Capcom Co. Ltd.

Capcom Co. Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. She created a number of game franchises with multimillion-dollar sales, the most commercially successful of which are Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, Marvel vs. Capcom and Ace Attorney. Mega Man himself is the official mascot of the company. Founded in 1979, it has become an international enterprise with subsidiaries in East Asia (Hong Kong), Europe (London, England) and North America (San Francisco, California).

Story

Capcom's predecessor, IRM Corporation, was founded on May 30, 1979 by Kenzo Tsujimoto, who was still president of Irem Corporation when he founded IRM. He worked simultaneously for both companies until he left the first in 1983.

The original companies that spawned the Japanese branch of Capcom were IRM and its subsidiary Japan Capsule Computers Co., Ltd., both of which were involved in the manufacture and distribution of electronic arcade machines. In September 1981, the name of the two companies was changed to Sanbi Co., Ltd. On June 11, 1983, Tsujimoto established Capcom Co., Ltd. to take over the management of the internal sales force.

In January 1989, Capcom Co., Ltd. merged with Sanbi Co., Ltd. to form the current branch office in Japan. Capcom's name is short for "Capsule Computers", a term the company coined for arcade machines it produced exclusively in its early years, designed to differentiate itself from the personal computers that were becoming mainstream. "Capsule" alludes to Capcom's likening its gaming software to a "capsule filled to the brim with gaming fun," as well as the company's desire to protect its intellectual property with a hard outer shell that prevents illegal copies and low-quality imitations.

Capcom's first product was the coin-operated arcade game Little League (1983). She released her first true arcade video game Vulgus (May 1984). Starting with the arcade hit 1942 (1984), they began to develop games with international markets in mind. The successful 1985 arcade games Commando and Ghosts 'n Goblins were credited as the products "that made 8-bit silicon famous" in the mid-1980s. Beginning with Commando (late 1985), Capcom began licensing its arcade games for release on home computers, particularly to British software companies Elite Systems and US Gold in the late 1980s.

Beginning with the 1942 port of the Nintendo Entertainment System (published in December 1985), the company entered the home console video game market, which eventually became its core business. Capcom USA briefly operated as a video game publisher for the Commodore 64 and IBM PC DOS computers in the late 1980s, although other companies developed these arcade ports. Capcom has created 15 multimillion-dollar home video game franchises, with Resident Evil (1996) being the best-selling. Their highest-grossing fighting game is Street Fighter II (1991), due in large part to its success in arcades.

Capcom has been noted as the last major publisher to dedicate itself to 2D games, although this was not entirely by choice. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System's commitment as the platform of choice has resulted in them lagging behind other leading publishers in developing 3D capable arcade boards. Additionally, the cartoon-style 2D animation seen in games such as Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and X-Men: Children of the Atom proved popular, prompting Capcom to adopt them as a signature style and use them more. games.

In 1990, Capcom entered the bowling industry with the Bowlingo. It was a coin-operated, electromechanical, fully automated ten-pin bowling alley. It was smaller than a standard bowling alley and was designed to be smaller and cheaper for arcades. Upon its release in 1990, Bowlingo made significant profits in North America.

In 1994, Capcom adapted its Street Fighter series of fighting games to create a film of the same name. Despite being a commercial success, it was criticized. The 2002 TV series adaptation of Resident Evil faced similar criticism, but was also successful in theaters. The company sees films as a way to boost sales of its video games.

Capcom partnered with Nyu Media in 2011 to publish and distribute independent Japanese games (dōjin software) that Nyu localized into English. The company is working with Polish localization company QLOC to port Capcom games to other platforms; notably examples are the PC version of DmC: Devil May Cry and its remasters for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the PC version of Dragon's Dogma, and the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC version of Dead Rising.

In 2012, Capcom was criticized for controversial sales tactics, such as implementing locked disc content that requires players to pay for additional content that is already available in the game's files, especially Street Fighter X Tekken. The company defended the practice. It has also been criticized for other business decisions, such as not releasing certain games outside of Japan (most notably the Sengoku Basara series), abruptly canceling pending projects (most notably Mega Man Legends 3), and shutting down Clover Studio.

On August 27, 2014, Capcom filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Koei Tecmo Games in Osaka District Court for 980 million yen in damages. Capcom claimed that Koei Tecmo infringed on a patent it received in 2002 regarding a playable feature in video games.

On November 2, 2020, the company reported that its servers were infected with ransomware that encrypted its data, and the attackers, the hacker group Ragnar Locker, allegedly stole 1 TB of sensitive corporate data and blackmailed Capcom into paying them to remove the ransomware. . By mid-November, the group began posting information online about the hack, which included contact information for up to 350,000 of the company's employees and partners, as well as plans for upcoming games, indicating that Capcom had decided not to pay the group. Capcom confirmed that no credit card information or other sensitive financial information was obtained in the hack.

In June 2021, artist and writer Judy A. Juracek filed a lawsuit against Capcom for copyright infringement. In court documents, she alleged that Capcom used images from her 1996 book Surfaces in their covers and other material for Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry, and other games. This was discovered due to a 2020 Capcom data breach where several files and images matched those included on the book's accompanying CD. Court documents note that one metal surface image file, named ME0009 in the Capcom files, has the exact same name on the book's CD. Juraček sought over $12 million in damages and $2,500 to $25,000 in false copyright management for every photo used by Capcom.

In February 2022, Bloomberg reported that the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund acquired a 5% stake in Capcom for approximately US$332 million.

Organizational structure

Development studios

In its first few years of existence, Capcom Japan had three development teams called "Planning Rooms", led by Tokuro Fujiwara, Takashi Nishiyama, and Yoshiki Okamoto. Later, games developed in-house were created by several numbered "Production Studios", each assigned to a different game. Starting in 2002, the development process was reformed to better share technology and experience, and individual studios were gradually reorganized into larger departments responsible for different tasks. While there are stand-alone departments for arcade, pachinko and pachislo, online games, and mobile games, the consumer game R&D department is an amalgamation of sub-sections responsible for game development phases.

Capcom has three internal consumer game development divisions:

• Division 1, led by Jun Takeuchi, with Resident Evil, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, and other major franchises (usually targeting a global audience).
• Division 2, led by Ryōzo Tsujimoto (who also heads the mobile online app development division) with Monster Hunter, Ace Attorney, Onimusha, Sengoku Basara, and other franchises with more traditional IP (usually aimed at audiences in Asia).
• Division 3 with Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Lost Planet, Dragon's Dogma and other online franchises (games focused on online multiplayer and/or tournaments).

In addition to these teams, Capcom hires third-party development studios to ensure that games are released on a consistent basis. However, due to poor sales of Dark Void and Bionic Commando, its management decided to limit outsourcing to sequels and new versions of parts of existing franchises, leaving original game development to their in-house teams. Game production, budgets, and platform support are decided in development approval meetings, which are attended by company management and the marketing, sales, and quality control departments.

Branches and subsidiaries

Headquarters Capcom Co., Ltd. and the R&D building are located in Chuo-ku, Osaka. The parent company also has a branch office in the Shinjuku Mitsui building in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo; and Ueno Facility, Iga Branch, Mie Prefecture.

Capcom's international group includes 15 subsidiaries in Japan, the rest of East Asia, North America and Europe. Affiliated companies include Koko Capcom Co., Ltd. in South Korea, Street Fighter Film, LLC in the USA and Dellgamadas Co., Ltd.

Games-related media

In addition to home, web, mobile, arcade, pachinko and pachislo games, Capcom publishes strategy guides; operates its own Plaza Capcom game centers in Japan; and licenses its franchise and character properties for tie-in products, films, television series, and stage performances.

Suleputer, an in-house marketing and music label formed in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment Intermedia in 1998, publishes CDs, DVDs and other media based on Capcom games. Captivate (renamed Gamers Day in 2008), an annual private media summit, is traditionally used to announce new games and business.

Games

Capcom launched its Street Fighter franchise in 1987. The fighting game series is one of the most popular in its genre. With nearly 50 million copies sold, it is one of Capcom's flagship franchises. The company also introduced its Mega Man series in 1987, which sold nearly 40 million copies.

In 1996, the company released the first part of its Resident Evil survival horror series, which became the most successful game series ever, selling over 100 million copies. With the release of the second installment in the Resident Evil series, Capcom launched the Resident Evil game for the PlayStation 2. Since it differed significantly from the games in the existing series, Capcom decided to turn it into its own Devil May Cry series. The first three entries were exclusively for the PlayStation 2; further entries were released for non-Sony consoles. The entire series has sold over 20 million copies. Capcom launched its Monster Hunter series in 2004 and has sold over 70 million copies across various consoles.

While the company often uses existing franchises, it has also published and developed several Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii games based on the original intellectual property: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Dead Rising, Dragon's Dogma, Asura's Wrath, and Zack and Wiki. . During this period, Capcom also helped publish several original games from up-and-coming Western developers, including Remember Me, Dark Void, and Spyborgs that other publishers were reluctant to commit to. Other notable titles are Ōkami, Ōkamiden and Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.

In 2015, the PlayStation 4 version of Ultra Street Fighter IV was pulled from the Capcom Pro Tour due to numerous technical issues and bugs. In 2016, Capcom released Street Fighter V with very limited single player content. At launch, there were in-game network stability issues that resulted in players being loaded in the middle of a game even if they weren't playing online. In March 2016, Street Fighter V failed to meet its sales target of 2 million copies.

Platinum titles

Capcom compiles a quarterly updated list of "Platinum Games" from its games that have sold over a million copies. It contains over 100 video games. This table shows the top ten titles by number of copies sold as of June 30, 2022.