http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=155338

And he says, flat out, "no."

There's not any kind of possibility at all. This should also probably confirm Layton vs AA isn't gonna happen either.

I'm outta here. So long Capcom, and thanks for the fish.

Is it just me, or has Capcom been extraordinarily stupid lately?

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/04/10/capcom-on-ace-attorney-investigations-2s-release-plans-change-all-the-time/

Not much, but at least it invalidates the former "no, not happening."

Also, I agree that they make amazing series, but there's one exception: Lost Planet. I never played 1, but 2 had some extraordinarily questionable design elements. That split screen co-op was ridiculous... 1/4 for each player and 1/4 for each player's map while already featuring scrunched text and HUD, intended for wide-screen TVs. The online also left a lot to be desired.

I do love most of their franchises though.

Edited by AimMan v2.5 on April 11, 2011 at 2:00:20

Gonna have to disagree with you on Lost Planet 2. But to be fair, games these days aren't designed with one-screen co-op these days due to the availability of internet, so I can't really fault Capcom on that one.

[quote]Not much, but at least it invalidates the former "no, not happening."/quote]

Not by much.

http://www.capcom-unity.com/ask_capcom/go/thread/view/7371/27423285/Why_Arent_You_Localizing_Ace_Attorney_Investig ations_2&post_num=25#491976593

So... no. We're probably not gonna see it on the DS.

If forecasted returns aren't high enough, I guess I can't blame them. It's surprising though, I didn't see it as a series that Capcom was likely to take a hit on.

I don't see how one could not fault Capcom on its co-op design for Lost Planet 2. I mean, I seriously couldn't ever read my ammo count. Even with a wide-screen, for 2 players, why couldn't they do a map overlay? I mean, Halo 2 had great splitscreen co-op cause it uses the whole screen and doesn't waste a whole 1/4th of the screen on minimap. I'm not a guy who minds being confined into a 1/4th square in Halo, but being confined to one here was terrible due to the HUD design.

And even with that aside, I just didn't think the game was very good. It tanked on site reviews and I couldn't say there was much to it besides some high points in the campaign. Heat's played Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Bioshock 2, and Transformers WFC online religiously (note that BS2 isn't really renowned for its online) and he still dropped it without making much progress in. Matchmaking often takes forever, nothing prevents people from killing anyone on their team, and various other complaints came from him.

Edited by AimMan v2.5 on April 11, 2011 at 4:07:03

Really, I don't see how it wouldn't make the right returns if they advertised it a little correctly. And here are four words that could help them market it over here:

Marilyn Manson liked it.

Also, after Gears of War made cover systems in third-person shooters a standard, I didn't understand why LP2 didn't have one. Then again, Capcom is like all three of those "see/hear/speak no evil" monkeys all at once when it comes to understanding what the people like.

They brought over Tatsunoko vs Capcom, I guess anything is possible... If there's enough fan support they might risk the cost.

How about instead of hoping that Capcom might just go out of their way for us, why don't we just accept how much they suck?

At least that way if they happen to change their minds, it will come as that much more of a surprise.

Are we reading the same thread? This is nothing but a "Capcom confirmed for worst dev ever" thread.

Because they are.

"Welcome...to the DARK SIDE!"

I just wanted to say it for myself.

Personally, the cancellation of Mega Man Universe was a real downer for me. I really thought that game was going to be a hit. I know a lot of people didn't like it for various reasons, but it was the closest thing to a modernized Classic Mega Man game we were going to get, and it was an opportunity to bring the series to a wider audience, with it's updated visuals, sound, features, etc.

But whatever. As long as Resident Evil and Street Fighter are making Capcom millions, who needs Mega Man, or any other one of their franchises for that matter?

It's always business. Nothing personal.

Coming in 2013, The Godfather of Games.

Exactly.

How dare Capcom decide to pass on a project that they expect will lose them money. How dare they then say that they will look into making the content available in some other way while also reminding people not to take that as a promise until more number crunching has been done. I am just fuming with indignation.

Jesus H. Christ, folks.

It's not like there isn't a precedent for this or anything. Not just with Mega Man. Capcom handles franchises poorly.

If the project is going to cost more money than it will rake in, then it's probably not a smart business move to pursue it. I can hardly fault Capcom for not flushing money down a toilet.

Fans can have the most ridiculous attitudes of entitlement. Capcom does not owe any of us one thing. Not a single thing. Like Mega X pointed out, they are first and foremost a business and their goal is to make money. Making sure a product is actually going to be profitable comes before kowtowing to the almighty consumer. (The italics are there in an attempt to give it a sarcastic tone. Fiesty, I know!)

If Capcom is not promoting one of it's series, like Megaman, it could just be that promotion is not profitable. If they don't think a product will sell enough to justify putting money into promotion or localization it's a waste of their time.

In short, remember, in Capitalism $$$ > you

Of course businesses have to make money. But Capcom has consistently shown that it's willing to do this above all things, especially pleasing the customer. Their consistent laziness towards franchises and their lack of desire to pay their fans any real heed is the reason why these franchises die.

The reason Megaman isn't promoted enough is because it doesn't do that well. And the reason it doesn't do that well is that it's mostly a series where it starts with innovation and is repeated over and over with minimal changes. So it gets that reputation. So it doesn't sell well. So it's not promoted. It's a constant cycle.

There also isn't much consideration for the fans. Of course the fans want more. That's the nature of the gaming business. Capcom loses fans (me included) because they repeatedly demonstrate a lack of creative passion for their work. Inafune has felt that same crunch. That's why he left. I see little evidence of them listening to fans, taking into consideration what games they want to play. Capcom defends this by saying they won't do well, and again, that's because they're often repeats with minimal changes. Capcom fails to realize that, in the sole pursuit of profit, they actually limit potential profit by latching exclusively to what will sell well, failing to consider that maybe appealling more to the fans will bring the same amount of success, even more.

I will not support a company that does not care what I think. This is the year 2011. In the age of social media and the internet, if the company does not make their customer feel special, they will go somewhere else. They have that power. Harnessing it gains loyalty, repeat sales, and most importantly, respect.

And, quite frankly, Capcom lost my last shred of respect when they crapped out Okamiden.

Compare it to another company, like Sega, and you really see the difference. Their Sonic franchise certainly has a bad reputation these days, but, well, they often put their Sonic games out consistently. They experiment and try new things, and while they certainly don't always succeed, people still buy their games to see what's new about them. And because of it, the franchise won't die.

Capcom, however, is constantly pissing on everyone and not even giving them the dignity of calling it rain.

There is certainly criticism to be made that Capcom loves derivative formulas. Now, how does this explain why Investigations failed to sell?



And? If it won't sell, why waste money on it? This isn't a charity, folks.



Well, with all our sparkling personalities and temper tantrums we throw whenever we get denied our arrogant demands, it's a little easier to see why we're not taken seriously.



Except here's the thing. They're not saying that they won't localize Investigations 2 because it's different. They're saying they won't localize it because they already did the first one and it did not sell well. They have, from the sales figures, significant reason to believe that the second one will not be popular enough to be worth the investment.

I can see that you don't like to hear that, but that's the reality of the situation. There simply isn't enough value to be worth the resources. The popular phrase hear is to "vote with your wallet". If you don't want to support a bad game, then don't buy it. If you want to support a good game, buy it.

And above all, keep things in perspective here. It's goddamn disposable media we're talking about. We're not exactly talking about high-stakes stuff here.



"Loyalty" is a word used lightly by fandoms. In fact, I've seen it with so-called "BioWare" fans with DA2. It's a fair-weather loyalty that persists only as long you get what you want. The minute you don't, it's time to throw them under the bus. I know I certainly would stake any money on this so-called "loyalty".

Anyway, the sales tell all, right?



Which sold better than Investigations. Funny how that works.

Incidentally, Okamiden was the better game.

Go purchase products that aren't made from Capcom then. That's entirely your right as a consumer. I don't even really purchase their games anymore so this isn't meant to be in their defense. It's just ridiculous to think you're entitled to anything.

Megaman doesn't do well because in reality, it isn't more than a niche title. All the innovation in the world wouldn't change that, at least not without removing what makes Megaman well, Megaman. The most successful games these days tend to begames which feature competitive online playing (or, well, WoW). Additionally, the series is incredibly Japanese and western games are becoming far more popular in the American market. It's unlikely at this point Megaman at this point could move past it's status as a niche title and even if it could, that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing either.

Buying games (or not) is like casting a vote. Your individual voice is insignificant and if the results come back in a way you don't like, too bad. I'd love it if FPS stopped selling so many titles so they would become less relevant but it's incredulous to think this will become any sort of reality just because I want it to.

Hear that Activision. Stop making Call of Duty of I won't buy any titles made by you ever.

Edited by Necro on April 13, 2011 at 18:56:45

^This. As far as anything is concerned, my relationship to Capcom begins and ends with the game I buy--and any relevant support. They owe me only what they contractually agree to owe me when I enter into such an arrangement with them. Anything further is imagined.

Well, of course I don't buy anything from Capcom anymore. I only made rare exceptions before, like Okamiden, but from now on I probably won't even do that.

As for not thinking I'm entitled to anything...no, I'm entitled to stuff. I'm a consumer. This is how business works. Yes, I'm free to choose what I purchase, but that's always a result of a company not meeting certain criteria. Some of these are reasonable - I don't like this genre or whatever, and that's fine and cool. But even then, a company simply can't make whatever. They have to listen to what their customers want, because that helps them determine what to make so they'll buy. Again, companies shouldn't have to bend over backwards, but considering that customers are voting with their wallet, their opinions and often very important for that company's success.

See, when you say Megaman is niche, it's because it doesn't speak to as many customers as it could. (And it can do this without taking away its core gameplay values - Capcom just won't try hard enough.) It's niche because it's stuck in that same category. It's niche because, these days, it doesn't appeal to as many people as it could. And this is why you see MM10 as a downloadable title - a lot of people are never going to buy this game because it doesn't match what they want.

Now, there's nothing wrong with appealing to a particular subset of fans. My problem is that this happens a lot where Capcom is concerned. To me, it's less of a focus on "let's make this throwback game to appeal to these fans" and more about "we're only doing it this way because we know these people will buy it, and that's as much effort as we're going to spend". It's lazy.

Keep in mind, we're not talking about creating the game in this case. We're talking about Capcom's decision not a translate the sequel to a game that didn't sell. Why should they lose money on a project that will fail?

Let me clarify this by saying that this in itself isn't a bad thing, but Capcom tends to mishandle franchises, so I personally think they contributed to the problem.

Prove that titles like Ace Attorney Investigations and Megaman can sell better if Capcom wasn't "mishandling" them. Oh wait, you can't, because that's an empty statement which is the equivalent of schrodinger's cat. Capcom probably has a better idea of what will and will not sell on a large scale here than anyone here does. Afterall, they have the sales numbers for their games and probably put research into this, considering it's dealing with their profits.

You can keep thinking you're entitled to everything you want Capcom to give you, but that's really your problem and not theirs. Your words don't weigh more than the cold hard data of their sales.

So you're saying that companies should not take their fanbase into consideration. Not 100% consideration, as I said earlier that companies shouldn't have to do, but not anything at all. You're saying that data is all that matters, and that customer loyalty and consideration of their opinions aren't worth it at all. I want to be clear on this.