Clover Studios Closed 48
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."
Too Bad (Score:3, Funny)
Thank you, I'm here all week.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
Because (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Because Companies need to make money (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Let's face it, if their innovations were any good, people would have bought the games, and they'd still be in business.
Do you hear that? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I hate to say it,... (Score:2)
...but Clover was overrated. Okami is brilliant, but Viewtiful Joe was overhyped to the point of pain, and its sequels were mediocre [gamerankings.com] to foul [gamerankings.com]. Now God Hand is getting 70%. This is a studio that will be remembered for one game [gamerankings.com].
I suppose we can commence comparing them to Origin, Square-Enix, Sierra, VALVe, Maxis, iD, and Nintendo now.
Re: (Score:2)
Okami, meanwhile, I just stoped playing about 12 h
Not that big of a deal (Score:2, Informative)
I just finished Okami (Score:3, Interesting)
But from experience I'd say it is most likely that Inaba-san was fed up with Capcom messing with his projects, and Capcom is not going to make anything worthwhile with the talent and properties - just have a look at the Viewtiful Joe sequels. Sigh.
Re: (Score:2)
I completely agree, I'm playing Okami now, and I haven't seen a game that seemed so... inspired, in a LONG time. My thought was, "I hope they don't do a sequel", not because it wouldn't make for a good series, but Okami is Okami, let it be, and let the creators/artists progress even further into the depths of their creativity on their next project.
Now, is Inaba staying with Capcom or not? I hope not, because I don't Capcom neururing much innovation these days (especially after breaking up their "indy" stu
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/001350.html [insertcredit.com]
Only time will tell if and how they will work together with Capcom in the future.
Can you smell the BS? (Score:2)
Much more likely they're into the concept of viral TQC. They have a game plan to become virally-distributed and have come to know that it is better to productize intra-cyber-mega-strategically than to orchestrate extens
It's to focus on thier core business model (Score:3, Funny)
Don't get me wrong. Capcom makes the occasional brilliant game, but they have been far more miss than hit over the last decade.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Capcom, you owe me a million dollars.
Re: (Score:2)
that is fucking GENIUS!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Translation: (Score:1)
In other words: "We're giving ourselves more wiggle room in the budget for our corporate hookers. Thank
This is sad to hear... (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, you sorta missed the point. How many games out there truly offer innovative (and creative) graphics? Not very many... even the ones with "GREAT GRAPHICS!!!" mostly are rehashed ideas, simply at higher polygon counts, better lighting effects, etc. What we're talking about, here, is more "style" than "graphics" in the traditional sense. There are many great games, in fact, I would say most great games, that center around establishing a very particular atmosphere. The Metroid series, for example, would b
Re: (Score:1)
To me the game is more like Spyro in how it plays but this could be because I played 3 (I think) spyro games before Wind Waker came out.
Perhaps replace "closed" with "moved"?? (Score:1)