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We guess mainstream gamers don't like creative, original and artistic games, otherwise Capcom wouldn't be closing down Clover Studio, the developers behind Okami, God Hand and the Viewtiful Joe series. In March 2007, Clover Studio will close its doors; the company was founded in July 2004. While the games developed by Clover Studio have always garnered high praise, sales for its titles haven't been as stellar.

 

A press release sent out by Capcom today says, "Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has met the goal of developing unique and creative original home video game software, however, in view of promoting a business strategy that concentrates management resources on a selected business to enhance the efficiency of the development power of the entire Capcom group, the dissolution of Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has been raised and passed at a Board of Directors' meeting."

 

Clover Studio is made up of plenty of talented developers. Some rumors suggest that key members of the company may be forming their own development studio separate from Capcom. So far these are just rumors, but chances are that these guys still have a lot of good games left in them and that you'll be hearing about them again soon.

 

Very sad, they were easily one of my favourite developers.

 

They made (mostly) really great stuff. Clover was such a feather in Capcom's cap, and you'd have thought they have enough established big-name franchises bringing in money to allow a risky inspirational title from Clover every few years.

 

It just reflects upon the tastes of the gaming market though that people just want the same genres again and again. You see the same people in Game asking for FIFA and Scarface and "The next GTA" all the time. No one for an original title like Okami, its quite gutting.

 

At least the Clover staff are starting up their own studio now (according to the rumour mill), so here's hoping they can remain as innovative without Capcom picking up the cheques.

Edited by Clarkey

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Thats the thing with games, you get games that are critically acclaimed but dont sell very well. The other thing is its mostly your big companies like EA, Ubisoft etc that can afford to really advertise games to everyone but poor companies rely on hardcore gamers reading previews online so "Steve" in his burberry cap only knows FIFA, Pro Evo, 50Cent, GTA so will not bother with Psychonauts, Okami, God Hand

 

I agree the only games developers make are GTA clones(name no less than 100) and games that try market themselves with really powerful graphics and bad gameplay(fifa 07 next gen).

I worry about the future of Grasshopper. Killer 7 was criminally under appreciated, and I can't see Contact on the DS garnering huge attention for the reasons already stated.
I agree the only games developers make are GTA clones(name no less than 100) and games that try market themselves with really powerful graphics and bad gameplay(fifa 07 next gen).

 

This is partly why I gave up my degree in Games Design. Too many logistical hurdles for someone who wants to create art and give games the status they deserve alongside films and music. Apparently they're talking about independent, public-funded projects, which could go some way to give games artistic validity.

 

This is also why I don't understand so called 'hardcore gamers' who rip on the Sony consoles. Sony do more to encourage development of niche games than any other console manufacturer (Rez and Ico, the two games always brought up in the games/art debate were both PS2 games). You may argue the case of Live Arcade but these are actually games that made the shelves.

Is Okami the one where you "paint" onto the screen to get things to happen?

 

I love the Viewtiful Joe games, they were a breath of fresh air.

 

This is a real pity.

This is partly why I gave up my degree in Games Design. Too many logistical hurdles for someone who wants to create art and give games the status they deserve alongside films and music. Apparently they're talking about independent, public-funded projects, which could go some way to give games artistic validity.

 

This is also why I don't understand so called 'hardcore gamers' who rip on the Sony consoles. Sony do more to encourage development of niche games than any other console manufacturer (Rez and Ico, the two games always brought up in the games/art debate were both PS2 games). You may argue the case of Live Arcade but these are actually games that made the shelves.

 

Im going to start games design degree next year

 

I agree about what you said about Sony. I think that Blu Ray has been criticised for being expensive and hard to work for but the thing is it allows for more and better High Definition graphics. The DVD which the 360 uses may not last for a couple more years

I think that Blu Ray has been criticised for being expensive and hard to work for but the thing is it allows for more and better High Definition graphics.

That makes ZERO sense.

 

Just because it has a BluRay drive doesn't mean that the graphics are going to be better, that's all down to the graphics card built into the machine - the drive only supplies storage.

 

It's like saying that your computer will have better graphics if you get a larger hard drive.

Very, very sad. Okami is absolute genius, but this is indicative of the way gaming has been going mainstream and focussing on franchises. As the cost of developing games goes up, so developers are having to be increasingly ruthless when it comes to recouping costs. Im confident these guys will show up with their own development team though. Please?
Blu-Ray won't speed the graphics up per se, as I understand it it allows for quicker data transfer, so you'd get reduced loading times. For 'seamless' worlds like Oblivion's it could eliminate some of the judder when you pass into a new area.

A Sony console with reduced load times? You mean it'll load at the speed of other consoles then. :D

 

 

 

I'd love to see Capcom revert to what they used to do (apart from the SF franchise) and bring out some really original games, but it seems like there's no real money in it.

More details have emerged of regarding Capcom's decision to close Clover Studio, the developer behind the likes of Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand.

 

According to US website Gamespot, Devil May Cry director Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba, producer of Steel Battallion and Viewtiful Joe, left the company in July and June of this year respectively.

 

But a Capcom UK representative has told our sister site, GamesIndustry.biz, that both Kamiya and Inaba are "still working for Capcom on a contractual basis" - as is Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.

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The representative also confirmed that PAL versions of Clover's forthcoming titles Okami and God Hand "will definitely release in February, as scheduled".

 

Capcom announced the closure of Clover last week. The studio's doors will officially close in March next year.

 

Pretty obvious stuff, but nice to see it confirmed none the less.

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