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 give attention to one or two huge titles. Why spend money on smaller, riskier initiatives when making bigger video games in well-known franchises will yield better returns? Capcom, alternatively, is dedicated to doing each.
“I imagine that the expertise with a collection or remake is vital, however the expertise of a brand new IP can be vital,” Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Director Shuichi Kawata advised me in an e-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 standard collection 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.
These video games are simply as entertaining as the newest Resident Evil or Road Fighter, giving Capcom one of the actively numerous and provoking recreation lineups exterior of Nintendo. I interviewed Kawata, and producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi. Discussing their work on a brand new IP uncovered a key purpose why Capcom is at the moment on a sizzling 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 a giant 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 models 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. Whereas 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 collection and is free to be as wild and artistic because it needs.
Creating a brand new IP in that method isn’t straightforward, however Kawata thinks it advantages the entire growth crew. “I imagine that the problem of making a brand new IP with your entire crew beneath limitations will result in the expansion of each the crew and every particular person, as every crew member can expertise the method of giving form to concepts and creating merchandise,” he defined.
In the meantime, Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi’s considerations 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 customers to acknowledge the titles” and “getting gamers to share the enjoyable.”
To handle this, Hirabayashi says that Capcom has to pay additional consideration to the “order we ship recreation parts and the way we talk with the neighborhood.” Kawata believes that is good for the expansion of particular person crew members, who should work collectively and discover solutions to a few of these robust questions in a “versatile and robust method with out getting caught up in our concepts.” That exposes an vital factor all Capcom video games do properly: they maintain 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 time Recreation Fest this yr. Kunitsu-Gami was a recreation few folks knew about heading into their Capcom appointment at this press occasion, however they raved about it once they played it.
Kunitsu-Gami is the sort 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 Recreation Move and into the arms of press and creators, who then raved about its progressive concepts. Finally, these Capcom devs stated that protecting the “goal person perspective” in thoughts is a very powerful factor when engaged on a recreation, whether or not it’s a brand new IP or not.
“I believe a very powerful issues in recreation growth are nonetheless the identical: the significance of working collectively to create the sport and the significance of enthusiastic about the individuals who will probably be enjoying the sport, no matter whether or not it’s a collection, remake, or a brand 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 collection. If the builders work collectively properly and create one thing good that they are going to take pleasure in, then the outcomes will probably be spectacular. That will appear easy, however an upfront strategy towards recreation growth and creating new IP appears to be the factor that makes Capcom video games really feel like Capcom video games.
That’s one thing numerous corporations aren’t seeking to do as they lay off builders and reorganize their groups to work on fewer initiatives that make more cash. Whether or not gamers say it outright or not, there’s a demand for brand new IP with progressive gameplay concepts from well-known studios. Capcom is keen to take bets on extra experimental video games like Kunitsu-Gami, whereas understanding that the challenges of constructing one thing very interesting to gamers at that scale are much more tough as a identified franchise isn’t connected. It’s 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 could possibly be the beginning of a brand new Capcom collection; 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 accessible for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X.
