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CB: Well again I think it's a question of mindset. I'm not interested in controlling. I'm interested in enabling, empowering. I'll give you another example: After we made our initial statement about Dead Rising, Resident Evil 4, Okami and the AIAS awards, we said nothing – we allowed the consumer, the media to speak on our behalf in terms of all those points. You've seen other people in the industry constantly trying to rebut arguments that the community itself has put out there. Capcom is not interested in controlling the message, we are about empowering and enabling and allowing the community to take it as it wishes. Now we will take our bumps and our hits, and I truly expect that. GS: Silence is golden, then? Yeah. GS: Capcom recently released God Hand and Okami for the PS2. Given the huge installed base for that system and the relatively small installed bases so far for all the new systems, how long do you think development for the PS2 can last, both for Capcom and the industry as a whole? CB: Well, you take Sony's traditional cycle – they look at a ten year cycle for each hardware platform – and I think we definitely have plans to support PlayStation 2 for a few more years. I do think that, yes, it's mass market and I think some of the successes we've had on PlayStation 2 such as Devil May Cry: Anniversary Collection that was shipped just before Christmas – three games for $29.95, Devil May Cry 1, 2, and 3 Special Edition -- sold in excess of 125,000. In terms of that avenue for our content to reach a new market as the PS2 has gone more mass market. Going forward with other brands within the Capcom family, PS2 gives us more of a mass market feel. So I think we will definitely be supporting that, certainly in the next few years. The PS3 on the other hand, gives us a more core user who's prepared to spend 600 bucks on a piece of hardware. It also gives us a new piece of technolgoy to create a new vision like Devil May Cry 4. If you look at that game, it's really about utilizing that hardware as best as possible to play a game that obviously has higher costs of production, but we are able to deliver a new and compelling experience to consumers.
GS: You mentioned the PS3 specifically, but surely the Xbox 360 can create similar experiences, and you already have a relationship with Microsoft through Dead Rising and Lost Planet. Do you see that relationship continuing to develop through a preference for the 360 or do you see the PS3 eventually taking up as much of Capcom's development resources. CB: I think there's a good balance between all the platforms, whether those two specifically or PSP, DS and even Wii, where we haven't announced any plans yet, but we have plenty of them. I think it's foolish in this generation to ignore consumers just because they made a purchase of one platform rather than another, so once you do see, for example, Resident Evil 5 will be out on both PS3 and Xbox 360, that we have announced. So you will see Capcom both developing a strategy to enable delivery of our content to the largest market possible. But also there are games such as Monster Hunter, which has a track record of being on the PSP, there will be some titles that will be more exclusive to a single platform because that can deliver the experience the game developer wants to create. GS: So basically a single-platform exclusive would only be an exclusive if the developer said 'This is the only system we can make it on'? CB: It really depends on the type of gameplay. Monster Hunter: Freedom is on PSP largely because of the ad hoc or face-to-face gaming experience. It's not that easy to take around a PS3 or 360 to do that, although you could play online. One of the key characteristics of Monster Hunter is actually the social element of bringing people together to play the game, so the element of actually sitting around together, particularly in Japan, where the first Monster Hunter has sold not yet a million units but easily 100,000 units, and obviously the Japanese market is more attuned to social gaming in a physical sense, more than online multiplayer gaming we have in the West. That element of social gaming is very important to Monster Hunter, and that's why it's on the PSP. GS: Well, sure, I understand there's a difference between the portable and console experience but the DS is also a portable... It is, and I think the horsepower and the performance of PSP allows us to develop that game in the way we want to. Nintendo DS hasn't got the hardware which is really important for that game. It was on PS2 originally and I think the real vision of the developers was they wanted a game that brought gamers together, phsysically, particularly for Japan which is an important market for Monster Hunter, and that's what we could do with PSP. GS: Have you been surprised at all by the success of the Phoenix Wright series in America? CB: You know, I hate ever admitting anything being a surprise – as a marketing person, you want to make sure you've planned everything. Yes, is the simple answer. You know, we shipped something like 30,000 units when we first sold the game, we're now well over 100,000 units. It's one of those games that's just got a very genuine consumer base and community base around the game, but may not be the largest in terms of other games out there, but it's very vocal. I think, again, there are subtle nuances in the Western markets in that particularly unique Japanese-style gameplay actually does resonate. You can go back from everything from Pokemon to Zelda to, with us, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, but also I think it's down to a security level on the DS in terms of it's a really interesting, compelling story. It's what we refer to in the industry as a slow burner in many ways. It's shipped steadily for the last year, and we've just shipped Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All and we have more coming up, so I think again it's like a good book, it's that word of mouth that gets people out there to learn more about the game. GS: Do you think a game like this could have succeeded in America five years ago if someone had tried it, or do you think it's a shifting taste in the market that's causing games like these to have a modicum of success in the West. CB: I think in many ways the consumer in the West is getting more sophisticated. I also think the industry in a way got too sequelized and lacked innovation. Thirdly I think something different that stands out has struck a chord here with Ace Attorney. GS: More sophisticated in what ways? When I say sophisticated I mean they really understand what is a good game and what is not; when they're being marketed at rather than discovering a brand or product. I think the overmarketing nature of some of my competitors has put consumers off those games where if it is a game or brand that consumers explore and find themselves, they feel they're actually like an explorer, except rather than going through the jungles of the Amazon they're going through the jungles of Gamestop, which is almost just as bad. They like finding and exploring and discovering something that is uinque and something that is compelling and I think that's what has happened with Phoenix Wright. GS: Capcom's a pretty major player in both print and online advertising in gaming magazines and web sites. How do you see the relative importance of each of those evolving within the next few years. Everything we do for marketing going forward – and it started very much with Lost Planet – is around developing the community and empowering and informing and inspiring the community around our products. As far as marketing, it is all integrated in terms of developing the audience and the information to consumers on a one-to-one basis, drive awareness of the product and give the cinformation to consumers that they want to know about a game coming out. I do not see a siloed mentality between different functions of marketing, whether it's PR, communications, channel marketing, online, print, promotions – they're all integrated. I do see going forward that we have already made some choices which use the duplicity of some print publications and some online sites. What you will see with us going forward is integration between the print advertising and the online advertising in terms of developing that community. I'm not interested unless our marketing programs are fully integrated and they are actually driving community building. |
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