Capcom marked its 43-year anniversary on June 11, and to honor the occasion, president and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto—alongside founder Kenzo Tsujimoto—spoke with Famitsu about the company’s origins and its journey as a game developer. A notable discussion point was Capcom’s deliberate move away from individual-driven development, which relies heavily on the creative vision of a single creator, toward a team-driven approach.
Capcom’s flagship franchises, including Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter, have sustained their popularity and continued to deliver successful games for decades since their inception. Tsujimoto credits Capcom’s organizational evolution as a key factor in achieving this longevity.
“In the gaming world, once a title becomes a series, it often becomes overly dependent on a specific developer, what you might call an individual-driven title. If that person doesn’t lead the project, there’s no follow-up. The series’ direction becomes tied to the ideas of a single creator,” he explains.
Capcom’s development process operated similarly for years, but Tsujimoto notes that the company began recognizing the limitations of relying on auteur-driven development, particularly as a publicly traded company with responsibilities to its shareholders.
“We discussed this issue with the key figures behind each franchise and ultimately agreed to abandon that approach. What we came up with instead was the idea that every title should essentially be rebuilt from the ground up. We didn’t mind even if sales temporarily declined as a result, and by switching to a team-based approach to game development, Capcom changed dramatically.”
Tsujimoto believes this decision has more than justified itself, enabling new entries in Capcom’s most valuable franchises on a regular basis. This also ensures that knowledge and expertise accumulated by development teams are passed down generationally, securing each franchise’s endurance. Additionally, he considers this approach equally important for developing new IPs, with 2026’s Pragmata serving as a symbol of Capcom’s team-oriented development structure.
When discussing auteur-driven games, names like Hideo Kojima or Yoko Taro immediately come to mind, and these types of IPs, which are practically synonymous with an individual creator, can be incredibly powerful in cultivating a dedicated playerbase. However, from a company’s standpoint, this involves the risk of a star creator leaving or retiring, leaving valuable franchises in limbo. We’ve seen how negatively loyal fans can react to companies rebooting franchises without the involvement of their original developers, so the matter is far more complex than simply owning rights.
Given these circumstances, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Capcom made a conscious effort to reduce its reliance on auteur-driven development, and it’s likely not the only developer to do so. From a gamer’s perspective, however, it’s also unfortunate that this kind of eccentric, highly-individualistic approach is fading from mainstream, large-scale game development.
Interestingly, Hideki Kamiya, a Capcom veteran and another prime example of creator-led game design, has previously expressed regret about game development becoming more “product-focused” than “creator-focused” in recent times, which was one of the reasons he decided to establish the independent studio CLOVERS, aimed at nurturing games that reflect their creator’s individuality.