In a big commemorative YouTube livestream held on June 18, Pragmata’s developers at Capcom celebrated both Father’s Day and the huge milestone of the game selling over 2 million copies worldwide. The live talk event featured some of the key developers and cast members behind the title, who got the opportunity to reminisce about the game, and share some interesting tidbits about its development (including the hilarious notion of there being a “Diana cuteness police” on the production team).
While we’ve known that Pragmata went through a somewhat turbulent development period and two big delays, the new livestream documents how brutally its early prototypes were torn down before the game got greenlit, with specific quotes from staff members showcased in the livestream caused show among Japanese fans and fellow developers.
The project started back in 2019 when Jun Takeuchi, the head of Capcom’s Development Division 1, tasked the company’s team of young developers with making “a game on the Moon.” After numerous botched pitches and concepts, in 2020 Capcom finally revealed the first trailer for Pragmata, with a release window scheduled for 2022. However, this was when the development hit its first big wall. Completed test stages were being rejected one by one, the development team was stuck in a creative rut, and many of its members started departing from the project, which ultimately led to its delay in 2021.
According to the video, the Pragmata team was internally criticized as “unable to make compelling puzzles,” “unable to make compelling action,” and “incompetent at level design.” This led them to eventually come up with the game’s “hacking system.” However, the system had many shortcomings at first, and it was difficult to strike proper balance between shooting and puzzle elements, leading to even more negative reviews within the company.
“The game logic we worked so hard on building is completely broken,” “Give me back the 2 months I lost working alongside the team. Is this what you’re trying to entertain your players with?,” “This has fundamentally worsened the game, I am deeply disappointed,” “Feels like you’re just aimlessly moving forward – so boring” – these were some of the highlighted comments from the internal reviews at the company after the implementation of the hacking system.
Taking this feedback into consideration, the team rushed to create a revised build of the game to present to Capcom’s upper management. This presentation was also where it was to be decided whether the project would be cancelled. Luckily, the revised prototype of the game was a hit within the company, which gave Pragmata’s team the chance to restart development and turn the situation around.
Around the time the second big delay was announcement, development was in full throttle. And despite numerous difficulties throughout the second phase of development, Pragmata was finally able to launch in 2026, selling over 2 million copies in around three weeks.
Recently, the video documenting Pragmata’s troubled development made rounds on X, with many other developers commenting on how they found it extremely relatable. Akihiro Togawa, a developer of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, which is also a game that notably went through many difficulties and put its studio at the risk of bankruptcy, commented “Even though it’s someone else’s problem, I couldn’t view it as such, seeing this made my stomach hurt.”
“When you’re making games, unfair things and problems happen on a daily basis, and I think on most days it makes you feel completely beat down and exhausted,” he wrote in a follow up post. “However, if you keep facing those challenges honestly, you’ll eventually be able to finish the game and release it to the world so that players can enjoy it. Let’s keep that in mind and keep doing our best. We are all the next Pragmata.”
