Hideaki Itsuno Leaves Capcom

Hideaki Itsuno just announced through his X post that he will be leaving Capcom after 30 years and 5 months.

However, the fans should be happy to hear that this isn't a retirement from making games. Itsuno is moving on to a new environment, and will be working on a new project, starting this month.

He doesn't specify the reasons for leaving Capcom, or what studio he will be working under now, but there is room for a few guesses. In March of this year, Itsuno game an interview to PC Gamer, where he said that it would be fun to make something new.

This is after him talking about how the industry changed over time. Back when he started, it wouldn't be uncommon for someone to become a game director out of the blue, even if they had no experience. Such scenarios don't really happen anymore. Games are too grand in scale, too expensive in production. There is no room for mistakes in choosing your staff.

Making something new is also a known risk. New IPs have an additional challenge of finding their audience and capturing everyone's attention without the benefit of legacy or established fanbase. That's likely why Capcom has been largely releasing nothing but sequels, remakes, and remasters in the last few years.

You might remember Exoprimal from 2023 or very ambitious Kinitsu-Gami that came out earlier this year. Those were new, they were risky, and they were both out of character for Capcom. In the last 12 years, those were 2 out of 3 new IPs they created. The third one was Shinsekai, a unique little action-adventure game that they released on mobile devices in 2019. They have shut that down in 2023.

It's impossible to know everything, but from the outside, I get the impression that if you are a creator at Capcom, you don't have too many opportunities to make something new. If we look at their "Platinum Titles" sales rundown, the newest franchise on the list is Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, sitting at 24th place with 4 million sales. The original game is at 94th place with 1.3 million sales...

What about those previously mentioned new IPs? Well, the list doesn't go below 1 million sales, so you get the idea. Exoprimal and Kinitsu-Gami have time, sure, but when these titles perform worse than Dino Crisis, and Lost Planet, which Capcom has been ignoring for the longest time, it certainly feels like they will think twice before approving another original title.

Let's hope that in the new environment, Itsuno can make anything he wanted.