Capcom’s senior producer, Mat Hart, says that the publisher has big plans for protagonist Nilin, and Remember Me‘s world. Speaking to Joystiq, he said that Capcom wants more than just a one game from Dontnod Entertainment. He made the plans clear, when asked about Capcom’s intentions:
We’re looking to build a long-lasting relationship with [Dontnod] as a developer, and build this into a major franchise.
Hart was also questioned about the game’s release window. Remember Me is set to be released in May 2013, and with the current consoles quickly reaching the end of their lifespan, launching a new IP seems risky at this point. It’ll also be a busy time of year, with other big titles launching. Hart’s response was quite interesting:
The thing is, if you leave it too late into next year, then you are starting to straddle that line where you’re starting to move into the next generation consoles. And what we wanna do is make sure we launch this on the current generation of consoles, to really sell it in, and establish it as a new IP. And then build the franchise out, in line with the new consoles coming out.
This is the opposite of Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot and 2K Games’ Christoph Hartmann’s approach of waiting until the launch of the next gen consoles in order to bring new IPs to the table. It’s certainly not a bad idea to establish an IP while the hardware is still popular, but it’s a plan that could easily backfire, as Guillemot says. Hart’s interesting mention of a time frame for the release of the next generation of consoles serves as another piece of evidence that at least company will be releasing their successor next year.
Hart isn’t worried though, and although he acknowledges the risks related to releasing a new IP this late into the current generation, he said:
There’s a clear difference between a risk and gamble. You’ve seen the footage we’ve released of the game, and it’s easy to see that Remember Me has the hallmark qualities of a top tier title. So we’re very confident it competes in that particular landscape.
It’ll be interesting to see if Capcom’s strong belief in the title will bear fruit. Remember Me certainly made splash at Gamescom, but how will it develop from here?
Hah for once I agree with Capcom, to be honest I think a lot of gamers are going to be slow in picking up next gen Hardware, lack of $$, memories of RR/YLOD plus the huge amount of quality titles still being released on current gen
My belief is the main driver for people to pick up next gen hardware will be the games on it. More games = more incentive.
Of course. The more attractive exclusives a console has, the more interest people will have. Remember Me is multiplatform though, so it’ll have to do pretty well on the current gen consoles if it wants to have a chance of successfully making the leap to the next gen. I wonder whether the increased costs of developing for the next gen consoles would make Capcom choose one console over another to release a second game for.