Menu Close

Tekken X Street Fighter Going Next-Gen?

John-Shepard 6 Comments

Street Fighter X Tekken was a damn good fighting game. But where's the other one?

Capcom initially announced two crossover projects and while the first came out over a year ago, the other – Tekken X Street Fighter – hasn't released. In fact, nobody knows what's happening with the game.

Well, there's a good reason for that, and you may or may not want to hear it: Producer Katsuhiro Harada answered a fan query on his Twitter page , and it appears the team is reassessing the targeted platforms:

"We are changing & considering platform strategy. That's why we don't say anything."

So basically, he's saying that Tekken X Street Fighter will hit next-gen consoles, right? Could it be one of those generation-straddling titles like the already confirmed Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag , Watch Dogs and Destiny ? Fighting fans could use a top-notch effort when the next era kicks off; remember that many still fondly recall getting Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for the PS2's launch. And boy, that went over well, didn't it?

Related Game(s): Tekken X Street Fighter

Read more →

Remember Me Dev: Publishers Still Don’t Like Female Protagonists

Ben-Dutka 8 Comments

Female characters in video games are becoming more common, but developer DontNod Entertainment has recently found that a large part of it is still a boy's club.

When the Remember Me creators were trying to find funding for their project, some publishers resisted a partnership because the protagonist was female. This according to what creative director Jean-Max Morris told Penny Arcade .

" We had some that said, 'Well, we don't want to publish it because that's not going to succeed. You can't have a female character in games. It has to be a male character, simple as that.'

We wanted to be able to tease on Nilin's private life, and that means for instance, at one point, we wanted a scene where she was kissing a guy. We had people tell us, 'You can't make a dude like the player kiss another dude in the game, that's going to feel awkward.'"

Obviously, the assumption there would be that the majority of those controlling Nilin would be male, which is certainly true. And while publishers are essentially only interested in one thing (sales), it's interesting that they honestly believe a game with a lead female character simply can't sell as well as a game with a male hero. Added Morris:

"There's a level of immersion that you need to be at, but it's not like your sexual orientation is being questioned by playing a game. I don't know, that's extremely weird to me."

Lara Croft has proven several times over that female characters can be popular, even when they're not oddly formed sex objects. Lara's recent more realistic overhaul didn't seem to make her any less popular; in fact, gamers seem to like this new Lara even more. So maybe publishers are still suffering from some backward-thinking.

Related Game(s): Remember Me

Read more →

If Remember Me Fails, It Won’t Be Due To The Female Lead

Ben-Dutka 10 Comments

Much has been made about developer DontNod Entertainment running into funding resistance, mostly because publishers were afraid of a female protagonist.

Thing is, I'm not sure there's that much validity to the idea that male heroes automatically sell more copies of games. I'm fairly certain quality is the determining factor. If the game sucks, it won't sell. If it's great, it will. I really believe it's still that simple in this industry.

I have yet to come across anyone who balked at playing a game because the main character was a woman (or even a young girl). There are lot of die-hard JRPG lovers out there who really love the Atelier series, which almost always has you running around as a cutesy teenage girl. Furthermore, while it's certainly true that the vast majority of those who buy a game like Remember Me will be male, it isn't true that most of them simply prefer to play as a man. I believe a lot of them are interested in seeing how developers approach a story with a female protagonist, mostly because we're so used to playing as men.

And hey, let's not forget another interesting little psychological/sociological tidbit- Has anyone noticed that a fair amount of males prefer representing themselves as women in virtual worlds? Like those who have female avatars for PlayStation Home? Or those who opt to play MMOs as a female? Are you trying to tell me that doesn't exist? And really, I'd like someone to point out a gamer who absolutely refuses to play game because the lead character is a woman. I bet you'd have difficulty finding that gamer. In the end, if Remember Me flops, it will have little or nothing to do with Nilin.

Related Game(s): Remember Me

Read more →

Remember Me Pushed Back A Month

Ben-Dutka 8 Comments

It often happens that when an exact release date is announced early, small delays soon follow.

Last year, Capcom unveiled a brand new and very promising IP called Remember Me . They actually gave it a finalized date of May 7, 2013 at the time.

But now, the game has been delayed . Thankfully, the publisher has only pushed back the release date by a month, as it's now slated to hit the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on June 4 in North America and three days later in Europe. The title that was formerly known as "Adrift" is highly anticipated, and Capcom intends to build it into a "major franchise." Developer DontNod Entertainment hasn't been shy about showing off some gameplay, and the protagonist Nilin has resonated with a great many gamers.

Here's hoping that when it does arrive, Remember Me will be…uh…memorable.

Related Game(s): Remember Me

Read more →

Capcom: “We Have Two Different Sets Of Resident Evil Fans”

Ben-Dutka 14 Comments

In our review , we said Resident Evil 6 suffered from a major identity crisis; i.e., it had no idea what it wanted to be.

And maybe that's why Capcom says future entries in the series will be more "focused." In speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun , Capcom vice president of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson said they're going to "scale back, take stock of what worked and what didn't work, and think about what the future of the franchise is."

Well, the long-time fans undoubtedly want to see their beloved series return to true survival/horror, although they may not happen. Despite these fans, Capcom believes there's another set of fans to whom they must also cater; these are the followers who want more of an action approach. Said Svensson:

"Well, you have to understand, we have a couple different sets of Resident Evil fans. We have those who love Resident Evil 1, 2, 3, Code Veronica, and Zero, and then we have those who came along during the RE4 era and like things a little more action-oriented, and RE5 even more [action-oriented]. And then RE6 was even more action-focused than that."

Svensson added that he's not sure RE6 "worked out exactly" the way they had hoped, but more focus is definitely in the cards. Doesn't that mean they're going to pick a side now? Survival/horror or all-out action…? And why do we get the feeling that we already know what Capcom is gonna pick? I mean, it almost seems inevitable.

Read more →

Capcom On Why Resident Evil 6 Didn’t Resonate With Gamers

Ben-Dutka 22 Comments

Many long-time followers of the vaunted Resident Evil franchise weren't happy with how last year's RE6 came out.

And although the game ended up shipping over 5 million copies worldwide, Capcom remains sensitive to fan displeasure, and they're "currently analyzing the causes" as to why the title came up a little short.

In a recent Question & Answer session , the publisher tried to explain why RE6 didn't exactly meet gamer expectations. They say the issue involved their "internal development operations and sales operations," and they're still examining the issue:

"…we believe that the new challenges we tackled at the development stage were unable to sufficiently appeal to users. In addition, we believe there was inadequate organizational collaboration across our entire company with regard to marketing, promotions, the creation of plans and other activities. We will have to examine these results from several perspectives. We will reexamine our internal operating frameworks in order to identify areas that need to be improved concerning development as well as sales and administrative operations."

Capcom has been on record saying that RE6 "lost its momentum" after a solid launch that saw sales of 4.5 million in October. They expected to ship over 7 million copies worldwide but as you can see, they fell well shy of that anticipated number. There's a chance that the publisher might opt to reboot the franchise, which could be exactly what the fans want…provided Capcom understands that the fans want a survival/horror game.

This is starting to sound suspiciously like another Japanese company that apparently has no clue what its followers want…

Related Game(s): Resident Evil 6

Read more →