Here's Why Capcom Isn't Making A New Darkstalkers

If you're a fan of fighting games and you've been knee-deep in the FGC culture, you're probably sitting on your couch every single night, thinking loudly to yourself “Why the heck hasn't Capcom released a new Darkstalkers game?” Well, the answer is a lot more blatantly obvious than you might have guessed... or maybe you guessed it right the first time around.

Event Hubs caught wind of an interview between Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono and gaming personality Ayana Tsubaki discussed a wide number of things, including the possible return of the anime-esque fighting game Darkstalkers.

If you're a fan of the vampire/monster-themed fighting game you best put on your disappointment cap and ready your eyes for a stream of tears, as Ono was asked about whether or not a new entry was on the way and if Capcom had plans to follow-up on Darkstalkers: Resurrection, to which Ono replied...

“My apologies. We won't be releasing a new installment in the Darkstalkers series anytime soon. As we didn't manage to hit our sales targets for Darkstalkers Resurrection... so...”

Today's mainstream AAA market centers around sales, sales and more sales. Is a million good? Not quite. Remember Square Enix deemed Sleeping Dogs as a failure at first because of its slow start on the market. How about two million? Well, that's not too bad but it's not enough to claim it as a major success under the AAA banner. Three million? Do I need to repeat what happened with the reboot of Tomb Raider? How about four million? Is four million a good number? Well, according to Ono that's what it would take to get the series back into Capcom's spotlight, saying...

“Well, in that case all you have to do is buy about 4 million copies of Darkstalkers Resurrections! *Laughs*”“[..] But at the end of the day, there are just some brick walls that a salaryman can never overcome *laughs*. For instance, if a game doesn't sell over 2 million copies, then we'd have to put the brakes on any plans for a sequel. All that means is that we weren't capable enough. And all we can do after that is to reflect on the experience, take what we can learn from it, and try to apply those lessons on some other title.”

That quote also applies to Street Fighter X Tekken, which moved just under two million units during its launch window. What does that mean? No sequel.

The biggest problem with Street Fighter X Tekken wasn't the game itself but the DLC practices that marred the overall experience. Instead of having characters to unlock and new goodies to play through the game for, Capcom opted to lace the game with some of the worst forms of disc-locked content known to man. More than $100 worth of DLC stored away on the disc, with the initial unlock available for $20.

I think Street Fighter X Tekken would have sold a lot better without all the negative PR surrounding an anti-consumer fiasco, but hey... what do I know?

The entire interview with Ono is well worth a read and covers some interesting topics as to why some games get patched, why others won't and what Capcom's philosophy is surrounding releasing new titles. I'll give you a hint: it's all about money.

You can check out the entire thing over on Event Hubs.