Since 2017 or so there's been a sense that Capcom is "back" with the last few Resident Evils being well-received, Capcom putting out another "real" Devil May Cry game, and them finally making a Monster Hunter for the western console market which ends up being Capcom's top selling game ever.
Was Capcom really "gone" for the PS3/360 era and the first part of this past console gen though? I guess like all Japanese game companies it had trouble adjusting to HD, but Capcom didn't have nearly as much trouble in that regards as Square Enix or Konami. Sure Resident Evil 5 and 6 were kinda "eh" (unless you played RE5 in co-op) and so were Lost Planet 2 and 3 (was LP2 simply ahead of its time?), but from a production standpoint Capcom was still able to ship a decent number of games. Its MT Framework tech seemed to work well for it and even made for some of the most optimized PC ports of AAA games of that era. And really, you can't ignore how Monster Hunter on the PSP took over Japan back then. Though at the same time Capcom's output on the DS probably wasn't as good as on the GBA. I think we can just agree that the PS3/360/PSP/DS era was Capcom's least good console generation.
...I don't know. How do you compare that to the PS2/GCN/Xbox/GBA era? That's when Capcom gave up on Street Fighter, instead coasting on CvS2 and Marvel 2. Resident Evil was also sort of in the wilderness for most of that gen since Mikami turned his back on Sony in favor of Nintendo, releasing one really good RE game on the GameCube, then releasing an okay one, then releasing the GOAT at the tail end of its lifespan. Weigh that against the GBA, where Capcom cranked out four Mega Man Zeroes (and Mega Man & Bass) and six Battle Networks. Really Capcom gained a reputation for being extremely prolific back then, especially with Mega Man games. Even Breath of Fire V, though apparently controversial back then, is today seen as underrated. And of course Devil May Cry pretty much codified a genre.
Prior to the PS2 era it's pretty much all good for Capcom. The 80's and 90's are one long heyday for the company, even as it transitioned from making certain kinds of games to others.
Out of all that, I'd argue the 16-bit era was Capcom's best. The main reason is due to Street Fighter II launching the fighting game boom. If you weren't around back then, SFII was almost like the Call of Duty or Fortnite of its time. It was the competitive video game everybody knew about. It was solidly in the mainstream consciousness. Even aside from that and all Capcom's other early 90's fighting games, it cranked out Mega Man X games on the SNES, Breath of Fire games, and some good Disney games too.
Was Capcom really "gone" for the PS3/360 era and the first part of this past console gen though? I guess like all Japanese game companies it had trouble adjusting to HD, but Capcom didn't have nearly as much trouble in that regards as Square Enix or Konami. Sure Resident Evil 5 and 6 were kinda "eh" (unless you played RE5 in co-op) and so were Lost Planet 2 and 3 (was LP2 simply ahead of its time?), but from a production standpoint Capcom was still able to ship a decent number of games. Its MT Framework tech seemed to work well for it and even made for some of the most optimized PC ports of AAA games of that era. And really, you can't ignore how Monster Hunter on the PSP took over Japan back then. Though at the same time Capcom's output on the DS probably wasn't as good as on the GBA. I think we can just agree that the PS3/360/PSP/DS era was Capcom's least good console generation.
...I don't know. How do you compare that to the PS2/GCN/Xbox/GBA era? That's when Capcom gave up on Street Fighter, instead coasting on CvS2 and Marvel 2. Resident Evil was also sort of in the wilderness for most of that gen since Mikami turned his back on Sony in favor of Nintendo, releasing one really good RE game on the GameCube, then releasing an okay one, then releasing the GOAT at the tail end of its lifespan. Weigh that against the GBA, where Capcom cranked out four Mega Man Zeroes (and Mega Man & Bass) and six Battle Networks. Really Capcom gained a reputation for being extremely prolific back then, especially with Mega Man games. Even Breath of Fire V, though apparently controversial back then, is today seen as underrated. And of course Devil May Cry pretty much codified a genre.
Prior to the PS2 era it's pretty much all good for Capcom. The 80's and 90's are one long heyday for the company, even as it transitioned from making certain kinds of games to others.
Out of all that, I'd argue the 16-bit era was Capcom's best. The main reason is due to Street Fighter II launching the fighting game boom. If you weren't around back then, SFII was almost like the Call of Duty or Fortnite of its time. It was the competitive video game everybody knew about. It was solidly in the mainstream consciousness. Even aside from that and all Capcom's other early 90's fighting games, it cranked out Mega Man X games on the SNES, Breath of Fire games, and some good Disney games too.
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