Capcom’s President Reveals the Key to the Company’s Recent Success in Gaming

Capcom is on a remarkable roll lately. With titles like Monster Hunter Wilds, Resident Evil Requiem, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Pragmata, and Street Fighter 6, nearly every game released in the past five years—except for Exoprimal—has achieved both critical acclaim and commercial success. While many attribute this winning streak to various factors, President and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto points to a new “team-based approach to game development” as the key to their recent achievements.

In a recent interview celebrating Capcom’s 43rd anniversary, Tsujimoto shared insights on the current gaming landscape and the company’s impressive lineup. The most intriguing part of the discussion was his take on Capcom’s success, which he attributes to moving away from projects led by individual creators.

“In the game industry, when a title evolves into a series, it often becomes heavily reliant on a specific developer, turning into what you’d call an individual-driven title,” Tsujimoto noted. “If that developer doesn’t produce a new installment, the series stalls. The direction becomes tied to the vision of a single creator.”

He elaborated, “We talked with the key figures behind each franchise and ultimately decided to abandon that model. Instead, we embraced the idea that every title should be essentially rebuilt from scratch. We were willing to accept temporary sales declines, and by adopting a team-based approach, Capcom underwent a significant transformation.”

It’s easy to overlook, but Capcom faced challenges during the early 2010s. Street Fighter V had a rocky launch, Resident Evil 6 didn’t quite hit the mark, and fans were divided over the new direction of DmC: Devil May Cry. Some of their more ambitious projects, like Asura’s Wrath and Lost Planet 3, also fell short financially, leaving the company’s future in doubt.

The turning point came with the release of Resident Evil 7 in 2017, which marked a bold shift to first-person gameplay, moving away from the action-oriented, horror-lite style that had defined the series. While Tsujimoto didn’t specify a title in the interview, Resident Evil 7’s launch seems to signify a departure from the auteur-driven model, paving the way for hits like Monster Hunter World and the Resident Evil 2 Remake.

It’s a curious stance for Capcom, considering that many of its most iconic franchises were born from the vision of individual creators, such as Shinji Mikami with the original Resident Evil and Hideki Kamiya with Devil May Cry. Additionally, one of the standout titles from the early 2010s, Dragon’s Dogma, was developed under director Hideaki Itsuno.

Interestingly, over the past two decades, all three of those key creators have left Capcom, which might explain the struggles the company faced in the 2010s and why upper management opted for a new “team-based approach” to development. Whether this shift was driven by necessity or strategy, it’s hard to dispute the positive results Tsujimoto has achieved.