For a development house like Capcom presentations may seem superfluous. The software house, in fact, is one of the longest-lived in our panorama as well as loved by many fans. The team gave birth to famous games such as Street Fighter, Mega Man e Dino crisis just to name a few. Lately, however, we have been literally inundated with their titles: between Monster Hunter: World, released last year, Resident Evil 2 Remake e Devil May Cry 5, the house made fire and flames. However, it has not always been all roses, for a certain period the fame and the support of the fans have been waning, certainly due to some unhappy choices that Capcom has applied to its most famous brands: just think of the totally action turn given to Resident Evil 5 e Resident Evil 6, or the same Street Fighters who, due to a classic play formula, have sinned a lot in terms of content.
However, for about two years now the company has been getting closer to the players by listening to their voice, just think of the return to the horror origins (but with one foot forward) of Resident Evil 7 which, although not a perfect title in every respect, has reached 4 million units sold. Subsequently it was the turn of the aforementioned Monster Hunter: World, which in a very short time it has become the most distributed Capcom game ever. Recently, however, we have had the opportunity to appreciate two works that are completely different from each other, but which have been able to unite fans under the banner of quality: we are talking about Resident Evil 2 Remake, which has sold around three million units, and Devil May Cry 5 which is getting more and more support day after day. Recently the CEO of the company, Urata, has expressed himself in no uncertain terms about all the success achieved by the team in this period: "Capcom is back". Three simple and direct words that hide a deep fear and uncertainty in the future, which is now much brighter and less frightening. Will it be a coincidence to see those incredible average ratings for all these productions? If two or more clues prove it ...
To understand what we are telling you, we need to take a significant step back, we must go back to the past of a few years. We are in 2010 and, although the Japanese gaming market has been in crisis for a long time, Capcom is not going to give up. Unfortunately, as some professors would tell mum and dad during an interview, "your son might work hard but he doesn't apply." Capcom at that time was like this: a series of games of dubious taste seasoned by the desire to relaunch historical brands without knowing which direction to take (DmC, we're talking about you). Just think of the senseless action turn given to Resident Evil with the publication of the fifth chapter and many other elements that foreshadowed that, by now, the disaster was imminent. In fact, when a development company continues to publish titles without a real awareness of what they are doing, the results are always bad. The reboot of Devil May Cry in a way is proof of this, given that usually this kind of product suggests that, although the technical quality is out of the question, as far as ideas and insights are concerned, the bottom of the barrel is being scraped. A real crisis that, although on a financial level, did not make itself felt that much, made Capcom lose a lot of consensus from the players.
Flash forward and we are in 2017, Capcom raises his voice and starts doing things again seriously, putting his face, personality, determination and desire to break. Above our shelves comes Resident Evil 7, not only does the game return to being a raw and scary horror, but that action drift that fans loathed so much has been almost completely set aside. The reviews are positive, the fans are in awe and this is just the beginning. A year later it will be time to land everyone in the new world with Monster Hunter: World and the rest, as they say, is known history.
Capcom had so much to prove and so it did, making itself loved again by the fans who, in their hearts, had never abandoned it. The company's latest games were literally a test of maturity: Resident Evil 2 Remake is, in a sense, the new progenitor of this genre of products, showing the whole market how remakes should be shaped, Devil May Cry 5 is the consecration of the brand, the proof that although the game has remained anchored to a playful structure that is too well-established, you can have absolute quality while respecting the high modern standards. This new wave of success probably derives from the desire to relaunch some brands in the simplest way possible, without revolutionizing but, more easily, expanding the mechanics already consolidated over time. A precise choice of game design we could say, which paid off in no uncertain terms. Now it's time for us players to enjoy one of the most admirable and talented software houses in the whole panorama. Capcom is back, but this time, finally, we are the ones to say it.
