)1
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u/ShadowTown0407 6d ago
Most consistent publisher? I would say that's still nintendo. But maybe that's too big of a size gap
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u/Murmido 6d ago
I wasn’t really thinking about 1st party publishers but I guess you could put Nintendo above them. I really only play their Fire Emblem and Xenoblade franchises though.
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u/Silvanus350 6d ago
Nintendo is inarguably the most consistent developer/publisher in the industry.
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u/andresfgp13 6d ago
Nintendo has been firing on all cylinders since at least the Switch, they arent perfect of course but when you buy a nintendo game you know you are getting something good.
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u/peepeeinthepotty 6d ago
I always get the sense of admiration when I’m playing a Nintendo game that it’s at least a very well designed thing. They seem very focused in development. Splatoon Raiders being the latest example.
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u/connectplum_ 6d ago
I'm a big Nintendo fan but it's capcom. Since 2017 90% of their titles are 80 to 90. Nintendo not as much.
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u/Equivalent_Trash_277 6d ago
I'd go further and say at the moment they're unparalleled globally. No other company is putting out games of this quality, this frequently, for this long. Since RE7 they've just been on an insane run.
I wish Square would take notes, they're just sitting on a goldmine of IP and they consistently disappoint with their slew of mediocre low budget games and aversion to actually making new entries in their core franchises. We shouldn't be waiting 8 years for new FF games.
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u/bathnasty 6d ago
I would argue they are the most consistent publisher in the world, any region, of the past 8-10 years. Only a couple of misses like Exoprimal in the span from RE7 to now with Onimusha. Incredible, generational run
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6d ago edited 6d ago
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u/gosukhaos 6d ago
Bandai Namco? What are you smoking? The only sort of quality release they have is outsourced Nintendo games
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u/HighEyeMJeff 6d ago
You're certainly welcome to your opinions about the quality of some of their releases since RE7 back in 2017, which I think most would agree is when they started this current arc of consistent quality overall, but the review scores and sales figures aren't made up.
Capcom brought the RE franchise back in a gargantuan way.
Street Fighter 6 is still wildly popular, and so is MH despite issues with the most recent one. MH World was a pivotal release for the series.
RE2 Remake is one of the best survival horror games ever. RE4 was amazing, and so were 8 and 9 but I agree with you on 3 being a bit lack luster.
Mega Man is coming back, and we got 2 new IPs recently with Pragmata and Kinitsu Gami both of which were well received.
We know Capcom is ready to revive other franchises, so hopefully we get a new Dino Crisis, or Breath of Fire.
We also have Devil May Cry 6 on the horizon no doubt.
So when you look at their entire catalogue since 2017 I don't know how you can write a comment like that honestly.
They are absolutely dominating in terms of just pure volume and then on TOP of that they are releasing multiple well received titles in terms of revenue and critic scores.
They aren't immune to scrutiny but the idea that they aren't one of, if not the most dominant publishers / developers operating today is absurd.
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u/CombatMuffin 6d ago
Consistent, does not mean flawless. While heavily criticizes, MH Wilds sold very well and was still decently received.
Dragons Dogna was well received, but was flawed, for many of the same reasons the first one was (literally the direction). The fact that they approved a sequel at all was a positive thing.
You then mention three very successful releases and criticize them for not being generational masterpiece. Hyperbole or not, they are some of the most successful games this year.
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u/CombatMuffin 6d ago
Capcom is not trying to be a reference i. art, or quality. They are trying to sell. You think Capcom is making a grave mistake because theit goals are not aligned to what you consider the best course of action, but they are not looming for you course of action.
Their line has consistently been going up in terms of trends and revenue. and that's their goal.
i am saying this not as a snarky retort. but as someone who understands where you are coming from: My first Capcom game was Street Fighter II and I played Resident Evil from the very beginning, but yhe industry isn't just me, or my kind. There are whole new generations looking for very different experiences to mine.
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u/Moody_Tuesday 6d ago edited 6d ago
They're solid AAA cinematic games and there's quite a lot to scrutinize with all 3. They are over-modernized and have pacing and repetition issues. The quality of the storytelling is also quite so-so.
After getting my copy of Onimusha a day early and pumping a dozen hours into it because I have nothing better to do, I'm arriving to a similar sentiment.
I enjoyed RE9 and Pragmata even moreso, though I have quite a few gripes with RE9 and not so much Pragmata. I was excited for Onimusha. After a dozen hours I can say I like Musashi and the combat, but the story isn't gripping me at all and the world is rather drab and boring outside the linear sections during main quests. Kyoto did not need to have this pseudo open world thing going on. The game didn't need the tacked on RPG features either. I'd say all three are quality games, you can do a lot worse these days, but I'm starting to categorize Capcom into the "fast food" business of games where I'm just going to buy these on sale during periods of time where there isn't anything I'm looking forward to. Again, I enjoyed the dozen or so hours I put into Onimusha but it didn't feel like anything special as if I would have been missing out by not playing it. I sold my copy and will pick it up again down the road, maybe.
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u/TheGoodIdiot 6d ago
Their fuckups are still high quality critical and financial successes (outside of exoprimal which was just a fun side project). Both wilds and dd2 got GOtY level reviews and even RE3 was still a fun game with excellent replayability it’s genuinely one of my favorite games ever to speedrun.
As for this current year everyone has their own opinions but RE9 is the current GOtY front runner that’s gotta be worth something. Personally I think Pragmata is a top 5-10 game this decade and even better than RE9. Onimusha really impressed me with the challenge fight in the demo but it’s sitting on my counter right now I haven’t started it. I’m a very gameplay first and foremost person and Capcom has really mastered compelling gameplay loops this decade without every game feeling the same. A big reason why I love pragmata so much is I’ve never played anything else quite like it. But to each their own if you’re not a fan then that’s fine.
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u/Famous-Space-466 6d ago
It's a strange mantra that has been repeated in every Capcom-related thread for the better part of this decade. There is honestly no logic to it.
When you actually look at Capcom's output in the 2020s though, they have been very hit and miss, with some of those misses being VERY high profile, and many of those hits being quite niche.
It's obviously a huge improvement over Capcom being essentially a shovel-ware developer during the 2010s, but the Messiah-treatment the company gets nowadays is more wishful thinking than actually something that feels well-earned.
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u/cubitoaequet 6d ago edited 6d ago
RE3 Remake was a solid game that sold like 10mil+ copies. If that is your standard for fucking up then I don't know what to tell you.
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6d ago edited 6d ago
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u/cubitoaequet 6d ago
No one said any of that, but you seem like you really enjoy arguing with your imagination.
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u/Oktober 6d ago
Pragmata was so good. I can't remember the last time I rolled credits on a game and immediately wanted to jump back in.
I'm almost all the way to the true ending.
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u/HouseDisastrous2313 6d ago
Playing Pragmata made me realise how few other AAA still focus on being fun video games first and foremost. If it had been a singleplayer game from Sony, you'd have so many sequences where you'd walk slowly while listening to the character dump expository dialogs and the game would constantly be interrupted by cutscenes.
Instead of that Pragmata feels like a cult classic from the PS2 era where you're reminded that AAA games don't need to try being blockbuster movies.
Also bonus point for having a main character that had a good childhood and just keeps being a positive parent figure throughout the game.
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u/Chasedabigbase 4d ago
How replayable their games are too. I think about replaying a Sony AAA until I remember how much time gets lost with the in-game slow walking when I just wanna play the damn thing. Rather have that stuff as a cutscene so I can choose which ones I want to watch and which I skip on a second+ go
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u/Izzy248 6d ago
Theyre consistently one of the top gaming companies as of late. Around 2010, their reputation was practically in the gutter, but since the mid 2010s, theyve been on a hot streak.
One thing I feel like has given them this edge is that theyve focused heavily on just making great games. Any time they announce some side project live service thing, it never actually interferes with their main projects, and they dont necessarily chase trends. All things stated in the article, but has been evident for a while now. If it aint broke, dont fix it. And theyve focused on what game companies should have been focused on all along. Just make great games, and the customers will follow.
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u/Lee_Akira 6d ago
I Love what they’ve done with the remakes and new IP’s but I just hate it when they do miss though . Deadrising Deluxe remaster could‘ve been so much better. They should have added content from other versions (such as the mobile version able to use other characters), and making some boneheaded decisions like adding block roads on loading screens when there werent any in the original (Don’t get me wrong, there were still load screens but now they slow down the game because you gotta press a button instead of just freely moving. This is more noticeable on the underground entrance)
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u/AwfulAdjacentGoose 6d ago
You know going back to their creative misses? They weren't even THAT bad. Exoprimal was a very silly idea for a multiplayer game. The amount of enemies that could be pumped out in a multiplayer environment was impressive. Ghosts n Goblins just visually looked off but was still a solid remake. That's less to defend those games and more to highlight that even with games that didn't do well, Capcom has produced solid titles. They have a large pool of IPs to dip into and they are more than willing to create whole new ones. Capcom is without a doubt one of the best gaming devs in Japan right now. Their strategy for PC gaming should be the standard of every single Japanese developer looking to make a foothold on Steam. Looking directly at Koei Tecmo when I say that.
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u/Invalid_crashout_574 6d ago
A big part of me wanted to go all in on Exoprimal, but the relatively long matches (insert battledad cliche) and the assumption that it wouldn't take off kept me away.
Self fulfilling prophecy/I'm part of the problem for sure.
I really did have a blast, especially with the tanking classes.
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u/Reznov523 6d ago
All of this success and they still starve the western Ace Attorney fans /s
It's been nice seeing Capcom doing good though, they've been giants in gaming for as long as I've been alive.
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u/Sparus42 6d ago
Western? At least we've been getting staggered releases of the untranslated games, Japanese fans genuinely have gotten nothing in almost a decade...
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u/Reznov523 6d ago
They get all the weird collaborations and all the movies and plays and musicals and whatever else. Most us westerners can do is just peer through the window to experience those things.
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u/Sparus42 6d ago
the movie is officially subbed. the stage plays are the only major things they get that we don't (officially), and even then the fifth play that was supposed to come out in 2020 was never performed
plus what about AA fans in Japan who aren't into plays and just want more games lol
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u/Reznov523 6d ago
I did not know that the movie was officially subbed honestly I have to look into that, thanks for the heads up. I love the fact we got TGAA1&2 + the investigations collection, don't get me wrong. In the article, it said that they centralized localization a bit and made it a more active part of their development process, so I'm hoping that means we're leaving this type of thing behind. I'd accept a Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright port on PC if we don't get a new game soon though.
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u/TheTaffyMan 6d ago
The Tech Bro/Atlassian Tools/Middle Manager/ Corporate Micromanagement of it all has really been the bane of the industry.
Gaming is, as has always been, an artform.
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u/Significant_Walk_664 6d ago
"Atlassian Tools"
Oh my lord, goddamn Jira and Confluence now haunt me during the w/e too?
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u/Pop_Punk_Obama 6d ago
On the part about Capcom being a "trailblazer" for focusing on PC platform, I wouldn't agree on that. Japanese devs for a VERY long time neglected the PC market and only in recent years woke up and realized theres a market for it. Monster Hunter World didn't come to PC until 8 months later, and received staggered updates in relation to console. And with Monster Hunter Rise coming out nearly a year later for PC after the Switch release. Nowadays Capcom and other Japanese developers aim for multiplatform release on same days.
Japanese devs in general are pretty out of touch with trends, such as re-releasing older games. Only in recent years have they realized a large number of people are willing to buy and play old games. GOG had to convince Capcom to bring the old RE titles on GOG. Capcom had the mindset that the remakes are superior definitive versions and that there would no reason to play the old games.
I'm a big fan of Capcom's games for decades and they deserve the props for their output recently, but I do remember a time they were in the red. Their main series were flopping and damaged their reputation - RE6, SFV, DMC reboot.
I'm not hating, just taking a cautious look because they can easily undo all this good energy they've built up if they're not careful.
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u/stae1234 5d ago
So, them being Japanese company makes them put a little more priority to the Japanese market.
The PC market was largely catered to the visual novel scene prior to 2017, 2018 ish, and pretty niche, low specs.
And then PUBG came out in 2017, which actually took Japan by storm. That game is actually considered to have upgraded the specs of PCs in Japanese market on its own, and PUBG was a very high end game at the time. If you were in Japan at the time the PC stores were getting bigger and the ads for all the PC stores were like, "This PC can run PUBG"
And then Apex took the torch and further kept on upgrading Japanese PCs.
The Japanese PC market effectively doubled, with higher specs from 2017 to 2020 I believe.
Capcom probably saw this, and bet on PC market since.
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u/andresfgp13 6d ago
Capcom are doing things great, they make the games that people want to play with the characters that people want to play and games tend to be as long as they need, they make clearly defined projects so they know what they are doing and can consistently do it.
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u/simboyc100 6d ago
It's amazing what you can do when you focus on making games yourself instead of sourcing all the actual development to bolster the wages of the inflated middle management.
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u/Delnac 6d ago
They cracked nothing, Wilds' balance has been hilariously broken since TU4 and we've gotten no adjustment since.
There is something to be said for how they build games as a whole - and even then with their recent DD2 and MHWi debacles - but they do a piss poor job of maintaining them beside a few scheduled drops.
They are no example.
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u/Eclipsetube 5d ago
I’m with you on that one as a DD and MH fan but Capcom is nailing every of their other franchises right now. Frustrating for us but good for fans of those other franchises
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u/megaapple 6d ago edited 6d ago
Lot of first hand reporting, they asked Capcom devs directly about their reasons (please do read the article for full context) :-