Fighting games site, Event Hubs, have been keeping a close eye as always on Capcom’s forums, and came across a thread with Capcom USA VP, Christian Svensson, answering a question from a fan about the company’s plans for the PC platform. The question, and Svensson’s response, were as follows:

Why is PC gaming not taken seriously by Capcom Japan? — Mike

 

Svensson: I’m reading this question a little differently, more as a plea for more support.

 

The push for PC gaming within Capcom over the years has been lead by a select few people (I’m one, putting my money where my mouth is with my forecasts… [Jun] Takeuchi-san is another huge supporter on the development side). From the moment I walked in nearly six years ago, I viewed PC as extremely important for the company, not just to grow a new audience for our brands, but because of what the PC market teaches a company.

 

Our technology on all of our platforms is informed by and pushed on the PC. Engineering insights from Intel and Nvidia have helped make MT Framework the powerhouse that it is, which has helped us on nearly any/every platform, from high-end PC to X360/PS3 to smart phones and 3DS.

 

Being a global company means bringing your content to all platforms. As we continue to expand our businesses in Russia, China, Korea and Brazil, the PC becomes increasingly important as it is the primary platform in those territories.

 

Over the years, the producers continue to learn lessons about the PC  gaming market and how it differs from that which they know well on the console side of the house. Please understand, the PC gaming market in Japan is rather small historically (though in recent years, it is growing rather quickly especially in the online space) so their personal experiences with PC gaming are often different from those of Western developers.

 

But PC gaming’s profile is growing at Capcom. Both I in the US and our European team continue to request PC SKUs for new titles. We’ve got more titles coming with PC versions than ever before (e.g. RE: Operation Racoon City, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, Super Street Fighter IV: AE, etc.). At greenlight meetings, our Japanese COO is often one of the first people to ask the producer for a PC version.

 

So while I understand your view and I’m not promising immediate parity on all projects from now on, things are getting better and better for Capcom fans who are PC gamers.

It should also be noted that, while a PC version of Dragon’s Dogma hasn’t been announced, the game’s producer, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, recently stated in a video Q&Athat, should demand for a PC version arise, Capcom will consider releasing one.

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/04/29/capcoms-svensson-pc-gamings-profile-is-growing-at-capcom/

Good to know a console centric dev/publisher is taking PC a bit more seriously. Yet more evidence that the PC space is growing rather than "dying" as some have been predicting.

More interesting in the fact that it is a Japanese company, as all the publishers and most of the devs are console focused and Japan has never really been interested in PC gaming. The fact that PC gaming is picking up there of all places is a very interesting turn of events.

I really hope they learn the difference between a PC game and a console game. Granted, fighting games just fucking suck to play on the PC without a controller so it's a tough fight.

Well ideally any fighter is played with a fight stick, I am pretty sure that the wired 360 ones mostly work. But yea fighters never really were big on PC and I am sure that games like Dragon's Dogma would sell better on PC. But then again aparently Street fighter 4 exeded sales expectations so there is some market there, even if certain producers at Capcom think that the fact that more people pirated the game on PC meant that SSF4 shouldn't be released, despite the fact that the port cost relatively little as the arcade cabnets run windows...

It's not a new focus on PC. It's just the usual little extra money they want from a cheap PC port as always. Capcom are the worst milkers out there.

I never have to buy a Capcom console game because I know I will eventually be able to download it to my PC.

You are a bad person

Anyway in the past most of the Capcom PC ports were done by third parties usally with pretty horrendous results, the fact that they are now doing them in house and they are actually playable is a good sign.

Me too! XD

I used to do that with rockstar games but I've heard that rockstar games have alot of PC compatibility issues that's why I'll just go for the console version lol

Hey the PC gaming scene isn't exactly weak in Japan. It's just that something like 70% of PC gaming in Japan is basically eroge (hentai, erotic games)/dating sim/romance visual novel gaming. :D X-rated content is not allowed on consoles so that's why the PC platform is flooded with eroge (God bless the open nature of the PC). The Xbox 360 and PSP do have a lot of non-X rated dating sims and romance visual novels though (DS also has some. Like Love Plus).

As for fighting games, the Melty Blood series (which is basically a spin-off of Tsukihime, a eroge series. lol) was actually on the PC before it ever hit the arcades or consoles (PS2). I don't see fighting games as a problem for PC. I bought a USB adapter for Dualshock 1/2 controllers for like $5 (from Hong Kong). It sucks that Melty Blood Actress Again only got ported to PS2. No online play. I suck at fighting games anyway so no biggie.

Personally I never was a huge PC gamer (I did go an entire gen gaming solely on a computer. But I don't think I was really big into it. Though I did play Football Manager to the point that you could possibly consider it an addiction. lol) because I never had a gaming rig and for the past couple years I've basically switched to laptop exclusively and don't want to go back to having a desktop (especially when a wireless Bluetooth Keyboard Mouse set is also pretty cheap these days). But I do like to play PC games. I just don't play the demanding stuff. I like the fact that the PC is an open platform and developers are free to publish whatever games and applications they want for it. Unlike with consoles. The PC is a lot more democratic. And I like how you can emulate legacy hardware with PCs. Which expands your playable library even further (which is already pretty gluttonous to begin with. The PC library is huge).