Clover Studios Closed

Clover Studios, makers of such titles as Okami, God Hand, and Viewtiful Joe, has been closed by Capcom Japan for financial reasons. Gamespot reports on the exact wording of the sad announcement: "Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has met the goal of developing unique and creative original home video game software, however, in view of promoting a business strategy that concentrates management resources on a selected business to enhance the efficiency of the development power of the entire Capcom group, the dissolution of Clover Studios Co., Ltd. has been raised and passed at a Board of Directors' meeting."

Because

[Broken scope]

New and innovative games might not make money. Quickly back to cheap remakes that we know the hoards will but without a second thought.

Not that big of a deal

[hansamurai]

This isn't that huge of a deal, all of the employees of Clover were rolled back into Capcom and most of the lead developers still have contracts with Capcom in one way or another.

Re:It's to focus on thier core business model

[joystickgenie]

There hasn't been a street fighter sequel from Capcom since 1999 with Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and there hasn't been a street fighter sequel from other developers since 2000 (Street Fighter EX3)

There have been plenty of re-releases of previous games but no new sequels in 6 years. To be honest I really wish they would truly go and make another street fighter sequel.

This is sad to hear...

[7Prime]

I'm in the middle of Okami right now, and it's the freshed feeling game I've seen in a LONG time. And yes, it is because of the graphics. Okami goes against the grain of this trend toward absolute realism, and actually chooses to take a very artistic direction instead. For that reason, it's not just about the graphics, but the philosophy behind the game, "abstraction not only has a place in video games, it can be downright breathtaking". My problem with the absolute realism movement is that it has no creativity behind it... all it is is pixel pushing, not to say it's a simple deal, but it's a concrete goal that can be objectively evaluated, and not neccarilly artisically driven. This is an oversimplification, of course, but I see it in all aspects of game design these days.

Now, Okami is obviously incredibly Wind Waker inspired, but I don't think that's a bad thing at all. All creative endevours are built on the achievements of others. Okami earns it's legitimacy in doing something few games have done, it has become an interactive work of art. I haven't felt that in a game since I played Myst back in the day, and even then, the graphical style was much less abstracted.

Interestly, it seems that Okami is doing VERY well, the video game press has been raiving about it endlessly, and it seems to be selling well. I was just thinking, the other day, "I wonder what this 'Clover Studios' is going to do next?" In some ways, I had more hope for their future works than any other studio at the moment, so this is a big letdown.

We've done the comic book thing to death, and it's just WAY too obvious a direction to take (since a large percentage of japanese games are done by Anime artists, and many american games are done by comic artists), and I'm sick of it. We've done disney (oh god, have we done disney), and then we've done contemporary blockbuster cinema (TO DEATH), it is high time for games to break free of their "pop art" constraints. I'm not saying that Okami is quite there, but it's a damn good start.

Sure, Okami is working off of pre-existing visual styles (namely Japanese water-color along with a good touch of old-school cartoon styling), but the fact that it's the first to be able to put them into this kind of use, and into an interactive framework, is quite an achievement. Can you imagine a whole game done in the style of cubism? We could explore impressionism a bit... and then maybe, just maybe, venture into uncharted visual territory? These are the questions that have been spinning in my head for the last few weeks.