Over the current console generation, we have seen AAA developers and publishers becoming more risk-averse than ever before, relying more heavily on established franchises. Under the current challenging market conditions, this trend is definitely not slowing down anytime soon, as publishers like Xbox under the Microsoft umbrella plan to double down on their own established franchises while cutting 3,200 jobs, but the success of publishers like CAPCOM proves that taking creative risks still wins, as highlighted by legendary game developer Hideki Kamiya.
Asked by a fan what does CAPCOM have that other publishers don't, Kamiya-san said on X: "I don't know about other companies, but with CAPCOM, not only do they have a ton of talented staff, but looking at something like PRAGMATA in recent years makes me especially feel that the leadership at the top has consistently maintained an aggressive stance toward actively working on creating new IPs, and I wonder if that's what's leading to these good results..."
Looking at CAPCOM's lineup over the past few years, it's easy to notice how new entries in established franchises such as Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter coexist with new IPs like Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and the aforementioned PRAGMATA. While betting on new IPs doesn't always work, as the former didn't set the charts on fire despite being a pretty unique game combining action game and tower defense mechanics in a clever way, it often does and in a rather surprising way, as was the case with PRAGMATA. As such, it definitely seems like a balanced slate of titles comprising of established IPs and brand new ones, alongside with the proper management that is often nowhere to be found in Western studios, seems to be one of the reasons behind the publisher's resurgence from the dark days of the PS3 and Xbox 360 era.
It's not just CAPCOM that is maintaining a healthy balance between established and new franchises. Though not as successful, Square Enix has also been launching new IPs in the past couple of generations, with games such as Octopath Traveler eventually becoming a series while popularizing the HD-2D visual style eventually used in two more new IPs, Triangle Strategy and the recent The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, which was generally so well-received that a shareholder interrupted a corporate meeting just to praise the game.
To be fair, with their bet on Game Pass, many of the studios under Xbox took plenty of creative risks that, sadly, did not pay off, leading to the recent restructuring and the unfortunate mass layoffs announced yesterday. Maybe a better balance with a leadership like CAPCOM's would have served these studios better and prevented an outcome that is going to make AAA gaming feel more creatively bankrupt than ever before.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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