Having sold a mere 27,000 units at launch, the market failure of Bionic Commando made Capcom rethink its outsourcing strategies and the way it works with Western studios.
During a Q&A session, a Capcom representative admitted that Bionic Commando's weak sales have "demonstrated the difficulty of outsourcing the development of new [titles] to overseas companies."
But there is a catch. "We cannot develop a sufficient number of titles without using the resources of these companies. This is why we plan to continue using these alliances," he added.
"We are considering ways to separate the roles of activities in Japan and overseas. We plan to develop new titles primarily in Japan."
From now on, Capcom will outsource only existing properties "with well-established characters and universal themes" to Western developers. "Overseas companies will also handle certain parts and/or lineups of such games."
