Capcom, one of the longstanding publishers that has been reliant on packaged retail sales for decades, sees a majority of its revenue and operating profits coming from digital sooner rather than later.
“I’d like to say that within five years, certainly well north of 50 percent of our revenue will be coming from digital, and significantly higher than [50 percent] of our operating profit will [come from digital],” predicted Christian Svensson, SVP of Capcom Entertainment in an interview with Gamasutra during GDC 2012.
“And certainly sometime before five years from now, every game will be digital and retail day and date [same release],” he added. “On some platforms that’s already the case, it is on Vita. In Europe, the PlayStation 3 is already that way. I wish it were that way in the States as well. But I’d say that’s an inevitability. No one is really fighting that, but the question is when that will occur.”
Svensson added, “Retail will always have a place in our future, but I think that five years down the road, the value proposition of retail, to publishers, will change.
“I think that retail’s role will shift from planned purchase to impulse purchase, predominantly, and planned purchases will increasingly happen online, just for sheer convenience’s sake.”
Gamasutra's full interview with Svensson will be published in the near future.
This of course right after the press release for Capcom charging for DLC characters that are included on the disc. Not out of "convenience" but just out to nickel and dime people as much as possible. It's developers like this that make me wish for a crash much like in 1983, just to wipe them out.
I must say, that with all of the promise this generation has had with their games, the developers of this generation have mostly proven to be hypocritical money-grubbers rather than creators of amazing experiences that are only enhanced by the online capabilities of the systems. Easily the most disappointing and lackluster generation I've had the "privilege" of living through.
Of course I don't speak for "all" developers, but certain ones like to give everyone a bad name...
Jon, make sure you realize who is to fault this is. I do not work for Capcom, but to my knowledge it is the business people (and mostly those in Japan) that are making the decisions. Japanese culture is drastically different from the Western world, and to the extent that they want to be cultural isolationists they should expect and be okay with diminished sales in the world outside of Japan.
Please note, I too am let down in this console generation as a whole and especially Capcom. I recently left the "professional" game industry, and most of the reasons involve the way business is done. It's been really messed up by the suits. I don't agree that another crash will help better than fixing what's already there, but that may be inevitable. A crash would happen regardless of whether anyone wanted it or not. Only the investment bankers can will a market to crash or not, and as we saw in 2008, sometimes even they cannot control it.
Digital games done right represent a wonderful bevy of new options to developers and customers alike. Assuming the industry cleans up it's act and people work with good services like Valve's Steam, everyone stands to benefit.
I'll leave you with a Carl Jung quote as food for thought: "That which you resist, persists."
"Japanese culture is drastically different from the Western world, and to the extent that they want to be cultural isolationists they should expect and be okay with diminished sales in the world outside of Japan."
So you imply, people in Japan are completely fine with paying for DLC characters, that are in the disc?Besides, Japan isn't nearly as cultural isolationistic as you say, the japanese popular culture (which games are part of) is a culture, that happily absorbs foreign influences and tries to mix them with traditional influences.
In animes you find tons of christian symbols, baseball is extremely popular in japan (outside the US and Japan, nobody cares about it), Mickey Mouse is loved by generations of japanese kids and adults, Hollywood movies are generating fantastic revenues in Japan, thousands of people all over Japan love to form choirs every New Year to sing Beethoven's symphony number 9, in german of course.
All this wouldn't happen in a society, which wants "to be cultural isolationists".On an economy level, your argument makes even lesser sense, the japanese economy is an export orientated economy, even if it's currently suffering from the strong yen, it can't survive, if it's goods are only bought in japan.
I must say, that with all of the promise this generation has had with their games, the developers of this generation have mostly proven to be hypocritical money-grubbers rather than creators of amazing experiences that are only enhanced by the online capabilities of the systems. Easily the most disappointing and lackluster generation I've had the "privilege" of living through.
Of course I don't speak for "all" developers, but certain ones like to give everyone a bad name...
Please note, I too am let down in this console generation as a whole and especially Capcom. I recently left the "professional" game industry, and most of the reasons involve the way business is done. It's been really messed up by the suits. I don't agree that another crash will help better than fixing what's already there, but that may be inevitable. A crash would happen regardless of whether anyone wanted it or not. Only the investment bankers can will a market to crash or not, and as we saw in 2008, sometimes even they cannot control it.
Digital games done right represent a wonderful bevy of new options to developers and customers alike. Assuming the industry cleans up it's act and people work with good services like Valve's Steam, everyone stands to benefit.
I'll leave you with a Carl Jung quote as food for thought: "That which you resist, persists."
So you imply, people in Japan are completely fine with paying for DLC characters, that are in the disc?Besides, Japan isn't nearly as cultural isolationistic as you say, the japanese popular culture (which games are part of) is a culture, that happily absorbs foreign influences and tries to mix them with traditional influences.
In animes you find tons of christian symbols, baseball is extremely popular in japan (outside the US and Japan, nobody cares about it), Mickey Mouse is loved by generations of japanese kids and adults, Hollywood movies are generating fantastic revenues in Japan, thousands of people all over Japan love to form choirs every New Year to sing Beethoven's symphony number 9, in german of course.
All this wouldn't happen in a society, which wants "to be cultural isolationists".On an economy level, your argument makes even lesser sense, the japanese economy is an export orientated economy, even if it's currently suffering from the strong yen, it can't survive, if it's goods are only bought in japan.