The online game business is in a interval of contraction. Companies like Bungie are canceling video games and shedding builders to allow them to residence in and concentrate on one or two massive titles. Why spend money on smaller, riskier tasks when making bigger video games in well-known franchises will yield larger returns? Capcom, however, is dedicated to doing each.
“I believe that the experience with a series or remake is important, but the experience of a new IP is also important,” Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Director Shuichi Kawata instructed me in an electronic mail interview following the discharge of considered one of Capcom’s extra experimental new video games but.
That’s a uncommon sentiment to listen to from somebody at a significant online game developer and writer behind AAA franchises. For the previous a number of years, Capcom has continued to launch video games in well-liked sequence like Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Dragon’s Dogma. Monster Hunter Wilds is poised to be one of many largest video games of 2025. Over that very same interval, it has additionally taken the time to create extra experimental video games like underwater Metroidvania Shinsekai: Into the Depths, multiplayer dinosaur shooter Exoprimal, and action-tower protection hybrid Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.
Those video games are simply as entertaining as the most recent Resident Evil or Street Fighter, giving Capcom one of the actively various and provoking recreation lineups outdoors of Nintendo. I interviewed Kawata, and producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi. Discussing their work on a brand new IP uncovered a key cause why Capcom is at the moment on a scorching streak.
Making a brand new IP at Capcom
The thought for Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess got here to Kawata across the time Apple Arcade unique Shinsekai: Into the Depths was accomplished. Kawata was an enormous fan of tower protection video games and the technique they require, and he questioned what it’d be like if a participant had to participate in that motion. The result’s a recreation the place gamers command items to defend a maiden from creatures referred to as Seethe as she works to purify a corrupted Japanese mountain.
Kunitsu-Gami is a daring recreation with a singular gameplay style combine, minimalistic however emotional storytelling, and mesmerizing visuals. While Kunitsu-Gami has drawn some comparisons to Capcom franchises like Okami and Onimusha, the sport thrives as a result of it isn’t pigeonholed to both of these sequence and is free to be as wild and inventive because it desires.
Creating a brand new IP in that method isn’t simple, however Kawata thinks it advantages the entire improvement group. “I believe that the challenge of creating a new IP with the entire team under limitations will lead to the growth of both the team and each individual, as each team member can experience the process of giving shape to ideas and creating products,” he defined.
Meanwhile, Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi’s issues are extra player-facing. Hirabayashi has expertise engaged on authentic video games like Kunitsu-Gami and well-worn franchises like Resident Evil. He thinks the most important challenges with new IP are “getting users to recognize the titles” and “getting players to share the fun.”
To handle this, Hirabayashi says that Capcom has to pay additional consideration to the “order we deliver game elements and how we communicate with the community.” Kawata believes that is good for the expansion of particular person group members, who should work collectively and discover solutions to a few of these robust questions in a “flexible and strong manner without getting caught up in our ideas.” That exposes an essential factor all Capcom video games do nicely: they preserve the participant in thoughts.
What gamers need
Even for one thing as esoteric as Kunitsu-Gami, when you go hands-on with the sport, you’ll perceive there’s one thing enchanting about it. I noticed this in motion at Summer Game Fest this yr. Kunitsu-Gami was a recreation few individuals knew about heading into their Capcom appointment at this press occasion, however they raved about it once they played it.
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Kunitsu-Gami is the type of recreation that must be seen to be believed, which is why I believe it was a wise transfer to get the sport in Xbox Game Pass and into the arms of press and creators, who then raved about its revolutionary concepts. Ultimately, these Capcom devs mentioned that holding the “objective user perspective” in thoughts is an important factor when engaged on a recreation, whether or not it’s a brand new IP or not.
“I think the most important things in game development are still the same: the importance of working together to create the game and the importance of thinking about the people who will be playing the game, regardless of whether it is a series, remake, or a new IP,” Hirabayashi says.
It doesn’t matter if the sport is in a well known franchise or doubtlessly the beginning of a brand-new sequence. If the builders work collectively nicely and create one thing good that they’ll get pleasure from, then the outcomes will likely be spectacular. That could seem easy, however an upfront method towards recreation improvement and creating new IP appears to be the factor that makes Capcom video games really feel like Capcom video games.
That’s one thing a number of corporations aren’t trying to do as they lay off builders and reorganize their groups to work on fewer tasks that earn more money. Whether gamers say it outright or not, there’s a demand for brand new IP with revolutionary gameplay concepts from well-known studios. Capcom is prepared to take bets on extra experimental video games like Kunitsu-Gami, whereas understanding that the challenges of creating one thing very interesting to gamers at that scale are much more tough as a recognized franchise isn’t hooked up. It is discovering success whereas doing so too, as Kunitsu-Gami has already amassed 500,000 gamers lower than a month after launch.
We’ve doubtlessly gotten what may very well be the beginning of a brand new Capcom sequence; if not, it’s nonetheless a well-executed novelty within the recreation library of Capcom’s renaissance. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is now out there for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.