PARIS, FRANCE – NOVEMBER 1: Video developed and edited by Capcom during Paris Games Week 2022 held at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on November 1, 2022 in Paris, France. Gamers playing the game “Street Fighter 6”. Paris Games Week will return to Paris after a two-year hiatus related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The event, which celebrates video games and esports, will run from November 2nd to 6th, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Chesnot/Getty Images)
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Japanese game developer Capcom is best known for video games like Resident Evil, Marvel vs. Capcom, and Street Fighter, but they want to capture the hearts of movie fans as well as gamers. Masu.
At the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba, Japan, the company’s chief operating officer, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, told CNBC that Capcom’s strength in gaming is its ability to sell both new and old titles alike.
Tsujimoto said that Capcom’s ability to release new game titles almost every year in addition to existing series such as Street Fighter and Resident Evil “shows that we have a strong, high-quality catalog. ” he pointed out.
The company plans to release the first sequel to the action role-playing game “Dragon’s Dogma” in more than 10 years. It was introduced at the Tokyo Game Show, but the official release date has not yet been determined.
Tsujimoto told CNBC’s Will Kouris that this approach is “one of our key strategies” and “leads to continued sales of brands that we have released in the past.”
Capcom is no stranger to the movie industry, having seen the live-action Street Fighter movie in 1994 and Resident Evil, which has produced seven films since 1997.
“Capcom was one of the first companies to combine the game and movie businesses,” Tsujimoto points out. “We have experienced the synergistic effect that when a game is made into a movie, the movie sells and the game also sells.”
We have experienced a synergistic effect where when a game is made into a movie, the movie sells and the game also sells.
Haruhiro Tsujimoto
Capcom Chief Operating Officer
As such, the company is deepening its foray into the film industry by establishing Capcom Pictures in Hollywood in 2022, where the film production company will aim to produce more films.
“We will continue to evolve. Our strategy is to continue to develop both our game production and film production businesses so that they not only compete with each other but also stimulate each other, and our strategy is to continue to develop our digital entertainment and film production businesses. to take it to new heights.”
AI in games?
Generative artificial intelligence has been touted as the next big step in the tech industry, with the potential to create text, images, and even videos, but it may not be coming to the game development industry anytime soon. .
Tsujimoto said that integrating AI into game development is a “tough situation” and that “many issues need to be addressed before we can actually integrate generative AI into our operations.”
On Wednesday, Hisashi Koinuma, president and chief operating officer of Koei Tecmo Games, expressed a similar opinion.
He told CNBC that challenges remain when using generative AI in game development.
“We are still in the process of studying and researching how and to what extent generative AI, including rights-related issues, will benefit game production and to what extent it will contribute to the production of better games. ”
However, Camcom’s Tsujimoto emphasized that generative AI can be used in terms of improving workforce and development efficiency. However, the company is still in the stage of researching its use in game development.
The chief operating officer (COO) said this will not be achieved by reducing the number of developers, but by improving Capcom’s development efficiency by deploying personnel more efficiently while leveraging generative AI. Ta.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Dragon’s Dogma 2 was introduced at Tokyo Game Show 2023, but the game’s official release date has not yet been confirmed. A previous version of the article misstated facts due to translation issues.
