Deep in the ASCII bowels of our Forums lurks one of our busiest groups: Ask Capcom. This forum is where Capcom VP/Unity godfather Christian "Sven" Svensson lurks the mostest, answering oodles of questions with the sort of frank and honest responses that make my stomach curdle in fear. As Seth once said to me, "Christian's posts on the forums are both exciting and terrifying to me." Sven believes in full, transparent disclosure, a theme that has been adopted as our overriding approach to just about everything we do here on Unity. Some of you may not be hitting Ask Capcom regularly to revel in Sven's giddy knowledge-dropping, so I've decided to try to bring somewhat-regular updates on the main blog. "Somewhat regular" means "whenever I can remember to do this." Hit the jump to learn more about DMC4 PC sales and digital availability, those long-promised Okami replacement covers, what Capcom will be doing at Leipzig, a Monster Hunter tease and a few other tasty bits.
1. Skaipper1 asks (with questionable grammar): Are Capcom pleased with DMC4's PC sales?
Sven: I'm not sure about how Capcom in general feels but It's not doing as well as I would like in the US at retail. It's such a good version and it really deserves better sales. I know it's getting pirated to hell and back (it was up on torrents literally the day it shipped).
I certainly have pushed for digital distribution on the title (globally, I'm responsible for all DD deals) but Capcom Japan so far has not allowed it. For the record ALL CEI developed titles will be distributed extremely widely via digital channels (not just Steam or Direct2Drive, but more than a dozen partners across more than 100 sites/portals for everything we do). I've spent the last year building up that channel and I'm continuing to add partners even in advance of Age of Booty, MotoGP, Neopets, Dark Void and Flock shipping.
I have a presentation I'm making shortly that I'm hoping will make that approach something we do with all of our PC content, even those developed in Japan, but no promises. It might not happen.
In the mean time, Ben Judd has completely understood CEI's strategy and Bionic Commando Rearmed will have broad digital distribution for PC (not quite as many as CEI titles, but close).
2. Sagi wants to know: will Devil May Cry 4 be available in Steam?
Sven: No promises, but I'm working on it. If it were to happen, it's still months away.
3. Evil Shady begs: Please say there's some new videos / gameplays / whatever at Leipzig this year =P What are Capcom's plans for the conference?? RE5?? RE Degeneration???
Kramez: I'll swing this. Our full Leipzig announcements will be made next week by our brethren across the Atlantic, Capcom Europe. I can tell you that RE5 will not be available to the public on the show floor, due to German restrictions about showing M rated content. There will, however, be a new trailer for the game available online around the time of the show. Same restrictions will also apply to showing RE: Degeneration. Attendees will be able to get their hands on several of the games we showed at both E3 and Comic-con. More coming soon, promise, just can't scoop CEE!
4. Giolong wants to know: Back in mid-June we were told that those of us who submitted requests for replacement covers would hear from Capcom "next week". Well, now it's "next August" almost and we've heard nothing. What's up with the covers, guys?
Colin from CEI marketing put up a blog post about this a week or two ago. We ran up against the E3/Comic-con 1-2 combo attack, which put us behind by a couple of days. Colin assures me that we're going to start mailing them out next week, since the Avengers will all be re-assembled at Capcom's hidden volcano base. Inna meantime, if you just can't wait, you can grab the digital files here and download at home!
5. JoeMasters (Ken's brother?) asks about about Street Fighter Clubs: In the blog that explained the event that happened in Los Angles, it said that a similar event was going to happen in the east cost in the fall that would center more around the console version. Have you finalized on the location yet? If so where?
Kramez: me, again. We haven't announced where on the East Coast yet, but we will be coming Right Coast in the fall. The next one will be focused mainly on the console version of the game!
6. And finally, as a total teaser, Frustrated Hunter asks: No mention of MHP2ndG at E3 or Comic-con... so is that the end of that?
Kramez: Considering that in Japan that MH2G has now sold in excess of 2 millions copies, that is definitely not the end of that. Sony recognizes that Monster Hunter is one of the prime factors keeping their hardware selling while even DS sales are slackening in Japan. Just to boggle your brains, I'm going to remind you guys that there are a few more shows left in the year and that your contnued patience is appreciated. Monster Hunter is a key brand for us here in N. America, as I've said repeatedly here at Unity, and one that I personally want to help reach the same level of cultural connection in the US as Capcom enjoys in Japan.
@ Scarecrow
ShawnI completely disagree with your comment. Being a PC gamer, one that particpates in the economy, is not to be understated. DMC4 is a big console title, released months later on PC. If PC Gamers were all pirates or a majoirtiy of people were, The Orange Box wouldn't have sold better on PC, it would have been pirated, and the console versions would have sold better then PC, which combined, the PC outsold them by a very wide margin. There's something to be said about digital distrobution, proper marketing, catering to the PC audience even with minor things, and releasing games within a close time frame. All of this needs to be taken into consideration. The PC is certainly in flux right now, but for the better, and the community just isn't buying perceived console ports, just isn't going to happen. Capcom needed to make it clear that this was getting proper TLC on PC, and the community would have gotten behind it in greater numbers just by default. I can tell you right now, word and opinion travel very fast within the PC community, much moreso than other communities. You're also dealing with much more picky gamers on the platform, something that needs to be understood.
I own every single console, DS, PSP,a brand new Gaming Rig, and a new Gaming Laptop to top it off. I'm primarily a PC Gamer, but I enjoy console gaming too. If DMC4 came out the same time as PC, I still would have bought it for 360, as the game is a console game first, meant for a gamepad. Similarly, I would choose an FPS/RTS on PC anyday over a console version for obvious control reasons and others.
10:50 PM CST