With Monster Hunter Wilds breaking Steam records and the Resident Evil series enjoying a resurgence thanks to Village and a series of stellar remakes, it's clear that Capcom is currently on a roll. However, this wasn't always the case. Less than a decade ago, Capcom faced a series of critical and commercial flops that left the company struggling to find its footing and reconnect with its audience.
Capcom was grappling with an identity crisis. The Resident Evil franchise, which had pioneered the survival horror genre, had veered away from its roots after Resident Evil 4. Similarly, Street Fighter, another flagship series, was faltering after the disappointing reception of Street Fighter 5. These challenges could have spelled the end for Capcom and its beloved franchises.
Yet, amidst the turmoil, Capcom found a way to rejuvenate its iconic series. A shift in development strategy, bolstered by the adoption of a powerful new game engine, breathed new life into these franchises. This transformation set the stage for a string of successes that propelled Capcom back into the gaming industry's spotlight.
Resident Evil Lost Its Way
2016 was a challenging year for Capcom.
The major Resident Evil release that year, Umbrella Corps, an online co-op shooter, was met with harsh criticism from both reviewers and fans. Meanwhile, Street Fighter 5 disappointed many with its lackluster execution, raising eyebrows among fans who had expected more from the sequel to the acclaimed Street Fighter 4. Additionally, Dead Rising 4, featuring the return of the beloved photojournalist Frank West, was the last new entry in its series.
This period marked a low point in a series of underwhelming years for Capcom since 2010. The mainline Resident Evil games saw declining critical reception despite strong sales. Street Fighter struggled to maintain its standing, and other core franchises like Devil May Cry were notably absent. Meanwhile, Monster Hunter, Capcom's most successful franchise at the time, was hugely popular in Japan but struggled to gain traction internationally.
"Many of us started feeling that what the fans and players wanted from the series was getting a little bit separate from what we were making," reflects one developer. This sentiment is a stark contrast to the Capcom we know today.
Since 2017, Capcom has consistently delivered hit after hit, earning both commercial success and critical acclaim. The company has released a series of standout titles from its most renowned franchises, including Monster Hunter World, Devil May Cry 5, Street Fighter 6, and several top-tier remakes, along with a critically acclaimed soft reboot of the Resident Evil series. It seems that lately, Capcom is unstoppable.
Achieving this turnaround required more than just learning from past mistakes. Capcom needed to overhaul its strategy, reevaluating its target audience and the technology it used. To understand this pivotal shift, IGN spoke with four of Capcom's leading creatives to explore how the company navigated its challenges and emerged stronger than ever.
Capcom was established in 1979 as a manufacturer of electronic game machines, known as "capsule computers." The company rose to prominence in the '80s and '90s with iconic 2D titles like Street Fighter and Mega Man, before successfully transitioning to 3D gaming with series like Resident Evil. Between 2000 and 2010, Capcom adeptly modernized many of its classic franchises, resulting in masterpieces like Resident Evil 4.
2005's Resident Evil 4 is widely regarded as a landmark title, praised for its innovative blend of horror and action. However, this balance was disrupted in subsequent games. Resident Evil 5 in 2009 featured action-packed sequences more reminiscent of Hollywood blockbusters than horror, which led to a loss of the series' core identity. This was acknowledged by developers like Resident Evil 4 remake director Yasuhiro Ampo, who has been involved with the series since 1996.
"Overall throughout the Resident Evil series, we set up different goals, challenges, and things we want to try with each game… But this time, many of us started feeling that what the fans and players wanted from the series was getting a little bit separate from what we were making," Ampo explains.
This confusion led to Resident Evil 6 in 2012, which attempted to cater to both action and horror fans by splitting the game into six playable characters and three distinct storylines. The result was a lack of cohesive balance, leaving fans dissatisfied. Meanwhile, Capcom experimented with spin-offs like the online co-op game Umbrella Corps.
Capcom's struggles weren't limited to Resident Evil. Following the success of Street Fighter 4, the sequel Street Fighter 5 in 2016 was criticized for its barebones release and poor online functionality. Fans felt it lacked the polish and balance of its predecessor. Similarly, the Devil May Cry series faced diminishing returns, leading Capcom to outsource the next installment, DmC: Devil May Cry, to UK-based studio Ninja Theory. Despite gaining a cult following, it received mixed reactions due to its changes in mythology and gameplay.
This period of struggle defined Capcom's early to mid-2010s. Key franchises couldn't replicate past successes, and new titles aimed at Western markets like Lost Planet and Asura's Wrath failed to resonate with audiences. The bright spot was Dragon's Dogma, a new dark fantasy RPG from Devil May Cry director Hideaki Itsuno, but overall, Capcom's direction was unfocused.
It was evident that a change was necessary.
Street Fighter 5, The Lost Cause
By the mid-2010s, Capcom initiated a series of strategic changes that would dramatically alter its trajectory. The first step was addressing the existing issues, starting with Street Fighter 5. Director Takayuki Nakayama and producer Shuhei Matsumoto were tasked with stabilizing the game.
"There definitely were some challenges within the production of the game, and that was part of the reason why I was brought into the team," Nakayama admits. "And because we were at a point in development where we couldn’t really make any major pivots or shifts, we had to proceed and move forward in the direction we were currently in, which created constraints on what we could and couldn’t do."
These constraints limited the scope of improvements, leading Nakayama to focus on fixing the most pressing issues while planning for Street Fighter 6.
"We just didn’t really have enough time to address some of the problems and challenges we faced in Street Fighter V," Nakayama says. "And so, with our hands tied behind our backs, we basically had to wait for those ideas to be brought back for the initial conceptual phases for Street Fighter 6, so we could tackle and do things properly for the next title."
Matsumoto explains why Capcom didn't abandon Street Fighter 5 to start fresh with a sequel: "There wasn’t any sort of sense of like, ‘Okay let’s just end Street Fighter 5 and focus on Street Fighter 6.’ It was more like, while we were working on Street Fighter V, we were trying to figure out what we really wanted to do in Street Fighter 6 content-wise."
"Basically, we tried different things during the development of Street Fighter 5 to see if it worked and then we took the things that did work and applied that to Street Fighter 6. It was like the development of Street Fighter V was an ongoing process that helped us figure out, ‘Okay, what is it that we want to do for the next level?"
The team used Street Fighter 5 as a testing ground to learn from their mistakes and refine their approach for the sequel. This involved numerous updates, from improving netcode and balancing characters to introducing new mechanics like V-Shift, which were tested in Street Fighter 5 before being considered for Street Fighter 6.
The overarching goal was to rediscover the fun in fighting games, which had become somewhat frustrating to master in Street Fighter 5.
"We both realized that fighting games are fun, and when you get used to them, it becomes more enjoyable and something you can essentially play forever as long as you have an opponent to play against," Matsumoto says. "However, one of the challenges that we faced with Street Fighter V is that we felt that there wasn’t a clear pathway that helped guide players to get to that level where they finally feel like they’re having fun and will want to continue playing."
Street Fighter 6 aimed to be more approachable for new players while retaining the elements that veteran fans loved, leading to its critical acclaim upon release in 2023.
While Matsumoto and Nakayama successfully applied lessons from Street Fighter 5 to Street Fighter 6, Capcom recognized the need for broader strategic changes to avoid future overhauls. This involved significant shifts behind the scenes.
Monster Hunter Took Over The World
Around the time of Street Fighter 5's launch in 2016, Capcom underwent an internal reorganization to prepare for a new generation of games, powered by the company's new RE Engine, which replaced the aging MT Framework. This shift was more than just technological; it was accompanied by a mandate to create games for a global audience.
"It was a few factors that came together," says Hideaki Itsuno, a former game director at Capcom known for his work on Devil May Cry. "The change of the engine and also all teams were given a very clear goal at that point to make games that reach the global market. [Games] that are fun for everyone."
During the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, Capcom's focus on capturing the Western market led to mixed results. While Resident Evil 4 was a success, spin-offs like Umbrella Corps and the Lost Planet series didn't fare as well. Capcom realized it needed to create games that appealed to a broader audience, not just those interested in Western gaming trends.
"I think that we had that clear goal of just focusing and not holding anything back," Itsuno says. "Towards making good games that would reach people from all over the world."
The period leading up to 2017 was crucial, with the launch of Resident Evil 7 marking the beginning of Capcom's renaissance.
"I think that we had that clear goal of just focusing and not holding anything back towards making good games that would reach people from all over the world."
No series exemplifies Capcom's new global strategy better than Monster Hunter. While it had a dedicated Western fanbase, the series was significantly more popular in Japan. This was partly due to its success on handheld consoles like the PSP, where the handheld gaming market was stronger in Japan.
"20 years ago in Japan, having a network connection wasn't as easy, and there weren’t a huge amount of people playing Monster Hunter online. However, handheld consoles made multiplayer gameplay easy without internet access, and I regard it as a great success that we had players experience the game in this way, which was one of the ways we really wished for them to play and enjoy it, even in that era when online gameplay wasn't easy," explains Ryozo Tsujimoto, executive producer of the series.
The cooperative nature of Monster Hunter thrived on handheld consoles, allowing friends to easily play together. This inadvertently reinforced the series' popularity in Japan, leading to Japan-only content and events.
However, as internet infrastructure improved globally, Tsujimoto and the team saw an opportunity to expand the series' reach. Monster Hunter: World, released in 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, was designed to be a global phenomenon. It featured enhanced graphics, larger areas, and simultaneous worldwide release, ensuring no region felt left out.
"Our approach to the globalization of the series and Monster Hunter in general really ties into not only the themes that we had going into designing the game, but also in the name of the game," Tsujimoto reveals. "The fact that we called it Monster Hunter: World is really kind of a nod to the fact that we wanted to appeal to this worldwide audience that we wanted to really dig into and experience Monster Hunter for the first time."
To broaden its appeal, the team conducted global focus tests, leading to changes like displaying damage numbers when hitting monsters. These tweaks contributed to the series' unprecedented success, with Monster Hunter: World and its follow-up, Monster Hunter Rise, both selling over 20 million copies.
"The fact that we called it Monster Hunter: World is really kind of a nod to the fact that we wanted to appeal to this worldwide audience that we wanted to really dig into and experience Monster Hunter for the first time."
This growth was not accidental but a result of carefully opening up the series to a wider audience without compromising its core identity. This approach continues with Monster Hunter Wilds.
"At its heart, Monster Hunter really is an action game, and that sense of accomplishment you get from really mastering that action is an important aspect of Monster Hunter," Tsujimoto explains. "But for newer players, it's really about getting to that point. The steps involved in getting to that sense of accomplishment is what we're trying to strategize for, in terms of designing for new players. So with World and Rise, for example, we were taking great care to analyze where players got stuck, what was hard to understand, what they were having trouble with, getting player feedback, and also doing our own kind of research into that. And all of that kind of knowledge has impacted how we've implemented new systems into Wilds."
Resident Evil 7 Began Turning Things Around
Monster Hunter had a successful formula, but convincing global audiences to try it was a challenge. The same was true for Resident Evil, where the team had to choose between its action and survival horror elements. Executive producer Jun Takeuchi made the decisive call to return to the series' horror roots.
"It was around the time I was working on Resident Evil Revelations 1 and 2. I was trying to test different things, try different approaches," recalls Resident Evil 2 and 4 Remake director Yasuhiro Ampo. "And around this time is when the R&D teams were divided into R&D division one and two. The executive producer of the Resident Evil series, Jun Takeuchi, took command of R&D division one, and he set the core direction that the Resident Evil series needed to go back to its origins, to its roots."
Takeuchi's decision to focus on survival horror proved successful. Resident Evil 7, announced at PlayStation's E3 2016 conference with a first-person perspective, was a hit. Its return to survival horror, set in a claustrophobic, southern gothic environment, made it one of the scariest games in the series.
"We cannot underestimate how critical it is for the series for it to be scary," Ampo emphasizes. "With Resident Evil 7, the executive producer, Jun Takeuchi, made it clear that we cannot underestimate how critical it is for the series for it to be scary and about survival. So he made it clear that Resident Evil 7 would go back to its origins, it would be very cautious with its survival elements. And with that as a basis, then we would try new and different things."
While Resident Evil 7 and subsequent mainline titles like Resident Evil 8 adopted a first-person perspective, Capcom also released third-person remakes starting with Resident Evil 2. These remakes addressed fan demand, seen in various fan projects at the time.
"It was like, ‘all right people really want this to happen.’ So producer [Yoshiaki] Hirabayashi came up with the slogan: ‘Well, we’ll do it,’" Ampo reveals.
The Resident Evil 2 remake was a resounding success, blending horror with the series' signature action and puzzles, and introducing the menacing Tyrant system. It became the second best-selling game in the franchise.
"Resident Evil 4 is a game that is so beloved. If we get anything wrong with the remake, people might be quite vocal about their discomfort," Ampo acknowledges.
Despite initial hesitation, Capcom proceeded with the Resident Evil 4 remake, which was another success. The remake refined the balance between action and horror, maintaining the series' survival horror core while enhancing the darker tone.
Around the same time, Devil May Cry director Hideaki Itsuno, after working on Dragon's Dogma, recognized a need to reinvigorate the action genre. With Devil May Cry 5, Itsuno aimed to challenge players with a game that leveraged Capcom's powerful RE Engine.
The Reason Behind The Change
"I felt like the main trend with action games was to make action games that were very kind," Itsuno admits. "Maybe, for me, a little bit too kind to the players, lending a hand to the player too much to my liking."
Itsuno, who directed Devil May Cry starting with the second game, returned after nearly 11 years to direct Devil May Cry 5. This break allowed him to reassess the series and utilize new technology, including the RE Engine, which replaced the MT Framework and offered enhanced visual fidelity and agility in development.
"Technology-wise, there were not just little improvements that you would have when you work on a series consecutively," Itsuno says. "When there’s a wide timeframe, [the technology] changes significantly."
The RE Engine's capabilities enabled Capcom's teams to experiment and iterate quickly, which was crucial for Itsuno's vision of creating the "coolest" action game. This involved distilling all elements he considered cool from various sources into the game.
"Devil May Cry is a franchise that stands on being cool," Itsuno says. "That’s what the franchise is, it’s about being cool. Ever since I took over the series from Devil May Cry 3, I put everything that I, as a person, I considered throughout my life to be cool. Anything I’ve seen on TV, in movies, and comics I’ve read, any sport experiences I’ve had, I try to distill everything that I think is cool into what the game is."
A New Capcom Golden Age
Since 2017, Capcom has released a game of the year contender almost annually, a remarkable feat in an industry where consistency is challenging. This winning streak, which includes Monster Hunter Wilds, is a testament to Capcom's strategic focus on creating globally appealing games using advanced technology.
"Capcom is going through a golden era, and, well, now we have to do everything we can so that this lasts one more year, one more year, and every year, one more year," says Monster Hunter's Tsujimoto.
Capcom's approach to making global, mainstream games has not diluted their unique identities. Instead, it has expanded their audiences while maintaining the essence of each franchise, whether it's the survival horror of Resident Evil, the competitive spirit of Street Fighter, or the unique battle systems of Monster Hunter.
While other studios struggle with chasing trends and losing their identities, Capcom's strategic changes over the past decade have ushered in a new golden age that shows no signs of slowing down. The company's directors agree that this is an exciting time at Capcom, and they are committed to extending this era as long as possible.
