Clover Studios Dissolved - Kamiya and Inaba quit Capcom, Mikami on Special contract

[Zenien]

http://ir.capcom.co.jp/news/html/061012a.html

IF you're asking yourself why, it's probably because people didn't buy their games (Aside from Viewtiful Joe and Viewtiful Joe 2 to a lesser extent). In fact if you don't own or weren't inerested in owning at least one Clover Studios game, you officially have crappy taste.

Anyway, it sounds like Clover is being re-absorbed into Studio 4 and will now have to go through the approval process that the rest of the studios go through etc.

For reference Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2 are two of the best games released this Generation, and Okami can probably be included in that list as well.

Henshin a go go Baby!



http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3994&Itemid=2

closure of Clover Studios.

Q: Can you explain briefly why Clover Studio has been decided to be dissolved?

A: Clover Studio (CS) was established in July 2004 by Capcom in order to create new types of titles. Then, the titles such as Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand were produced. At the same time, R&D at Capcom also produced some new types of titles such as Dead Rising and Lost Planet and they were regarded highly at game shows such as E3. Reviewing the existing R&D organization, we have reached the conclusion that we should be centralizing all the resources rather than running two companies. Therefore, disbandment of CS was decided.

Q: We’ve heard that the famous creators such as [Resident Evil creator] Mr. [Shinji] Mikami, [Okami producer] Mr. [Atsushi] Inaba and [Devil May Cry director] Mr. [Hideki] Kamiya have quit, is this true? Why didn’t they come back to Capcom?

A: Mr. Mikami had already left Capcom in November 2005 but signed on a separate contract with us. Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya have also left Capcom in June and July of this year respectively. Naturally, we had hoped that Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya to come back to us, however, both of them told us that they wanted a new challenge at a new environment. As far as Capcom’s concerned, now all the resources should be used more effectively and more efficiently since they are centralized.

Q: Apparently, CS had 64 staff at the setup of the company, what happened to those people?

A: Actually, only 15 staff [members were] still left in the company at the time of 12th October. They will be transferred to R&D at Capcom although we haven’t negotiated with them individually yet. However, we will have to examine what sort of organization is required for creating more new titles first.

Q: Will copyright of the titles that were produced by CS be transferred to Capcom?

A: Yes, all copyrights of the CS titles will be transferred back to Capcom as a process of disbandment of the company.

Q: Can you tell us more about Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya? We’ve heard that they are setting up a new company.

A: Since they are not our employees any longer, we can’t answer this question.

Q: Don’t you think of Mr. Mikami’s departure as a huge loss? Who’s going to produce Resident Evil series from now on?

A: We have a signed contract with Mr. Mikami separately. In any case, we have many creators that have worked on Resident Evil series titles and have enough knowledge of the series. Mr. Mikami will also work in our R&D. By the way, Mr. Takeuchi is producing Resident Evil 5 (he’s worked on the original Resident Evil).

 

[Zenien]

HUGE loss to Capcom with Kamiya and Inaba walking, and Mikami can't be too far behind them, I bet Capcom has a "Finish up RE5" contract going (possibly a RE contract in general).

Either Kamiya and Inaba walked leading to the end of Clover, or it was the dissolution of Clover that led to them walking. Kamiya and Inaba forming their own studio is promising though, but who knows how they're going to get financing for any sort of budget on their new games.

 

[Zenien]

And people who don't care about this automatically have crap taste, too bad.

 

[Horrorfan]

What a shock, games about dogs painting don't sell.

Nope, didn't see that one coming.

 

[Mentok]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[Zenien]

What a shock, games about dogs painting don't sell.

Nope, didn't see that one coming.

You are dangerously close to hating on Okami, mister.

 

[Zenien]

Now here is a surprise! Capcom announced that it will shut down much heralded internal developer Clover Studio. Known for Viewtiful Joe, and more recently the excellent Okami, and just released God Hand, Clover Studio will close its doors March 2007, in what Capcom calls an attempt to improve its global development structure.



Capcom Co., Ltd., hereby announces that a resolution was passed at the Board of Directors’ meeting held on October 12, 2006 that Clover Studio Co., Ltd., one of consolidated subsidiaries, is to be dissolved.

Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has met the goal of developing unique and creative original home video game software, however, in view of promoting a business strategy that concentrates management resources on a selected business to enhance the efficiency of the development power of the entire Capcom group, the dissolution of Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has been raised and passed at a Board of Directors' meeting.

The impact of the dissolution of Clover Studio Co., Ltd. on the financial forecasts, separately announced on the same day, is inclusive as part of Extraordinary Losses amounting to 400 million yen.

Clover Studio Co., Ltd is scheduled to shut down end of March, 2007.

http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=37813&mode=thread&order=0

Well, that pretty much settles it, Clover was closed as a part of Capcoms effort to streamline development and improve efficientcy. Putting the peices together, everyone at Clvoer was probably aware for some time that Okami would be their last project as a team. Seeing as how out of the 65 employees, apparently only 15 were still formally working at Clover as of today.

Inafune definately has the right idea, and Capcom in general does, with their new model, but it cost them one of their most important developers to do it, it would seem.

And Mikami, outside of RE, hasn't been batting very well, and has even publically said that he's tired of making RE and 'franchise' games over and over again. He technical left Capcom in 2005 but Clover hired him on, now he's on a special contract with Capcom for who knows what period of time.

Though it's not like Capcom doesn't have talent, even in the face of these departures, but when the minds behind your biggest franchises are walking out the door...

 

[XwolverineX]

What a shock, games about dogs painting don't sell.

Nope, didn't see that one coming.

While I really want Okami, I think it looks amazing, I understand what he's saying. Same thing with Beyond Good and Evil, no matter how good the's game are, the average consumer would never buy them.

 

[Horrorfan]

While I'm not hating on okami- I never played the game- I could have told you that would NEVER sell. I haven't played it and don't intend to- it does not appeal to me in any way, shape or form, especially when it comes to parting with 50 bucks or so. Ditto Killer 7.


I applaud them for taking artistic risk, even if it wasn't my thing, but I have never seen a project more doomed to failure (commercially) than Okami.

 

[TheCardPlayer]

**** me. Huge loss for Capcom. They are still the best game company around but damn! No Mikami and Kamiya is a big blow.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Too bad they didn't make a single Xbox game. I would have bought it.

 

[Zenien]

If Zelda could sell why couldn't Okami. Since Okami is flipping beautiful, similar in some respects to the style of Zelda, has amazing music, and you play as a god, not a dog. ugh.

Actually I think Clovers mistake was going PS2 happy... The Gamecube audience totally pissed on Viewtiful Joe the second that happened, and VJ was never as popular on the PS2 as the GC. Making Okami GC exclusive, even in the face of Twilight Princess, might have gotten them (slightly) better sales. It sold like 87k in Septemeber here FYI. Truely a shame.

 

[Zenien]

 

[kytrigger]

If Zelda could sell why couldn't Okami. Since Okami is flipping beautiful, similar in some respects to the style of Zelda, has amazing music, and you play as a god, not a dog. ugh.

Actually I think Clovers mistake was going PS2 happy... The Gamecube audience totally pissed on Viewtiful Joe the second that happened, and VJ was never as popular on the PS2 as the GC. Making Okami GC exclusive, even in the face of Twilight Princess, might have gotten them (slightly) better sales. It sold like 87k in Septemeber here FYI. Truely a shame.

Zelda could sell the same style that Okami couldn't because of name recognition. If Wind Waker was the first ever Zelda game, I bet it would have sold the same way as Okami did.

 

[Hyper Venom]

Does this mean the next Devil May Cry game will be as bad as DMC2? Shame...

 

[Zenien]

Zelda could sell the same style that Okami couldn't because of name recognition. If Wind Waker was the first ever Zelda game, I bet it would have sold the same way as Okami did.

I guess you're right, well if it was Nintendo published and created it would have done better then Okami. Come to think of it the one series that definately would be doing Okami numbers without first party backing would be Team ICO. So clearly either Clover should have stuck with the Cube, or become a Sony first party!

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

ah well. i always hated viewtiful joe. I cant belive you guys are comparing zelda and okami. come on now!