Contrived? Perhaps. Favorable? Almost certainly. But whether Capcom is experimenting with a new public relations tool, a community-building attempt or an actual journalistic endeavor, their new series of developer interviews debut today on the Capcom investor relations website.
For fans longing for a inside look at the creative processes and corporate philosophies behind Capcom’s hottest new titles — and trendwatchers who note how video gaming news is increasingly delivered straight from the horse’s mouth — their existence, at the very least, is not to be easily dismissed.
Today, Capcom published internal interviews with Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi and Monster Hunter Freedom 2G producer Ryozo Tsujimoto. How do these first two attempts stack up against Nintendo’s critically acclaimed Iwata Asks?
Well… perhaps we’d best let the interviewer’s questions speak for themselves. Here’s what page two of the Takeuchi interview would look like if his responses were edited out:
I have to say, the graphics [for RE5] are really impressive.
And that evolution was made possible by the next-gen consoles I assume.
So things you weren’t able to do on previous consoles, you were able to do this time out?
I can see that with the use of light and dark, and especially the shadows. The game really feels scary.
Chris Redfield looks quite striking with the bright, African sun shining down on him.
When I saw the trailer (on the DVD) where all of a sudden you see this poor victim in a dark place, it just felt scary. I thought the game showed a high degree of completion.
How long have you spent on development?
When will RE5 go on sale?
Mind you, that’s just page two; before the interviewer starts referring to RE5 as a landmark game and praising the team’s attention to detail. Still, there’s wheat amidst the chaff…
“Takeuchi”
The graphics do look a lot more realistic than anything we’ve done before, so we couldn’t use many of the usual game design techniques to create them. Using regular animation techniques for such realistic subject matter would look odd, so we went to Hollywood to shoot scenes for the game with a company that worked on the film 300.
…and once PR gets past the sales pitch, the sections dealing with development processes are fairly intriguing. On page four of the second interview, Monster Hunter’s Ryozo Tsujimoto tells the interviewer that at Capcom, not only are staff free to provide input on every aspect of game production, but that sales and development actually work together to promote the game.
When we started on the original Monster Hunter series, all the staff involved, including me, was collectively referred to as the project team. I use this term to include the dev team and people outside of development, such as the people who are trying to sell the game. For example, if we want to raise the quality of a game, or make it more appealing to consumers, the side the works on development and the side that’s concerned with publicity and promotional activities collaborate on ideas together. If the sales side and the development side don’t work together, you’re missing an opportunity to come up with creative ideas. Because we work together like that, if they need something for sales, we don’t even hesitate to throw our support behind it. The people outside development are part of the project’s collaborative efforts, and that’s important for the work we do.
That fact goes some way to explaining why these developers are providing internal PR with these interview opportunities.
Seven more interviews are listed as “Coming soon.”
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