Sawyer1331
Son Of Sparda Is Back
I Saw This Post On Ninja Theory Forums And Unfortunately It Has Good Points
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I read this really good post on the Gamefaqs PS3 DmC forum from a user named PineappleFist and it illustrates how some people's outlook on DmC might affect the DMC series as a whole and the consequences to that decision with quotes like "I rather have DmC fail and wait for DMC 5". He touches upon this and on other Capcom franchises which can be a foretelling of DMC series fate in the future with an overzealous opinion like that. Also, i would like to point out most of all that he got his DMC 2 sales wrong (he rectifies that in a later post that doesn't need to be posted here). But his point still stands no matter what.
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I read this really good post on the Gamefaqs PS3 DmC forum from a user named PineappleFist and it illustrates how some people's outlook on DmC might affect the DMC series as a whole and the consequences to that decision with quotes like "I rather have DmC fail and wait for DMC 5". He touches upon this and on other Capcom franchises which can be a foretelling of DMC series fate in the future with an overzealous opinion like that. Also, i would like to point out most of all that he got his DMC 2 sales wrong (he rectifies that in a later post that doesn't need to be posted here). But his point still stands no matter what.
Originally Posted by PineappleFist
DmC needs to succeed (and other harsh truths.)
First off, yes this a new account. I am (was) a veteran of the older Devil May Cry boards but lost my account due to inactivity and other extraneous circumstances. That having been said, I’m not trolling, so please hear me out.
In one of the most recent issues of Game Informer (cover story: South Park) there’s this great article about Capcom and the state of affairs they’re currently in. It’s a great read that I suggest you read if you have a subscription to the magazine, or if you can find a scan online; it should help to put some things into perspective. The article does make some great points though, and while reading it I had a revelation.
DmC needs to succeed in order for the series to exist in any form.
Does anyone remember Onimusha? Well of course you guys do, you’re gamers. No, by anyone I mean the average Joe. The new age gamer, the Call of Duty player… do they know / remember? My guess would be no, they don’t, and part of the reason for that is because their hasn’t been a release since Dawn of Dreams back in 2006. Now, Onimusha has been a very successful franchise for Capcom having sold over 8 million copies in it’s lifetime. Sounds like bank right? Well, if so, then where is Onimusha?
Dead, that’s where. Lost to the confines of the great and vast Capcom cemetery where corpses of past money makers lie rotting. Games like Dark Stalkers, Strider, Rival Schools, Mega Man, Buster Brothers, Ghosts and Goblins, Bionic Commando, Final Fight, JoJo, Power Stone and… wait, are you starting to get the picture? At one time or another most of those games listed have been successful for the once mighty Capcom. Why aren’t they made anymore? Simple, they’re simply not profitable enough to be relevant.
So, for all the people out there saying that they’ll just boycott DmC and wait for DMC 5, take a step back real quick and look at the numbers, look at the history of the company in question here and honestly tell me that you think they’ll keep DMC around as a series if it doesn’t pull it’s weight; regardless of the circumstances. Need a summation?
If DmC isn’t a success, there won’t be a DMC 5.
Now, what you have to ask yourself is this: Are you okay with that? Some may be, they might be perfectly fine with the series ending at its fourth entry. They’ll go on moving about their lives, keeping a picture of Dante in a little locket hung delicately around their neck. I however cannot join that camp. DMC is quite possibly my favorite game franchise of all time. I’ve invested hundreds upon hundreds of hours into the whole experience and even managed to grind through 6 play-throughs of DMC 2. Now, I hear a lot of people saying that DmC is going to kill the franchise, or tarnish its reputation. To me however, the game that holds that tile is DMC 4.
DMC 4 was a boring, plodding, uninspired cash in. All the life from the series had been drained and to me that was a fate worse than death. What really shown through was that Itsuno and his team had grown tired of making DMC games after over six years of production on the series (further evidenced by their moving on to Dragon‘s Dogma and taking a back seat driver‘s approach to developing on DmC.) So, if they don’t want to make the games anymore, why make them? The sad part is, now Capcom is at an impasse. Do they let DMC die off like so many of their other series, or do they gamble it all and try to come out ahead?
You see, in that article I mentioned earlier, there’s a somewhat startling revelation. Capcom isn’t doing so hot. At one point in time their company held over 50% of the market share as far as Japanese game development was concerned. Now, they hold under 10% and that’s quite a dip in revenue. Most of this is due to poor planning and decision making with series like Bionic Commando and the ever so successful Dark Void (a title that Capcom estimated would sell over 2.2 million copies for some strange reason.) Combine these failures with poor sales from other big budgeted series (Lost Planet 2 anyone?) and the loss of long time talent (Hideki, Kamiya, Inafune) and what you have is a company struggling to stay afloat.
So, having said that, Capcom needs a hit and they need it to be something besides a Resident Evil game in order to keep the company going. Now, at this point you might be saying “Hey! DMC 4 was the best selling game in the franchise!” and you’d be right sadly it was also the most expensive one to produce. It’s not uncommon knowledge that HD game development isn’t cheap, and in a time when both people and company’s purse strings are tight, you can’t be shelling out the kind of money it takes to make a DMC and only turn a small profit. DMC 4 sold something like 2 million copies, sounds good right… not really.
Let’s take a quick look at Ninja Theory shall we. Now, back in 2007 Heavenly Sword released for the PS3 and did fairly well selling over 2 million copies… wait, what? FAIRLY WELL at 2 million copies? Yup, that’s right. If you dig around enough, you’ll find articles where Tammem is talking about they almost had to shut down the studio and blah, blah, blah. The point is that Heavenly Sword sold just as well as DMC and it did it as a console exclusive and it still wasn’t enough. So, knowing that DMC 4 sold just about as much despite the fact that it was a console exclusive.. Well it’s kinda sad especially since it’s an established brand with a fan base. It does however show that the series has potential, potential that can be tapped in order for the series to make the sort of money that it ahs to make in order for the series to be considered a viable option to keep producing.
For just a little more perspective, let’s take a look at Resident Evil. RE: 5 was released in March of 2009, by May it had already sold well over 5 million copies… and it wasn’t even released in the U.S. yet. Once it hit shores in the states, it quickly sold over 2 million copies bringing the total up over 7 million copies in one year alone. Factor in some DLC and the Gold Edition and well I think you get the picture.
This is why Capcom has made the decision that they have. It’s either DmC or nothing because the series simply isn’t capable of producing the kinds of numbers that big name publishers need based simply on it’s merits and fan base. S, I’m sorry, that’s the truth. Things like this are hard to accept and sometimes if you love something you have to let it go… or do you. I see a lot of people saying that id DmC is successful, then it will be the future of the series and that we’ll never see good ol’ Dante again. That’s not really true though. You can stills support the game whilst also addressing complaints. If this wasn’t true, then how did we Get DMC 3? Devil May Cry 2 outsold the first game by a good bit, yet it’s widely considered to be the worst entry in the series. So, if the logic of the fans is to be believed, then why aren’t all the games after two based on the framework laid out by it? Why wasn’t the story ever continued chronologically after two? Why doesn’t Dante look, talk, or act like he did in two (remember that stupid coin?) if it was so successful? The reason? Because they heard the outcry of the fan base and they knew they weren’t happy YET they had enough sales so that the creative forces at Capcom could go to the business oriented ones and address the issues in a numerical sense.
So, if you don’t support DmC, then don’t be surprised if you never see the series again; especially considering Capcom’s track record with this sort of thing. If they can do it to Mega Man, then they can do it to Dante, and don’t think for a second that they’ll feel bad when they do.
