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Capcom talks about Clover closure
This news may not be as hopeful as the last Clover-related item, but it certainly helps to soften the original shock of Capcom's shutdown of Clover Studio last October. Capcom's vice president of marketing, Charles Bellfield, explained the nature of Clover's dissolution, giving us a glimpse at Capcom's internal development team structure. Basically, most of Capcom's teams are defined by their heads, and programming talent is pulled from a common pool. Clover was the exception, with a dedicated team of about 80 people. When Hideki Kamiya, Atsushi Inaba, and Shinji Mikami "decided to leave" the rest of the staff were folded back into the Capcom development pool. It's not exactly a happy ending to the Clover saga, but at least the whole development team didn't get canned for being too Viewtiful. The Clover bigwigs have their freedom, and the staff still have Capcom jobs. The interview is packed with info on all kinds of recent Capcommery, including a discussion of Phoenix Wright's surprising success. A Fanboy high five to the interviewer, former Video Game Ombudsman and blog-relative Kyle Orland.
Clover bosses start Seeds, blogger strains to resist botany metaphors [update 1]
Four months ago, we started mourning the sad loss of Clover Studio, the development house responsible for beautiful, original games like Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and God Hand. Well, now we can wipe our cel-shaded tears away! Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya, and Resident Evil/Devil May Cry creator Shinji Mikami have held their V-Watches aloft, shouted "Henshin a-go-go, baby!" and transformed the moribund Clover into a new development studio, called Seeds. And they want you! You know, if you're a qualified programmer or artist of some kind. According to the site, they are in the process of looking for new people to help them make some "weird, amazing games." We Fanboys are hoping that they (and whoever publishes their future work) turn their attentions to the two weirdest, most amazing consoles we can think of. These guys have some prior DS experience, and they've no doubt noticed that the DS has done a little bit of business in Japan, so it seems likely they'll be weirding and amazing it up on two screens in the near future.[Via Game|Life][Update 1: Those insidious italics!]
Raffle: Okami and God Hand, a Clover combo [update 1]
Buy an Okami/God Hand raffle ticket [Update: This raffle is closed! Congratulations to winner #4!]When Capcom shuttered Clover Studio this past October, the gaming world lost one of the industry's most consistently creative studios. This fall, their final two titles were released for the PlayStation 2: the beautiful Okami and the slapstick brawler God Hand. If you somehow missed 'em (both of them? Really?) now's your chance to rectify that oversight by entering our Child's Play raffle!The rules: each dollar in donations purchased using this link earns you one comment. Think of each comment as a raffle ticket. In three days (11:59 EST this Tuesday), we'll choose our winners using random.org and verify their donation. More on the rules here. We'd like to thank Capcom for the games, and encourage anyone interested in donating raffle prizes to contact us!
Clover Studio goes six feet under
Clover Studio, a development studio under Capcom, was responsible for the Viewtiful Joe franchise, on both DS and home consoles (as well as Sony's handheld thing), as well as the recent success that is Okami. They have an impeccable track record in the industry, as not only have their games had incredibly stylish graphics, but a downright fun playability. This really does come as a shock to the gaming world, as their games sold well. So does this mean we won't be seeing a sequel to Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble on the DS, as well as other Viewtiful Joe outings on the Wii, or even a port or sequel to Okami? Hard to say, but we are fairly certain should these see the light of day, they will not have the same high level of polish and replay values of the previous titles. But still, why did this happen? Next Generation recently conducted a Q & A with Clover Studio, so you can get the word directly from the horse's mouth here, should you wish.Truly, it is a sad day in gaming ...[Via Joystiq]
