Capcom says it wants to make the PC its main platform for games

midian182

Posts: 9,752   +121
Staff member
What just happened? Throughout its long history in the home video games market, Capcom has been known as a console-first company, but that started to change over the last few years with a slew of big releases on the PC. Now, the the Japanese giant's COO says it wants the PC to become its “main platform” going forward.

Speaking to Japanese publication Nikkei and translated by Bloomberg reporter Takashi Mochizuki, Capcom Chief Operating Officer Haruhiro Tsujimoto said that the company wants its games to have a 50/50 sales split between consoles and PC by 2022 or 2023.

“PC is driving global sales,” he said. “We have recently stated that we will make the PC our main platform. At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, we focused on exhibiting the PC version of Monster Hunter Rise, and I think people will be able to experience the change in our approach.”

Tsujimoto says that the success it has found on the PC with its ports in recent years has led to this outlook—leaked sales figures suggest Monster Hunter World sold better on PC than PS4 outside of Japan—while the pandemic has improved the platform’s reputation in Japan; a country where it has traditionally struggled against consoles, handhelds, and even phones.

“The pandemic is changing the way people look at PCs,” he said. “Smartphones are convenient, but their screens are small, and their touch panels are difficult to operate, so they are not suitable for home working or school classes. I think PCs will be the next big thing after smartphones.”

The executive added that “the PC can also play high-quality games, so the number of PC users should increase as understanding of the PC increases.”

“We will expand our business for dedicated game consoles, which has been the mainstream up to now, but PC will be the mainstream in the future.”

Capcom recently announced that Monster Hunter Rise for the PC will be released on January 13, 2022, with a slew of platform-specific features, including support for 4K resolution and ultrawide displays, uncapped framerates, improved textures, and optimized keyboard and mouse controls. A free demo for the PC version lands on October 13, and playing this taster will unlock a bonus for the full game once it launches.

Permalink to story.

 
The good part: developing for the PC as the priority is far more flexible if you want to port over to consoles which are just more specialized PCs: if it already runs good on common PC configurations it will run good on PS5 and Series consoles since you already have a good core without needing additional tricks: it's better code out of the gate.

The bad part: Gamers are thinking "Good we get more Resident Evil type games!" while Capcom are probably watching games like Fortnite, Genshin Impact, etc. When they talk about the PC platform being profitable so don't expect so much of the games *you* want and expect something like a very gacha mechanics, free-to-pay version of Monster Hunter.
 
Consoles are pretty much just PC's anyways, and have been for a long time. Only reason why games in the past generation has to be more console focused was because of the weak AMD CPU. Those chips were so weak that the game engines needed to be designed around those limitations. The New Consoles Pack Ryzen chips that are comparable to what you'd find in a high performance desktop from the start.

Now most PC's are going to be the weakest factor, especially when it comes to storage. Might as well focus on making games work best on a PC when modern consoles will have no problem making the games work.
 
"Capcom says it wants to make the PC its main platform for games
It's aiming for a 50/50 sales split between consoles and PC"

I don't think the OP knows what MAIN means. 50/50 is even. It would need to look more 60/40.
 
Consoles are basically a poor mans/child's PC nowadays so they have little choice.
Yeah, It's a shame that with cryptomining going stronger every wave, PC gaming is dying. Those poor people will move to consoles, like It was before 2010, and then, when VG developers will realize Their client base for PCs is shrinking, They will withdraw support. So within few years You will need obnoxiously expensive PC to play at the level that console gamers will get standard.

I see my friends playing on their PS4, both vanilla and Pro, and 30 fps looks somehow smoother than 50 fps on My more powerfull computer TODAY.
 
Yeah, It's a shame that with cryptomining going stronger every wave, PC gaming is dying. Those poor people will move to consoles, like It was before 2010, and then, when VG developers will realize Their client base for PCs is shrinking, They will withdraw support. So within few years You will need obnoxiously expensive PC to play at the level that console gamers will get standard.

I see my friends playing on their PS4, both vanilla and Pro, and 30 fps looks somehow smoother than 50 fps on My more powerfull computer TODAY.
AMD is due to put IGFX in all their new CPU's so that should at least give everyone a playable framerate while they wait for a GPU.
 
Consoles are basically a poor mans/child's PC nowadays so they have little choice.
No reason for gaming to be only rich peoples hobby even though that's what it looks like it's gonna be in the future.
 
Good to see more game makers finally realizing the PC has been and will continue to be the king of gaming for a long, long, long time ....
 
Back