PARIS, FRANCE – NOVEMBER 01: Gamers play the video game ‘Street Fighter 6’ developed and edited by Capcom during Paris Games Week 2022 at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on November 01, 2022 in Paris, France. After two years of absence linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, Paris Games Week is making a comeback in Paris. The event celebrating video games and esports will be held from November 2 to 6, 2022. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)
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Japanese game developer Capcom is well known for video games like Resident Evil, Marvel vs. Capcom, and Street Fighter — but it doesn’t want to just capture gamers’ hearts, but moviegoers’ as well.
At the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba, Japan, its chief operating officer Haruhiro Tsujimoto told CNBC that Capcom’s strength in games is that it is able to sell both new and old titles alike.
Tsujimoto pointed that Capcom releases new game titles every year to already existing franchises, such as Street Fighter and Resident Evil, “indicates that we have a strong and high quality catalog.”
However, the company also released a sequel to action role-playing game Dragon’s Dogma after over 10 years. Tsujimoto told CNBC’s Will Kouloris the approach is “one of our major strategies,” and that it “leads to the continued sales of our brands that we have released in the past.”
Capcom is no stranger to the film industry, having seen a live action movie Street Fighter made in 1994 and Resident Evil made into seven films since 1997.
“Capcom was one of the first companies to collaborate game business with cinema business,” Tsujimoto pointed out. “We have experienced the synergistic effects of doing so, whereby movies sell well and games sell well, when a game is made into a movie.”
We have experienced the synergistic effects of doing so, whereby movies sell well and games sell well, when a game is made into a movie.
Haruhiro Tsujimoto
chief operating officer, Capcom
As such, the company is deepening its foray into the film industry by setting up Capcom Pictures in Hollywood in 2022, and this film production company will aim to produce more films there.
“Our company will continue to evolve further in the future. Our strategy is to continue to develop both game production and film production, and to take digital entertainment to new heights by having these businesses not only compete but also encourage each other.”
AI in games?
While generative artificial intelligence has being touted as the next major step in the tech industry, having the potential to create text, pictures, and even videos, it may not come to the game development industry so soon.
Tsujimoto said that integrating AI in game development is a “tricky situation” where “a lot of issues need to be addressed before we can actually integrate generative AI to our operations.”
On Wednesday, Hisashi Koinuma, president and chief operating officer of Koei Tecmo Games echoed the same view.
He told CNBC that challenges still remain when utilizing generative AI in game development.
“We are still in the process of researching and studying how and to what extent generative AI, including rights-related issues, will benefit game production, and how much it will contribute to making better games.”
Camcom’s Tsujimoto, however, highlighted that generative AI can be utilized in terms of improving efficiency in workforce and development — but the company is still in the process of researching its use for game development
The COO said that this will not be done by reducing the number of developers, but by improving the efficiency of Capcom’s development through more efficient allocation of personnel while utilizing generative AI.