Gaming Clover Studios Dissolves

[Charles]

[url]http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3994&Itemid=2[/url]

Clover Studio, which was responsible for games such as Viewtiful Joe and Okami, has been dissolved. Although Shinji Mikami will still remain an asset to Capcom, one of their better developers, Hideki Kamiya is leaving the company and not working with Capcom at all. He and Inaba want to leave Capcom and "find new challenges in new areas" as they put it.

Hideki Kamiya has created only four games in his career, but each has been significant. These games are Resident Evil 2 , Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe and Okami.

This interview was on the site I linked to but it was promptly removed:

Q: Can you explain briefly why Clover Studio has been decided to be dissolved?

A: Clover Studio (CS) was established in July 2004 by Capcom in order to create new types of titles. Then, the titles such as Viewtiful Joe, Okami and God Hand were produced. At the same time, R&D at Capcom also produced some new types of titles such as Dead Rising and Lost Planet and they were regarded highly at game shows such as E3. Reviewing the existing R&D organization, we have reached the conclusion that we should be centralizing all the resources rather than running two companies. Therefore, disbandment of CS was decided.

Q: We?ve heard that the famous creators such as [Resident Evil creator] Mr. [Shinji] Mikami, [Okami producer] Mr. [Atsushi] Inaba and [Devil May Cry director] Mr. [Hideki] Kamiya have quit, is this true? Why didn?t they come back to Capcom?

A: Mr. Mikami had already left Capcom in November 2005 but signed on a separate contract with us. Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya have also left Capcom in June and July of this year respectively. Naturally, we had hoped that Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya to come back to us, however, both of them told us that they wanted a new challenge at a new environment. As far as Capcom?s concerned, now all the resources should be used more effectively and more efficiently since they are centralized.

Q: Apparently, CS had 64 staff at the setup of the company, what happened to those people?

A: Actually, only 15 staff [members were] still left in the company at the time of 12th October. They will be transferred to R&D at Capcom although we haven?t negotiated with them individually yet. However, we will have to examine what sort of organization is required for creating more new titles first.

Q: Will copyright of the titles that were produced by CS be transferred to Capcom?

A: Yes, all copyrights of the CS titles will be transferred back to Capcom as a process of disbandment of the company.

Q: Can you tell us more about Mr. Inaba and Mr. Kamiya? We?ve heard that they are setting up a new company.

A: Since they are not our employees any longer, we can?t answer this question.

Q: Don?t you think of Mr. Mikami?s departure as a huge loss? Who?s going to produce Resident Evil series from now on?

A: We have a signed contract with Mr. Mikami separately. In any case, we have many creators that have worked on Resident Evil series titles and have enough knowledge of the series. Mr. Mikami will also work in our R&D. By the way, Mr. Takeuchi is producing Resident Evil 5 (he?s worked on the original Resident Evil).

[Semjaza]

They just released God Hand too, which is getting some polarizing reviews. Some seem to "get it" and others just think it's terrible. It seems to be something beat 'em up fans would love, though, from what I've read.

In some senses, I don't know that this is that terrible. It's sad, but I'm willing to bet Inaba and friends will be opening their own studio sooner rather than later. They were given the option to join the main Capcom arm and declined, which I'd be willing to bet someone in their shoes wouldn't do unless they had other promising prospects.