As usual, Christian Svensson has been lured out of hiding by cleverly-worded posts on the Ask Capcom forum. Here’s some of the best topics from the last few days, including responses on Bionic Commando Rearmed and Steam, cross-platform online play in RE5, perceived lack of PSP development from Capcom, trophies in DMC4 PS3, if Mega Man 9 is “gimped” on Wii and much more! 

 

Bionic Commando Rearmed and Steam

JF_Gaff ()asks: “I´ll borrow this thread too, since I have asked this question twice before, but not got an answer.

The game (Bionic Commando Rearmed) is not listed under "Coming soon" on Steam. Is it up to Capcom or Valve to put games there? It seems like you are missing some good advertisment by not getting the game there.

Oh, and please add pre purchase-options to your Steam games. The reviews indicates that this is a must buy-title. ”

Sven sez: “Actually, I do have some bad news on the Steam front. At the last minute, we've been unable to reach mutually agreeable terms with Valve on BCR, so they won't be carrying it (unfortunately you'll have to get it elsewhere). I won't get into the details but we do continue to have a good relationship with Valve and future Capcom titles we expect to be carried on Steam.

You'll find BCR available tomorrow Direct2Drive. Other sites (like our Capcom e-store and Gamersgate.com) are (also carrying the game).

Within a few days (or perhaps sooner, just waiting on some package tests), you'll find it at more than a dozen other sites (including BestBuy.com, Nvidia.com, CircuitCity.com, etc.).

Yeah, I'm bummed about Steam too. I'm an avid user (read: TF2 whore).”

 

RE5 Online: cross-platform? 

G-Mutated Birkin queries: “Some games feature this and some don't. Are there any plans of bringing the online accross two platforms? Meaning I'm on a PS3 while a friend is on his 360, and we can play together? Has this been discussed?”

Snow (freshly minted as a new Capcom employee!) responds: “No cross platform play with RE5. You'd have to convince both Sony and MS to make their servers place nice with each other... Which, unfortunately, may never happen. J” 

 

Ask Capcom: is there a point? 

GGweekly wonders in a way that almost hurts our feelings: “I was just wondering how effective you think the Ask capcom board is as a means of communicating with customers?

From the board members perspective the benefit is talking with people involved in the decision making process at our once favourite company.

But on the other side, often it seems like apart from the moderators there is only one person here who takes any active interest at capcom.

Does our feedback matter at all? If so are our concerns or requests ever passed on to anyone, ever? Do you ever discuss how annoying we all are in board meetings?

What kind of influence on capcom is there from any kind of consumer feedback on this board?”

Sven: “You'd be surprised at how much influence it has... some obvious examples were posted above but there's dozens of less obvious ones I can't talk about.”

 

This thread is funny!

Yogaflame (sporting a super-creepy Heath Ledger icon) asked a funny softball question: “Why does the C in Capcom curve down like that? What's that C up to?”

Seth immediately stepped in and offered t-shirts to best replies, which have included:

Frustrated Hunter: “maybe its bowing to show _ap_om the respect it deserves... or reaching for its console?”

Blaze1: “It hasnt recieved its Extendz in the mail yet”

NotAlexander overshares: “In my experience, it would have better luck doing that if it were upsidedown on it's back...”

The ever-present Mynando: “Because Capcom's f**king cool enough to break the rules of typography like that.”

Adamazing attempts a difficult triple-axel-asskiss-dismount with: “The C is being weighed down because Capcom is holding up the entire video game industry with the most fantastic games, thus keeping the industry alive.  It may bend down, but it will never break.”

And my personal favorite from hellhound : “The C is a shape of an ear to show that capcom listens to their fans.  :)”

And lots more in the thread. What’s your thought? Let us know and you might score a cool Capcom shirt from seth!

 

Capcom, Why hast thou forsaken the PSP?

Ronald crazily asks: “Hi, I'm new here although I've been visiting Capcom site for some time. Anyway, there's something I'd like to know. 

 Ever since I played Ghouls and Ghosts on my parents' Amiga, Capcom has been one of my favorite developers. In fact, Capcom games were the reason I bought my fat PSP, and I wasn't disappointed. Mega Man games were great, and so were the remixed Capcom classics.  I loved Harvey Birdman as well, it was a breath of fresh air.

 But a couple of months ago, while at school, a friend told me that he heard Capcom is stopping PSP development  (except for Monster games in Japan) and the most I can expect are occasional PS2 ports. He said that because most of Capcom PSP games flopped, Capcom has no plans for further support, and will concentrate on DS development in the future.  I didn't believe him, but then I decided to check  your official site, and saw there are no PSP games scheduled for this year.

 It saddened me a bit, so I deceided to register, and ask did Capcom cease PSP development? I love my Capcom PSP collection, but if true, I'll sell the lot and use funds to buy a DS.”

Sven to the rescue!: “Absolutely 100% false... We're still making new PSP games. We may be the most successful PSP publisher in the world with Monster Hunter Portable 2nd and 2ndG. It'd be a difficult decision to defend stopping development when we have such success on the platform.”

 

Trophies in DMC4?

Super beasta25  demands trophies!: “why can't devil may cry 4 do a trophy patch? As soon as dmc4 wasn't going to get the patch for trophies, It was dissapointing, because

1. you have said both version are idenitcal.

2. The 360 version has it across the board.

3.Scense now the ps3 has tropies, you won't do a simple patch that take a month!?

That's right, It's simple as a few guys for a month, just puting together a patch to add a across board portfile accomishment. Not only that, but uncharted drake's fortune has been out longer than devil may cry 4, and the team is working tours there next project, but i found it funny that a *older* game got the trophie treatment just under a month! They even said it a simple job because of uncharted medels system is the basic for it.

If it that simple of the job, then why can't you just take a few members of the dmc4 team, and just make a patch. But that not all, i have found a bug that whenever i download a demo or video from the playstation store, the game get differcult to load, and sometime stop my console completely waile loading the next area. You need to fix that, because my friend ps3 almost broke because of that, and mine. So why no patch that can't handle that to? I don't get why you guys made a accomishment system, and won't take to just one step to make fans feels hole. Not only that, but when home comes down the road, will dmc4 have a gamespace like uncharted, warhawk, and resistance? Those spaces are cool, and dmc4 should have one, because it's well, the world of dmc is stylish, and exploring the world of dmc4 or the Devil may cry shop is still a cool idea. I may came on to agressive with this qustion, but still dmc4 is still a good title, and without 2d trophies, and home treatment, it just be a shadow, and that's not good in my mind. So will there'll be a future patch for this game, despite age?”

Sven points out: “Pretty much anyone that could be working on trophies is working on new content on other projects. It's a function of prioritizing scarce resources.

It's probably fair to remind you that post-launch trophy additions are the exception, not the rule. There's only a handful of titles that have gone back and added them in, most of them being first party titles.

We're investigating gamespaces... no concrete news on that front though.”

 

Mega Man 9 gimped on Wii? Never!

Eilegz wants to know: “Mega Man 9 for Wii a gimped experience? first we suppose to get this game wiiware exclusive, then it went multiplatform, and now Wii ware version its getting gimped compared to other version? what its next...” (and he links out to a Joystiq story about rumored Mega Man 9 360 Achievements.)

Sven points out: “1. Achievements are mandatory from Microsoft. They must exist for the game to have MS approval. It's an integral part of the system's mechanics.

2. Achievements do not exist on Wii, nor does any other mechanism like it. You couldn't possibly be suggesting that we develop our own one-off achievement system for MM9? Retail games don't even do that much less $10 downloadable titles.

The game is exactly the same on both systems with the exception of system specific requirements. If that's what pushes someone over the edge to a purchase, so be it, but that's not exactly under our control.”

 

And finally, the obligatory Monster Hunter 3 question

And finally, from huntmaster Ness: “I am sorry but I had to ask this question: Is Monster Hunter 3 coming to America?

This is all I want to know, I don't care about the date, I don't care about the time, I don't care about game or mechanics, I just want to know if there IS going to be an American version, and that is it.

IF you are not obligated to say anything at the time, then lemme know when you officially can answer.”

Sven: Alas, I can't share that information, but I can give the same answer I've been giving for a while and that is: "The Monster Hunter franchise is going to be increasingly important for Western markets. We have long term ambition to grow the brand to be as large across the West as it is in Japan." Beyond that, I'm not yet able to give specific details.

Just for reference, even for Japan, we haven't announced a date (or even a release year) for MH Tri.