Capcom

Capcom's predecessor, I.R.M. Corporation, was founded on May 30, 1979[7] by Kenzo Tsujimoto. Tsujimoto was still president of Irem Corporation when he founded I.R.M. Tsujimoto worked concomitantly in both companies until leaving the former in 1983.

The original companies that spawned Capcom's Japanese branch were I.R.M. as well as its subsidiary Japan Capsule Computers Co., Ltd., both of which were devoted to the manufacturing and distribution of electronic game machines.[5] The two companies underwent a name change to Sambi Co., Ltd. in September 1981,[5] while Capcom Co., Ltd. was first established on June 11, 1983 by Kenzo Tsujimoto,[7] for the purpose of taking over the internal sales department.[8]

In January 1989, the old affiliate company Capcom Co., Ltd. merged with Sambi Co., Ltd., resulting in the current Japanese branch.[5] The name Capcom is a clipped compound of "Capsule Computers", a term coined by the company to describe the arcade machines it solely manufactured in its early years, designed to set themselves apart from personal computers that were becoming widespread at that time.[9] The word capsule alludes to how Capcom likened its game software to "a capsule packed to the brim with gaming fun", as well as to the company's desire to protect its intellectual property with a hard outer shell, preventing illegal copies and inferior imitations.[9]

While Capcom's first product was the coin-operated Little League from July 1983, its first real video game, the arcade title Vulgus, was released in May 1984.[5] Beginning with a Nintendo Entertainment System port of 1942 published in December 1985, the company started to venture into the market of home console video games,[5] which became its main business segment a few years later.[10] Its division Capcom USA had a brief stint in the late 1980s as a video game publisher for the Commodore 64 and IBM PC DOS computers although the development of these arcade ports were handled by other companies. Capcom has created 15 multi-million-selling game series, the most successful of which is Resident Evil.[11]

Capcom has been noted as the last major publisher to be committed to 2D games, though this was not entirely by choice. The company's commitment to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as its platform of choice caused them to lag behind other leading publishers in developing 3D-capable arcade boards.[12] In addition, the 2D animated cartoon-style graphics seen in games such as Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and X-Men: Children of the Atom proved popular, leading Capcom to adopt it as a signature style and use it in more games.[12]

In 1994, Capcom adapted its Street Fighter series of fighting games into a film of the same name. While commercially successful, it was critically panned. A 2002 adaptation of its Resident Evil series faced similar criticism but was also successful in theaters. The company sees films as a way to build sales for its video games.[13]

Capcom partnered with Nyu Media in 2011 to publish and distribute the Japanese independent (dōjin soft) games that Nyu localized into the English language.[14] The company works with the Polish localization company QLoc to port Capcom's games to other platforms,[15] notably examples are DmC: Devil May Cry's PC version and its PlayStation 4 and Xbox One remasters, Dragon's Dogma's PC version released in January 2016, and Dead Rising's version on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC released on September 13, 2016.

On August 27, 2014, Capcom filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Koei Tecmo Games at the Osaka District Court for 980 million yen in damage. Capcom claimed Koei Tecmo Games infringed a patent it obtained in 2002 regarding a play feature in video games.[16]

On 2 November 2020, the company reported that its servers were affected by ransomware, scrambling its data, and the threat actors, the Ragnar Locker hacker group, have allegedly stolen 1TB of sensitive corporation data and were blackmailing Capcom to pay them to remove the ransomware. By mid-November, the group began putting information from the hack online, which included contact information for up to 350,000 employees and partners of the company as well as plans for upcoming games, indicating that Capcom opted to not pay the group. Capcom did affirm that no credit card or similar financial information was obtained by the hack.[17]

Capcom started its Street Fighter franchise in 1987. The series of fighting games are among the most popular in their genre. Having sold 46 million units, the series serves as one of Capcom's flagship franchises. That same year, the company introduced its Mega Man series, which has sold 36 million units.

The company released the first entry in its Resident Evil survival horror series in 1996. The series has achieved financial success, selling 107 million units. Following work on the second entry in the Resident Evil series, Capcom began work on a Resident Evil game for the PlayStation 2. Radically different from the existing series, Capcom decided to spin off the game into its own series, Devil May Cry. While it released the first three entries exclusively for the PlayStation 2, the company brought further entries to non-Sony consoles. The series as a whole has seen sales of 23 million units. Capcom began its Monster Hunter series in 2004. The series has seen sales of 66 million units on a variety of consoles. After remaking Resident Evil games 2 & 3 Capcom is now remaking Resident Evil 4.[34] Resident Evil 4 has a larger development team than the series' previous two remakes, including support from Capcom's internal Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5 teams. Many original Resident Evil 4 developers remain among these teams including producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Remake is being directed by a newcomer at M-Two.[35]

Although the company often relies on existing franchises, it also published and developed several titles for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii, based on original intellectual property: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Dead Rising, Dragon's Dogma, Asura's Wrath and Zack and Wiki.[36] During this period, Capcom also helped publish several original titles from up and coming Western developers with titles like Remember Me, Dark Void and Spyborgs, titles that many other publishers were not willing to take a chance on.[37][38] Also of note are the titles Ōkami, Ōkamiden and Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Currently, Capcom is working on its latest new intellectual property, Deep Down, for the PlayStation 4.

Platinum Titles

Capcom compiles a list, which is updated on quarterly basis, of its games that have exceeded one million copies sold, called "Platinum Titles". The list contains over 100 video games. The following list contains the top ten titles by sold copies as of December 31, 2020.[39]

Key

Including digital distribution

Title	Release date	Platform(s) considered	Sales (m)
Monster Hunter World	January 2018	PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC	16.8
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard	January 2017	PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC	8.5
Resident Evil 2 Remake	January 2019	PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC	7.8
Resident Evil 5	March 2009	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	7.8
Resident Evil 6	October 2012	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	7.7
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne	September 2019	PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC	7.2
Street Fighter II	June 1992	Super Nintendo Entertainment System	6.3
Street Fighter V	February 2016	PlayStation 4, PC	5.2
Resident Evil 2	January 1998	PlayStation	4.96
Monster Hunter Freedom 3	December 2010	PlayStation Portable	4.9

In 2012, Capcom came under criticism for controversial sales tactics, such as the implementation of disc-locked content, which requires players to pay for additional content that is already available within the game's files, most notably in Street Fighter X Tekken. The company has defended the practice.[40] It has also been criticized for other business decisions, such as not releasing certain games outside Japan (most notably the Sengoku Basara series), abruptly cancelling anticipated projects (most notably Mega Man Legends 3), and shutting down Clover Studio.

In 2015, the PlayStation 4 version of Ultra Street Fighter IV was pulled from the Capcom Pro Tour due to numerous technical issues and gameplay bugs.[41]

In 2016, Capcom released Street Fighter V with very limited single player content. At launch, there were stability issues with the game's network that booted players mid-game even when they were not playing in an online mode.[42] Street Fighter V failed to meet its sales target of 2 million in March 2016.[43]

• Official website