So we all know that Capcom is one of the companies that bring in quite a fair few sequels on games and spinoffs for such series like Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Mega Man and many other series but what makes them give us more of the same series. Well Christian Svensson, Capcom Entertainment Inc. - Corporate Officer/Vice-President of Strategic Planning & Business Development recently posted a post on the Capcom-Unity Boards in response to people wondering why some games get sequels and why some don't. Below is some of the things that he made clear in his post. We consider a lot of elements in such a decision. “How did the last outting sell… and how long ago was it (has it had sufficient rest)” “Are we continually getting requests/fanmail” is a major one. “Are we seeing threads on boards around the net concerning the property’s history?” is another. “If it were to come back, what’s an appropriate platform/delivery mechanism (is digital appropriate?)” “how is it still tracking on Gamespot Trax/IGNGamermetrics” is another criteria (and when compared to how old the title is, it may indicate extra stickiness on the brand. We’ll do polls out and about that ask people to pick what they’d like to have come back (sometimes these are official… sometimes they’re not). Petitions count a little, but not much… clicking “yes” on something one time isn’t the same as proactive participation in a brand community. John D mentioned checking out prices on eBay as one potential indicator… in some cases we have checked that out or used high prices there to justify some unmet demand for a property (it’s not looked at for every project). Is it a brand that might be able to have longer term prospects than just one more outting (would we strategically investing against a longer term future for it)? If it were to come back, is there an appropriate and passionate team available to get the job done right? Is there an internal champion for such a project within product development (US or Japan)? Does marketing believe in the brand having a future? If it were to come back, what are appropriate sales expectations based upon all of the above data and subsequently what would be an appropriate budget/delivery mechanism based upon that data. As we move forward, we’ll probably be watching what groups form here and seeing what level of activity/stickiness they manage as we look for ideas. So there’s no simple answer… it’s really a matrix of interconnected things that a number of people internally need to invest in (at several levels) for something to happen. So does this mean that if some of Capcom's game for the Wii like Resident Evil 4 will be getting a sequel due to being a high seller or will another of their games such as Zack & Wiki an exclusive game that took everyone by surprise be getting a sequel. Or will old time classics be getting a sequel like the original Mega Man series which only made it's way back on to the streets with word on Mega Man 9 and it's possibility of heading to the Wii and DS exclusively.
Join MyDS to vote for your favourite story!
http://gonintendo.com/?p=47062