Capcom dissolves Clover Studios
Posted by inpheaux on October 12th, 2006 at 11:33 am
I'm not sure what to say, apart from stating that this is probably some of the worst news I've heard in quite awhile. Clover Studios, a subsidiary of Capcom, developers responsible for the Viewitful Joe games, God Hand and Okami, are being dissolved. This doesn't mean all the developers from Clover are now out of jobs, it just means that as of March 2007, Clover won't exist, and the developers from Clover will be either absorbed into Capcom or find other employment.
And what does this mean for the prospects of, say, an Okami sequel on the Wii, which I feel would be one of the bestest things ever? Not good. If new games are made based on IP developed at Clover, they won't be made by all the same people. This is generally a monumentally Bad Thing.
Oh well, I still have ~40 more hours of wonderfully hand-crafted high-quality enjoyment to extract from Okami. Perhaps you should do the same. It won't bring Clover back, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't still run out and enjoy the things they've made. Hopefully my enjoyment of the rest of the game won't be marred by the knowledge that this is it.
I don't claim to be a business major, or understand the motivations of multinational corporations, but the two press releases Capcom issued today just don't seem to match up. In one press release they're saying "Hey guys, we're closing Clover, OK? And we're going to talk about what horrible impacts closing them and these here 400 million yen in losses are going to do to us in another press release". And then over in the other one they seem to be saying "Wow, we're doing super! Those kids sure do love killing zombies in shopping malls! As such, we've revised all our financial forecasts to all be several million yen above what they were before! Oh, and higher dividends for everyone!"
I'm sure this is supposed to make sense, but it doesn't to me.
Update @ 14:07 - Wired's Game|Life Blog is now reporting that they have an insider source who claims Clover wanted to break off from Capcom, and this is going to allow them to do it. If true, they most likely won't keep the name "Clover", and they almost definitely won't retain any of their IP, but at least it means this great group of developers will get to stay together and continue to make wonderful videogames.
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