Capcom Co., Ltd. (Japanese: ????????

, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha Kapukon) is a

Japanese video game developer and publisher[4] known for creating numerous multi-
million selling game franchises, including Street Fighter, Mega Man, Resident Evil,
Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Dino Crisis, Dead Rising, Sengoku Basara, Ghosts 'n
Goblins, Monster Hunter, Breath of Fire, and Ace Attorney as well as games based on
Disney animated properties. Established in 1979,[5] it has become an international
enterprise with subsidiaries in North America, Europe, and Japan.[6]

Contents
1 History
2 Corporate structure
2.1 Development studios
2.2 Branches and subsidiaries
2.3 Game-related media
3 Games
3.1 Platinum titles
4 Criticism and controversy
5 See also
5.1 Articles
5.2 Companies
6 References
7 External links
History
Capcom's predecessor, I.R.M. Corporation, was founded on May 30, 1979[7] by Kenzo
Tsujimoto. Tsujimoto was still president of Irem Corporation when he founded I.R.M.
Tsujimoto worked concomitantly in both companies until leaving the former in 1983.

The original companies that spawned Capcom's Japanese branch were I.R.M. as well as
its subsidiary Japan Capsule Computers Co., Ltd., both of which were devoted to the
manufacturing and distribution of electronic game machines.[5] The two companies
underwent a name change to Sambi Co., Ltd. in September 1981,[5] while Capcom Co.,
Ltd. was first established on June 11, 1983 by Kenzo Tsujimoto,[7] for the purpose
of taking over the internal sales department.[8]

In January 1989, the old affiliate company Capcom Co., Ltd. merged with Sambi Co.,
Ltd., resulting in the current Japanese branch.[5] The name Capcom is a clipped
compound of "Capsule Computers", a term coined by the company to describe the
arcade machines it solely manufactured in its early years, designed to set
themselves apart from personal computers that were becoming widespread at that
time.[9] The word capsule alludes to how Capcom likened its game software to "a
capsule packed to the brim with gaming fun", as well as to the company's desire to
protect its intellectual property with a hard outer shell, preventing illegal
copies and inferior imitations.[9]

While Capcom's first product was the coin-operated Little League from July 1983,
its first real video game, the arcade title Vulgus, was released in May 1984.[5]
Beginning with a Nintendo Entertainment System port of 1942 published in December
1985, the company started to venture into the market of home console video games,
[5] which became its main business segment a few years later.[10] Its division
Capcom USA had a brief stint in the late 1980s as a video game publisher for the
Commodore 64 and IBM PC DOS computers although the development of these arcade
ports were handled by other companies. Capcom has created 15 multi-million-selling
game series, the most successful of which is Resident Evil.[11]

Capcom has been noted as the last major publisher to be committed to 2D games,
though this was not entirely by choice. The company's commitment to the Super
Nintendo Entertainment System as its platform of choice caused them to lag behind
other leading publishers in developing 3D-capable arcade boards.[12] In addition,
the 2D animated cartoon-style graphics seen in games such as Darkstalkers: The
Night Warriors and X-Men: Children of the Atom proved popular, leading Capcom to
adopt it as a signature style and use it in more games.[12]

In 1994, Capcom adapted its Street Fighter series of fighting games into a film of
the same name. While commercially successful, it was critically panned. A 2002
adaptation of its Resident Evil series faced similar criticism but was also
successful in theaters. The company sees films as a way to build sales for its
video games.[13]

Capcom partnered with Nyu Media in 2011 to publish and distribute the Japanese
independent (dojin soft) games that Nyu localized into the English language.[14]
The company works with the Polish localization company QLoc to port Capcom's games
to other platforms,[15] notably examples are DmC: Devil May Cry's PC version and
its PlayStation 4 and Xbox One remasters, Dragon's Dogma's PC version released in
January 2016, and Dead Rising's version on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC released
on September 13, 2016.

On August 27, 2014, Capcom filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Koei Tecmo
Games at the Osaka District Court for 980 million yen in damage. Capcom claimed
Koei Tecmo Games infringed a patent it obtained in 2002 regarding a play feature in
video games.[16]

Corporate structure
Development studios
In the first few years after its establishment, the Japanese branch of Capcom had
three development groups referred to as "Planning Rooms", led by Tokuro Fujiwara,
Takashi Nishiyama and Yoshiki Okamoto, respectively.[17][18] Later, games developed
internally used to be created by several numbered "Production Studios", each
assigned to different games.[19][20] Starting in 2002, the development process was
reformed to better share technologies and expertise, and all of the individual
studios were gradually restructured into bigger departments responsible for
different tasks.[20] While there are self-contained departments for the creation of
arcade, pachinko and pachislo, online, and mobile games, the Consumer Games R&D
Division instead is an amalgamation of subsections in charge of various game
development stages.[20][21][22]

Capcom has three internal divisions to make games. Those are Consumer games
division 1 with Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, and other worldwide
franchises (usually targeted towards North American and European audiences),
Consumer games division 2 with Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, and other online
focused franchises (usually targeted towards worldwide audiences), and Consumer
games division 3 with Monster Hunter, Ace Attorney, and other franchises with more
traditional IP (usually targeted towards Japanese audiences).[23]

In addition to these internal teams, Capcom also commissions outside development

studios to ensure a steady output of titles.[24][25] However, following poor sales
of Dark Void and Bionic Commando, the company's management has decided to limit
outsourcing to sequels and newer versions of installments in existing franchises,
reserving the development of original titles for its in-house teams.[26] The
production of games, budgets, and platforms supported are decided upon in
development approval meetings, attended by the company management and the
marketing, sales, and quality control departments.[20]

Branches and subsidiaries

Main article: List of Capcom subsidiaries
Apart from the head office building and the R&D building of Capcom Co., Ltd., both
located in Chuo-ku, Osaka,[6] the Japanese parent company also has a branch office
in the Shinjuku Mitsui Building in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo.[27] It also has
the Ueno Facility, a branch office in Iga, Mie Prefecture.[6]

The international Capcom Group encompasses 15 subsidiaries in Japan, North America,

Europe, and East Asia.[6][20] Affiliated companies include Koko Capcom Co., Ltd. in
South Korea, Street Fighter Film, LLC in the United States, and Dellgamadas Co.,
Ltd.[20]

Game-related media
In addition to the development and publishing of home, online, mobile, arcade,
pachinko, and pachislo games, the company publishes strategy guides,[5] maintains
its own arcade centers in Japan known as Plaza Capcom, and licenses its franchise
and character properties for use in tie-in products, movies, television series, and
stage performances.[10]

Suleputer, an in-house marketing and music label established in cooperation with

Sony Music Entertainment Intermedia in 1998, publishes CDs, DVDs, and other media
based on Capcom's games.[28] An annual private media summit called Captivate,
renamed from Gamers Day in 2008, is traditionally used as a platform for new game
and business announcements.[29]