Capcom’s recent run of successful releases has made it an unusual bright spot in a difficult period for the video game industry. While Xbox appears to be struggling, Sony is committing heavily to a digital future, and several major publishers are dealing with repeated misses, Capcom has rebuilt its reputation through a more measured approach to development.
As part of a detailed examination of that turnaround, journalist Lewis Gordon at The Ringer spoke to a number of current and former employees. One anonymous former Capcom employee based in the United States offered a pointed criticism of how many Western studios organise their work: they may be placing too much emphasis on project-management software and not enough on making the game itself.
When project management becomes the product
“There’s an overemphasis on project management in the West in terms of Jira,” the former employee said, describing a system of task management that does not necessarily translate into a finished game.
They argued that a game director should retain final authority while working closely with the team to identify practical problems. That can mean recognising that an idea will not connect with players, take too long to build, or exceed the available budget and schedule.
In contrast, the employee described some Western production cultures as being shaped primarily by project management and Microsoft software-development practices. Timelines, charts and productivity metrics can become the main indicators of progress, even though they do not automatically produce a better experience for players.
How Capcom changed direction
The discussion coincides with anticipation surrounding a new Onimusha entry and includes conversations with Satoru Nihei, Akihito Kadowaki and Masachika Kawata. Their accounts describe a company that endured a damaging period in the early 2010s before finding a stronger balance between established strengths and creative risk.
Capcom’s recovery is often illustrated by the contrast between Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 7. The former was widely regarded as an overstuffed low point for the series, while the latter took a more immediate and claustrophobic approach that earned a much warmer response.
Since then, Capcom has continued refreshing major franchises. New Street Fighter and Monster Hunter releases have helped provide a dependable foundation, while that success has supported original projects such as Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and Pragmata. Gordon also reports that Pragmata was at one stage considered as a survival-horror game.
The company’s approach has also involved bringing in new talent, including Spec Ops writer Richard Pearsey, while retaining experienced staff. That combination gives established developers the opportunity to pass knowledge to newer team members rather than treating each project as an isolated production.
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The danger of measuring culture like a spreadsheet
The criticism extends beyond any single software tool. Film, television and music have long relied on collaboration between creative leaders, specialists and experienced production teams. The former employee’s argument is that game studios can lose that balance when business systems dominate creative judgement.
Pressure for immediate quarterly results has contributed to recurring layoffs across the industry. When performance fails to meet expectations, publishers may respond with restructures or cuts that make short-term figures look healthier while weakening the teams needed for future projects.
Capcom appears to have resisted some of those destructive impulses, although that does not mean every Japanese studio is managed well. The source discussion also points to Square Enix as an example of a company affected by questionable strategic decisions. Labour laws may limit the scale of mass layoffs in Japan compared with the United States, but poor management can occur anywhere.
The larger lesson is that game development cannot be reduced to charts, task completion or productivity dashboards. A studio also needs creative judgement, institutional knowledge and a workforce capable of making something players genuinely value. No reporting system can compensate for losing experienced developers, exhausting the available talent or forgetting what makes a game culturally distinctive.
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