Bash Capcom, But Not Capcom USA

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - For an organization that doesn't make games, they're trying their best!

You can proclaim that Capcom in Japan is out-of-touch and mishandles their franchises terribly. And we can find some agreement in that. However, some people, including my KoopaTV colleagues, dump everyone associated with Capcom into one box. Let me give you several reasons why this is a misguided approach. And remember: If (and when, because people do this) people bash Nintendo (of America), they frequently bash it for Nintendo of America's decisions or Nintendo of Japan's. Reggie works with what he's given. Keep that in mind.

1. Capcom-Unity is quite open. Allow me to explain that. The Capcom-Unity mods seem to allow a lot of Capcom bashing. They have a board for all of Capcom's franchises and many of the contents of the non-Monster Hunter boards are a lot of disgruntled fans attached to a particular franchise huddling together getting mad at how mistreated their franchise is. (This would all be relatively avoidable if Capcom took my Monster Hunter crossover advice.) Yet Capcom-Unity allows that! (Except for death threats.) Meanwhile, Nintendo closed down its official forum and after five years replaced it with a radically different pay-to-enter forum with no extrinsic perks.
2. Capcom USA supports fan works. While some people may be blind to Capcom's track record on this, Capcom consistently sanctions fan derivations as long as they don't profit on them. Sometimes, they declare them official or organize them. According to OCRemix, Capcom USA is the one that personally requested a remix album for Mega Man. Here's a winning quote: "Hi, I'm Brett, the one who handled this. I cannot make a game. I can arrange fun stuff like this. So I did. And here it is." Oh, and don't forget the epitome of this, Street Fighter X Mega Man.
3. Capcom-Unity supports KoopaTV. Well, not officially, but compare their treatment of KoopaTV compared to inferior forums like iGTA5. THAT place actively censors and deletes KoopaTV-related postings. Meanwhile, Capcom-Unity literally, and personally, approved of a KoopaTV advertisement. And they've had no problem with posts that are thinly-veiled KoopaTV advertisements.
4. Capcom USA can't make games. They also aren't in charge of Capcom's wallet. Remember what Sven said before he left. It's not up to Capcom USA. Just like it's not up to Nintendo of America. So hatred towards Capcom? Direct it only to the Japanese.

But even Capcom in Japan still does a lot of awesome stuff. Like the fact they have their own record label. We've gotten a lot of awesome Ace Attorney remix music from that. Nintendo doesn't have that. They have symphony orchestras, but that's... different. Anyway, music is one of the most important elements of a videogame, so the fact that Capcom supports that a lot is very telling that they have the right priorities. It's otherwise pretty hard to prioritize dozens of franchises.

Speaking of right priorities, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Dual Destinies is out this Thursday on the 3DS eShop...!


Ludwig does more than just advertise KoopaTV on Capcom-Unity. It's still not a particularly efficient way to reach him, though. The comments section of KoopaTV is!


Capcom USA also doesn't seem to care if NeoGAF takes their assets for sale.
CAPCOM was lauded for promoting fan-based projects, but is that the smartest thing for them to do?