Unfortunate news on the Capcom front today. According to a Polygon report, the company is undergoing a staff reorganization, resulting in the resignation of its Senior Vice-President Christian Svensson.
Svensson shared the news on his Facebook, saying that he volunteered to be let go as part of the reorganization. He did not say who else has been affected, but said "sadly, I'm not the only one affected by the reorganization today. Over the next few days, I'll be gathering resumes from as many as I can and will be sending them out to my contacts around the industry to see if there's a 'love connection' to be made."
Svensson has been part of Capcom U.S for eight years, candidly serving as the mediator between Mega Man fans and Capcom Japan's head honchos. He's an advocate in getting the franchise back on its feet; keenly aware of the community's diverse opinions. Though the fruit of his labor has yet to become apparent (a new game, a new direction for the franchise, etc.), know that he has tried to do right.
“I’ve had the opportunity to interface with the best fans any company could ever hope to have,” he continued. “I know that I wasn’t always able to deliver what they wanted, but I promise that I did my best to champion their needs and wants. So thank you to the fans who made my job rewarding, challenging, and, if nothing else, interesting.”
I wish Svensson good luck on his future endeavors.
Source: Polygon
Well there goes any chance of any sort of new Mega Man happening.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping his replacement is still open to keeping the comic going at least.
Sad, really. Sven was the only one who cared for the MegaMan fans during MegaMan's depressing times. I wish him the best of luck on finding a job.
ReplyDelete(insert comment about the mega man franchise being doomed here)
ReplyDeleteI think its the other way around actually. Capcom is doomed because they stopped making Mega Man games.
DeleteCapcom is doomed since Inafune as left the company
DeleteCapcom is better off without him, look at the trash he's made after: Soul Sacrifice and Bugs Vs. Tanks.
DeleteHe's better off gone, look at the trash he's made after leaving: Soul Sacrifice and Bugs vs. Tanks
DeleteI agree with the top three comments. Entirely.
ReplyDeleteNot surprising.
ReplyDeleteOne can hardly expect to keep a multinational corporation on all of it's legs when the bulk of their income is based on the 3-4 updated versions of pre-existing games they put out annually.
I mean, Kenner didn't survive the 90's by just repainting the same Batman/Star Wars figures over and over and...
...Oh, wait...
If this is about blocking X-Over in the U.S., I swear...
ReplyDeleteIf anything it's probably about overstating the popularity of Monster Hunter and Ace Attorney in the west.
DeleteSure they do good but not the numbers CoJ wants to see to justify localization.
It probably is, the Game Watch interview posted today asks about why the game isn't distributed outside of Japan and they replied they were working on it
Delete@Anon1:
DeleteMonster Hunter? That boring 1-player MMO snoozefest? Yeah, that's not a surprise.
Ace Attorney. Popular? It's a freaking detective game, it gets the same niche crowd as 999, Ghost Trick, etc. Can't expect millions outta that.
@Anon2:
!@#$. I knew it.
And Sven was railing against more spinoffs. If they kicked him, what does this mean for the future of MM? More spinoff series that aren't well made nor fit into the A.I. evolution story that MM, MMX, MMZ, to some extent MMZX, and Legends were exploring? I'm very concerned.
What the hell has capcom been doing lately game wise anyway?
ReplyDeleteNintedo, hire Sven please. The man could do you wonders, he's the best PR man you can have and I feel he'd do a great job in hyping up titles that normally wouldn't sell well. Plus I'm sure he'd be great for negotiating with Capcom....
ReplyDeleteI second this.
DeleteThat's fine and all... but does Nintendo even need any more good PR? Really? They're pretty much flying high on Cloud Nine right now.
DeleteWas he the one that knew that Mega Man 9 secret? Hopefully he'll tell us now at least...jeez.
ReplyDeleteUnless he told Brett or Greg, yes.
DeleteNo, that was Seth Killian.
DeleteWhat secret?
DeleteBest of luck to Sven in whatever he does after this, and here's to hoping his replacement is competent.
ReplyDeleteThis is some depressing news. :( I hope Sven and the others who got layed off are able to get back on their feet in the future. Getting layed off is the pits. Best of luck to them.
ReplyDeleteOh dear god.
ReplyDeleteFirst Inafune (though honestly I understand his reasons for wanting to leave), now Sven gets layed off. This is truly sad news. I honestly do not know what to expect after this, although what I fear cannot be good...
Still I wish him luck, and all the rest too.
So..... Now that all the bigger names are leaving, or have already left, Who else in Capcom office has the info to MM9 and MM10's little secret that no one else knows? Inafune's been way gone from Capcom like forever, then Seth left some time ago after that, now Sven and other employees?
ReplyDeleteThe "Original" Capcom team is officially gone as far as I'm concerned. :P
The "original Capcom team" died at the end of the Gamecube era when Capcom shut down Clover studios, Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba & Hideki Kamiya all left then & then Inafune left a long time after ...
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping Brett can keep up the fight to get more Megaman titles released in the future.. the only hope is that Capcom Japan allowed Nintendo to put Megaman in Smash so he may yet get back into the public spotlight resulting in more games (hey gotta be optimistic I guess)
There are still many members, like Eguchi, but yeah, most "top tier" and "heavy hitters" from old times left, and judging by xover, the newcomers (with exceptions like Ryota Niitsuma) aren't promising. What if Yoshinori Ono quits Capcom?
DeleteWell, that's just old fan me rambling. The recent "Remember Me" looks promising!
Sad news, people give Sven a lot of crap but most of the things he did wrong were Capcom Japan fault to begin with. Imagine the Mega Man debacle without him, we will be in complete darkness because Capcom Japan can't care less about us.
ReplyDeleteNo one at Capcom was as upfront and brutally honest as Sven was, and his departure is a big loss, mostly to the fan community.
ReplyDeleteI spoke personally to Seth at PAX, on a number of occasions, and he mentioned that there was a group within Capcom management who felt that the company's community efforts (Unity site, devroom, forums, etc) were a waste of resources. Both he and Sven were constantly working to convince managers that the community work was important and valuable. Looks like the other team is winning out now.
I also met Brett and the current Unity community leaders in person at PAX last year. While they're great and fun guys, they're nowhere near Sven's rank. They're mostly around to keep the Unity blog going and provide feedback on the community. Sven was a Research and Development director. He had a big say not just in the community efforts, but also company decisions.
With him gone, who'll answer questions at the Ask Capcom section of Unity now? Community guys who'll only be allowed to say what their managers tell them? Who knows. Whatever the case, it doesn't seem to me like Capcom will attempt to fill in the role that Sven represented to the community. A big loss to both the company and the fanbase.
Exactly, he was so honest with the fans and the company and wanted the best for us....the fans.
DeleteWhat?!? No more update for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3??? No more Mega Man games??? Anything??!?!
ReplyDeleteNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!