Capcom Wants Annual Releases for Its Core IPs

Capcom is riding high off the release of Monster Hunter: World, and it is looking to continue that success with 2019’s Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5. With such a steady stream of high-profile releases, the Japanese publisher is planning to capitalize on that momentum by making annual releases of some of its core franchises.

In its annual report to shareholders, Capcom projected a 45.9% growth by 2022. To attain that goal, Capcom has outlined some strategies to pursue the needs to existing consumers, while also attracting new ones. Part of this strategy involves a more steady stream of releases year-to-year.

In the report, Capcom said it has “shortened the launch cycle” for its major franchises, allowing for “the launch of major multiple titles each fiscal year.” Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and Monster Hunter were some of the franchises namechecked in the report.

Capcom is looking into the factors that led to the blockbuster success of Monster: Hunter World and wants to apply that to its other franchises. We’re not sure what constitutes a “major title” necessarily, so there’s no telling if we’ll see Resident Evil 8, for example, in 2020.

Mega Man 11 just released, and was the first core Mega Man title in eight years. Might we see a new Mega Man title much sooner? We shall have to wait and see. Capcom also noted its intention to still create new IP, in addition to working with dormant franchises, while fleshing out their current franchises.

In the past, Capcom has stated it was more concerned with the quality of a game than its sales numbers. We have seen many franchises burn out due to annualization, so hopefully, that doesn’t turn out to be the case. Resident Evil 2 launches on January 25, 2019, while Devil May Cry 5 comes out on March 8, 2019. Both are for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

[Source: Capcom]