Rumors were running rampant this week with the prospect that Microsoft (i.e., evil-incarnate) was going to buy Capcom, developer of the Resident Evil series and this week’s big 360 release, Lost Planet. This rumor is, in fact, not new. It was first started almost three years ago when Msoft was looking to get a better foothold in the Japanese market. They still need the foothold over there, but Capcom has been out its sights for sometime now. So once again, no, Microsoft is not buying Capcom.
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But let’s think about that for a second.
Obviously, Msoft would get a huge surge in the popularity rankings by having Capcom in its portfolio. They’d get the rights to Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Dead Rising, Phoenix Wright, Megaman, Devil May Cry, and one of my personal favorites, UN Squadron. With a list like that, Msoft would stand to gain a lot of market share. Just think about Resident Evil 5 being 360 exclusive – Bill Gates would obviously poop in his pants.
But, on the other hand, Capcom would probably lose a lot of money over it. Most of their Xbox titles don’t sell very well in the Home Land. They usually make their money from Playstation and GBA games. If Capcom made only Xbox games, they’d lose half their profits in an instant. The only places where they would see any sales are in areas that Msoft doesn’t need any help in, mainly America and Europe. Losing out on an entire region is probably not the best thing for a company like Capcom.
We’d see a jump in Japanese 360 sales, but probably not as mush as you’d think. Capcom’s big games are mostly action-oriented, which the Japanese tend to run away from like it was the plague. The only title that I could see making a huge splash in the market is the Breath of Fire series, which has a hard time when going against the likes of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
Basically, everyone loses in the end. Look at Rare. All their games have been sub-par up to this point, and the original leaders have left the company altogether. Msoft better heed that warning and back-off for now.
And there is no way in Hell I’m playing Phoenix Wright on a home console. That series is tailored made for on-the-go gaming.
[Via Gamespot]
Do you have any actual proof that theyre not buying it? Like a statement from Capcom or MS? I would love ot see Capcom in MS’s hands. RE for 360? Hells yes!
Capcom stated it was just an old rumor during the week. And you are still getting RE on 360. It’s just not an exclusive.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=25304105&sid=6164175&tag=latestnews;title;0
This was Capcom’s response – "It’s a 3-year-old rumor, most likely refueled by our recent spate of 360 titles." No one has denied it but it seems unlikely.
UN Squadron was great. I still need to try and beat it on hard mode.
I think I remember UN Squadron’s soundtrack to be really good. Hopeful this will come out for VC.
UNS’s soundtrack is pretty good. I might have it lying around someplace.It was actually based on an anime (Area 88) that’s out and about in the States, but I guess Capcom decided it’d sell better with a different name and theme.I’m guessing MSFT wouldn’t do this. The whole Rare thing will give them the right perspective. MSFT needs to lure 3rd parties in the real way, rather than by buying them.