Capcom Wants You to Hate Them

So, waaaaaaaaay back, Capcom announced HD Up-makes of RE4 and RE:C:V and everyone was like "Yay, RE4 HD and some other game!" except for me, who said "Oh boy, another version of RE4 I'm not buying" since my distaste for RE4 is well-documented.  (Though, not well-documented enough, yet.  Hint, hint)  Then shortly after, it was said that the game would be DD-only in NA and only a few people lost hype, but figured they would actually print the games on a disk -eventually- and announce it just before the DD versions came out to let everyone know your choice of media is doable for them.  But that hasn't happened and, with just how poorly Capcom has been doing lately, I'm not holding my breath on seeing a two-in-one disk coming out.

Resident Evil 4 HD just came out this week on PSN and XBL and has generated quite a few issues in the short time it's been out.  What some call a blessing, others, like me, call a curse is the fact that the gameplay has remained largely unchanged (except for the fact that Dash and Attack are mapped to the wrong buttons and unchangeable) which is not a surprise.  Usually, these HD updos don't do a whole lot to the gameplay itself, as it's more or less about the graphics, and that's generally where you see the biggest difference.  Though....apparently that's not really so with RE4 HD.  I've only seen a couple reviews and I haven't bothered to read them through, but they mention that the GameCube version of RE4 was clearly the basis of the game and the textures and graphics really reflect that.  While they're still HD they're only barely so and they do nothing to address the fact that parts of the game are just ugly and would need completely re-touched, rather than just upscaled.

Another issue, albeit a likely minor one depending on where you stand, is that, after promising "Full Trophy/Achievement Lists" for the games, RE 4 HD came packed with a whole 12 Achievements/Trophies.  The numbers are broken up enough on the 360 version of the game so that you'll end up with 1000 points upon completing all twelve tasks, so that's all...well and good there, I suppose.  But what about the PS3 version?  A trophy was certainly dropped in lieu of reserving a Platinum spot, right?  I mean, it's a full game.  Full Games get Platinum.  Well, no.  No it was not and apparently Capcom is strictly about the numbers.  And here's the numbers for you:  Of the whole twelve trophies, Nine of them are Bronze, Two are Silver and One is Gold.

After doing a little looking around, it would seem that the game also has some fairly noticeable audio issues (admittedly not from the best source, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised), and all of this honestly just has me wondering what the hell Capcom is thinking.  This rabbit hole goes much, much deeper, as I've only been talking about one single port of a game they just released.  I could bring up any of the multitude of other issues like how poorly their new IPs did (Dark Voooooooooid), how....honestly damaging they've been to their own reputation lately, and all of the poor decisions they've made in the clear and public eye.

Keiji Inafune recently spoke about the 'truth' behind MML3 and it's cancellation (despite never being green-lit in the first place) and said, basically that Capcom's antics were what drove him to want to get out of the company.  But, not wanting to leave his projects un-finished, he offered to keep working on them even at his new company.  Capcom was...less than thrilled with the idea, clearly as Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3 will likely never see the light of day.  It's quite unfortunate on both parts, really, as the former really would have lent itself to getting more people trying out these Creative Sandbox titles, to maybe think a little better of them and broaden horizons, whereas the latter would have...well, just made a lot of people happy.

In one of the classier statements out of this sort of situation one could expect, Inafune doesn't really point fingers, though he should, and says simply that he left behind "a great team" who he hopes somebody will step into his vacated role and really fight for these games and try to see them through Capcom's unwillingness to cooperate.  He's not too optimistic that anyone will fight Capcom as he did, but he's not really talking bad about anyone here, which seems a little hard to do, given the circumstances.  I guess saying that he had to fight Capcom to have his two projects even considered is sort of a strike against them, but he's being fairly diplomatic about it.

I don't have to be, though.  I, like many others, think Capcom's taken up the rotating mantle of "Game Company Insanity" and I'm not quite sure when they, or anyone currently wearing it, will give it up, but as we know, it is a burden that is able to be gotten rid of.  EA did for a while after their massive show of goodwill towards new IPs, creating both Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, as well as plenty of other moves that were, well, good ones.  Only Dead Space stuck (for now), but it stuck good and it's a good thing.  Faced with the prospect of Dead Space 3 is a great one, even though I haven't even played the second one yet, and Mirror's Edge hasn't been completely forgotten, though there's not a lot to show for the repeated talks that say as much.

I guess we'll just have to see how this pans out; eventually Capcom will be everyone's friend again, as the cycle starts anew, but I'm wondering at this point just what they'll have to do to make that happen.  It certainly won't be easy, but if you give gamers something they really want, it's hard to not win some good will; usually enough to forgive the past.  After all, if that wasn't true, then gaming would've died out long, long ago after all those bridges were burned.

PR Slap-Fights Are Silly.

Even if it wasn't Exclusive, Microsoft doesn't even want PJ Shooter 2.

So, there was a little thing a little while ago from Microsoft's Chris Lewis, head of Europe's Gaming Division (I guess.  There's only so much I can pull from "European XBox Chris Lewis".  Come on, Eurogamer.) where he was defending a few key points of Microsoft's Content Submission and Release Policy.  You may or may not be familiar with it, but it basically, as it states in the name, determines what can and cannot be published on XBox Live by enforcing a few guidelines that have been performed so plentifully and effortlessly that you pretty much don't notice them.  Ever think about how a lot of DD games get put on XBL before PSN?  That's (in most cases) a good part of the reason.  There's other things like "Exclusivity for Continued Promotion" deals and the like, but a lot of these publishers want their games on both systems and going on Live is generally the way to secure that.

That's because the Content Submission and Release Policy specifically disallows games that A) appear on other platforms first and B) have more content on other platforms.  If you don't believe me..

"Titles for Xbox 360 must ship at least simultaneously with other video game platform, and must have at least feature and content parity on-disc with the other video game platform versions in all regions where the title is available. If these conditions are not met, Microsoft reserves the right to not allow the content to be released on Xbox 360."

Well, alright, it doesn't say "It won't be on" it says they have the "right" to deny it, but legalese nonsense aside, you know what it means.  This is, of course, a pretty....well, strict policy and an unwelcoming one as well.  It's a lot more stringent than PSN's which, I believe, states the only restriction on titles that have been on previous consoles is that they -should- have some Playstation-exclusive content.  That's why Castle Crashers got new modes, why Castlevania:  Harmony of Despair is going to have....something, I forget what (I think DLC characters from the XBL version?  And Couch Co-op.) and so on and so on.  Of course, I don't think everyone follows this.  (I don't remember what was Exlusive in Braid.  Was there anything?)

It's this sort of policy that allows PSN to seem, well, more welcoming since that's literally what it does.  It welcomes all comers, regardless of where they come from, so long as you bring them something new for their party.  It's the reason why Valve eventually started taking a shine to what Gabe Newell once called "an expensive paperweight".  And it's the reason why there's a lot of Indie Devs out there really wanting to develop for PS3, PSP and the Vita.  So, when faced with the knowledge that someone high-up at Microsoft basically said "If we don't get it first, we don't want it" (as Chris Lewis went on to say, "I'd be surprised if we saw that as something we'd encourage," regarding titles that launch elsewhere before knocking at XBLA's door), you would think that's like a slow-pitch for Sony's PR guy, right?  Right?

Wrong.

Rob Dyer, Senior Vice President of Public Relations took that beautiful opportunity and figuratively smashed someone's cat with it.  "Publishers are getting the living crap kicked out of them by Microsoft," he says.  That...that is not how you open with this man.  He then goes on to say,

"I think what Chris and the other representatives at Microsoft are doing is protecting an inferior technology," Dyer said. "I think they want to dumb it down and keep it as pedestrian as possible so that if you want to do anything for Blu-ray or you have extra content above 9 gigs or you want to do anything of that nature, you'd better sure as heck remember that Microsoft can't handle that."

Sigh.

I'm not even sure where he's going with this.  Now, you all know me, you know I tend to swing towards the Sony-side of things, and while I even went on to say I like Sony's Policy better, this was dumb to say.  Mostly because it doesn't make sense.  Not only are most PSN-exclusive games fairly small as well (well under 9 Gigs), but Rob, you specifically have games titles as "Minis" on your service.  Actual games that must be under 100 MB, which then go on to get ESRB rated which drives their price up $1-3 bucks a pop.  This is a thing on the PSN.  Do not bring size constraints to argue something like this!  It's that simple!  Play up the things I said earlier!  Trumpet off the successes of this open-ness!  Do anythin but what you did.

Honestly, PR people are generally not the sharpest pencils in the box, but this....this was something else.

This post brought to you by Italics.