A different take on Clover's demise |
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Clover was born with a mission: to produce creative, innovative games. Two years ago, Capcom claimed that the industry had grown stale on a diet of recycled sequels and genres and that the time was right to look past muscles, cars, football, and guns and introduce some truly original (obscure) content and ideas into the scene. So starts Clover.There were some hits on Clover's part: Viewtiful Joe, God Hand, and Okami were all artistically original and were amazingly fresh. The problem is that they were only critical hits. The hardcore and the appreciative loved them. They "got it" because they were fresh, bold, and at times satirical. Nobody else did.
Capcom is after all in the business of making money. It's only logical that they drop a venture that isn't profitable anymore. We as gamers can't really blame them and zealously (fan-boy-ish-ly) call them evil. So what exactly can you blame on Capcom?
Luke Plunkett from eToychest may have hit the nail on the head with his unique analysis. Here's the most pertinent bit of his lengthy article that sums it all up.
"Capcom were, on the one hand, attempting to nurture originality and creativity in games, and yet on the other invested the kind of money, and expected the kind of returns, that only blockbuster titles are capable of recouping," writes columnist Luke Plunkett. "As a result, Capcom can blame, as they put it themselves, ‘extraordinary losses' on the decision to close Clover Studio, but in reality they have nobody to blame but themselves."
If you put "blockbuster money" into an art-house film and expect it and hype it and put your monetary "eggs" into its artsy "basket" and expect to get blockbuster returns, something is wrong with you. Take the Lord of the Rings for example. The story was so off, so geeky, so cult, that no studio at the beginning wanted to work on it. In fact it was filmed one after the other so that the studio could save money. The one time filming of three risky films with separate release dates paid off, because the studios expected that it would be a hit with "just" the geeks.
Capcom created Clover with good intent, but they really didn't push through with the art-house idea. Commercial expectations and big money went into it. They expected Clover games to be big hits and expected that it be liked by all. Like say, an [insert league] [insert year] sports game. Exactly the opposite direction that a company with innovation and originality in mind.
Sigh. All because there's not enough football and guns.
Are we as gamers doing the same as Capcom when it comes to our respective fandoms, downloaded homebrew, and preferred genres? Are we to hasty to expect, to quick to ask, and all to fast to condemn things that aren't useful or appealing to the least common denominator?
Via eToychest
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Comments [refresh]
Viewtiful Joe will always be in my heart. :(
Hopefully, someday, they'll get back together and restart the company or something. Sigh.
2nd hauhauhauahauha ua
This can't be the end because Viewtiful Joe as a game made plenty of money for Capcom. What this probably means is that we probably won't see any new franchises from Clover.
But Okami was too much friggin win. I have the JP and US version and the JP soundtrack. I want morezzzzzzzzzzz zz!
While VJ was something bland and the game needed some adjustments,Oka mi truly ruled so why let them go?.
Maybe they will work on more multiplataform stuff.Vj will live on.
Charlie Brown was right. The demise of Clover proves that mediocrity is the spoiled only child of capitalism. What to blame on Capcom? Well, what about advertising and destributing? Sure, VJ got a lot of advertising and destribution, but Okami didn't. I went to my local Blockbuster and Hollywood a week after Okami came out, and neither place even heard of the game. What if Capcom backed Okami like they did Devil May Cry or Megaman?
It would be successful. The article was right, Okami was a hit with the critics and the hardcores, because mainly critics and hardcores knew what it was from reading articles. There was no mention of Okami on any TV spots, nor were there signs in retailers.
Okami, I will miss thee. I hope someone picks the game up-- wait, the soundtrack has a track entitled "Look forward to the next one!" What does this mean?!
Err, if you're wondering, stick disk five into your computer. It's the last song ((Number 30)).
Here's to hoping!! =)
P.S. Issun DS, anyone? XP
Great so now instead of making original games like Okami, Capcom will just make more retarded mega man and Resident Evil sequels. Nintendo you want to do some original with the Wii? Buy Clover!