Not all publishers and developers these days are so kind to the PC; consoles are typically easier to develop for and are much less prone to piracy, so it makes sense many have abandoned the ol' thing.
But the interesting fact to note is this leaves a wide open space, which is where companies like Capcom have come in. They may not necessarily be the first company you think of when the topic of backing the PC comes around, but they could soon be one of them. As mentioned before, games like Devil May Cry 4 and now Street Fighter IV have really put them in a good space reputation-wise (especially in light of certain mistakes in the past), and that's just the start of it:
"People might remember Devil May Cry 3, Resident Evil 4, and Onimusha - these were projects that were outsourced, and run by our licensing team, rather than internal R&D," revealed Christian Svensson, vice president of strategic planning at Capcom in an interview. "They were thrown over the wall to a developer, and the ports were quick and dirty, and even internally were not viewed favourably. As part of the licensing deal Ubisoft had the rights to distribute. Shortly thereafter the US side of our business decided to bring that back into the consumer software side and grow it. At the same time there were two things happening in Japan: number one was the development of the MT framework, the technology which would allow us to port over work we’d done on PS3 and 360 to the PC. The second thing was a broad online initiative towards Japan, Korea, and China, headed up out of the Tokyo office. The first title that has shipped is Monster Hunter Frontier, which is now one of the most successful MMOs in Japan.
So that’s how we got to where we are with bringing titles to internal development on PC."
In the interview, Svennson goes on to cite titles like Lost Planet Colonies, Dark Void, Dead Rising 2, etc., noting there's "more too, but we’ve not announced that yet".
The shift on their part, he says, was sparked by "taking a global view", and gaining a broader understanding of the PC, something required if you want to develop for it and sell on it well, he implies.
And if the most skeptical of you think Capcom are just blowing smoke, well, they've joined the PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA, an organization Svennson describes as aiming "to improve the PC gaming ecosystem"), a topic which of course leads to discussion of piracy. On that front, we learn they're sticking to their guns and continuing to keep things fair:
"If we can improve issues with DRM and create an anti-piracy policy that is friendly to consumers, that will remove barriers to sales, and improve the ecosystem. Being completely mercenary: all this will improve our bottom line. The more successful we are on a platform, the bigger the risks we can take, and the better content we can produce there.
[Piracy] is a big issue on PC, and it’s probably not going to go away. The PCGA is putting some of the best minds in the industry to work on that, and I hope it’ll be able to make some useful recommendations. We would like to improve the situation, because it would improve our bottom line. But we do really need to examine the situation carefully, and perhaps even look at whether some elements of piracy can be harnessed for good. As a distribution network it is useful, and perhaps that can help us distributed software trials and so on. There are aspects of piracy that, if they can be turned around, can become positive."
Looks like someone has been paying attention to Valve!
Capcom have certainly come a long way, but they "know it’ll take a few years of development and investment before we’re where we want to be." But suffice it to say, there's lots to look forward to from the company for PC gamers.
More from the interview can be found in today's Digital distribution will rule this year or next article, where Svennson dishes on why retail isn't so important for them anymore.
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