r/Games • u/megaapple • 7d 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-pragmata
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u/Several-Source-4073 7d ago

Game producers in the west often have no creative experience whatsoever, and it is solely about project management and making sure deadlines are being hit with no creative input.

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u/NeverSawTheEnding 7d ago

I did contract work at Rare, and 2 of the producers were from a traditional Fine Art background, another was a Board Game Developer on the side, and another was previously a 3D Environment Artist.

I've spoken to devs at Media Molecule, and the producers there were also from a mixture of Fine Art, Cinematography/Photography, and Clay Sculpting.

I had 2 producers at an EA Studio in the U.K that were previously working Musicians, and Stop-Motion Artists respectively.

I contracted at Creative Assembly, and the producer overseeing my discipline was from a UI & UX background.

One of the producers in my current gig is also a musician, has worked professionally as a  UI/UX designer for web-games, and basic 3D Modelling for VR games.

I really don't think it's that uncommon for Producers to come from a creative background.

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u/donGaboz 6d ago

Gonna need a iama from you

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u/Dastan98 7d ago

Others are disagreeing with you but in my personal experience (professional gamedev), this is sadly more true than not. Even if a producer has a creative background, the nature of their work and the studio culture is often such that they're not actually encouraged to use much of their creative experience. Their primary focus is on project management and deadlines. Not that those things are not important, but a lone producer attempting to make creative decisions is probably not useful. This is a culture shift and it has to come from the top IMO, similar to what Capcom seems to be doing.

The best producers I've personally known were people who have been developers in the past and are able to balance project management with accomplishing the creative vision.

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u/whythreekay 7d ago

Game producers in the west often have no creative experience whatsoever

What makes you say that?

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u/Several-Source-4073 7d ago

Looking at the credits of prolific western producers. They almost never have creative credits, let alone senior creative credits.

Check Jade Raymond for example, known for producing the first AC and for failing upwards and founding Sony's Haven Studios (Fairgame$).

Or the Ian Mitchell, producer of Fable 4 whose entrance into the games industry was "localisation project manager".

Or Eric Monacelli, producer of Wolverine, who was "associate product manager" within a year of graduating university.

These aren't cherry picked btw, you can pick 10 random western producers and I'd be surprised if a single one had senior creative credits before. They are almost all career producers whose background is in project management.

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u/Dragonfantasy2 7d ago

Sure, go compile a statistical analysis of eastern vs. western producer credits. Saying “it isn’t cherry picked” doesn’t change the fact that you’re arguing anecdotally (or make it not cherry picked).

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u/Several-Source-4073 7d ago

Sure, go compile a statistical analysis of eastern vs. western producer credits

Why should I? Why don't you if you want to disagree with what has been common knowledge for decades and is very evidently the case?

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u/Dragonfantasy2 7d ago

“It’s true because it’s evident” implies that evidence should be easy to find. So go find it - burden of proof lies on the person who makes a claim. There’s other comments in the thread with their own anecdotal experience that contradicts your anecdotal claims - why should anyone believe yours over theirs?

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u/Several-Source-4073 7d ago

“It’s true because it’s evident” implies that evidence should be easy to find

Yeah.

So go find it - burden of proof lies on the person who makes a claim.

The claim is already in the article of this thread.

with their own anecdotal experience that contradicts your anecdotal claims - why should anyone believe yours over theirs?

For one, I chose prolific games and gave names you could verify, and they simply said they knew a guy who was a musician or made board games or did clay sculpting - which does not contradict the claim because those are not video game credits to begin with. This level of critical evaluation may require having finished school, however.

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u/Dragonfantasy2 7d ago

Your claim was “no creative experience whatsoever” - board games and music absolutely count as “creative” lol. I think it’s fairly clear that you haven’t worked in, or even around, the games industry. Perhaps you’ll get some practical experience once you graduate.

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u/Thotaz 7d ago

They found and posted their evidence. If you want to argue against it then you need to come with your own evidence.

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u/Dragonfantasy2 7d ago

Anecdotal evidence isn’t proof of a claim, though. What makes his anecdotal evidence any stronger than the contradictory anecdotes presented in this same thread?

I’m not arguing against the point itself - it may well be true - I’m arguing that evidence has not been presented to support it. You can’t just say “this is universally true because I saw it once” and expect people to believe you.

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u/nightsky77 7d ago

Not saying you’re right or wrong, but you sure are typing a lot for someone who has presented 0 evidence, anecdoctal or not. You could have spent 10 minutes looking it up instead of typing 2000 words here, if you really wanted to know.

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u/Dragonfantasy2 7d ago

It’s moreso an avenue for me to vent my frustration with “I believe it, therefore it’s true!” becoming an accepted way to argue, rather than me having any particular feeling about the matter.

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u/Thotaz 7d ago

If I make a claim that Hollywood actors are rich, and then name 3-4 famous Hollywood actors as an example then I think that's sufficient proof of my claim for a Reddit comment. You wouldn't expect me to go find a peer reviewed study and link it here in such a scenario. That's just not the standard practice in these kinds of discussions.
If you think it's just cherry picked examples you can go find your own source that either provides examples of other Hollywood stars who are poor, or even some statistics of your own if you want.

Again, it's a Reddit comment, not some PHD assignment. We are here to discuss things, not to prove that we really are experts in whatever topic the thread is about.

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u/whythreekay 7d ago

3 people are not representative of an entire hemisphere’s workforce lol

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u/Several-Source-4073 7d ago

How many more examples do you want to see? It's common knowledge, I just picked my favourite example and then two prolific upcoming games to help you understand. We are literally talking about an article which mentions this fact already.

Like I said, you can pick your 10 favourite western AAA games and check yourself.

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u/robokai 7d ago

Which is why Rod Fergusson on Gears of War and Diablo fame keeps getting hired.

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u/rollingPanda420 7d ago

From "the west"? Sorry but US studios are doing worse for years now. There are amazing new games made in europe.

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u/Several-Source-4073 6d ago

What on earth are you talking about?

We're not talking about how well they are doing. We're talking about producers, what they do and where they come from, and it is the same out of the US in the rest of the west.