{"id":68161,"date":"2026-06-12T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=68161"},"modified":"2026-06-12T17:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:26:33","slug":"capcom-says-abandoning-auteur-driven-development-in-favor-of-team-led-development-is-what-transformed-the-company-and-allowed-flagship-ips-to-survive-for-so-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/capcom-says-abandoning-auteur-driven-development-in-favor-of-team-led-development-is-what-transformed-the-company-and-allowed-flagship-ips-to-survive-for-so-long\/","title":{"rendered":"Capcom says shifting from auteur-driven development to team-led development\u00a0is what transformed the company and allowed flagship IPs to\u00a0survive\u00a0for so long"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Capcom celebrated its 43-year anniversary on June 11, and to commemorate the milestone, president and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto (who leads Capcom alongside founder Kenzo Tsujimoto) talked to Famitsu<\/a> at length about the company\u2019s beginnings and how it has made it so far as a game developer. One interesting topic that came up is Capcom\u2019s conscious effort to shift away from individual-driven development \u2013 which heavily depends on the creative vision and expertise of a single creator \u2013 and adopt team-driven development.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capcom\u2019s flagship IPs, like the Monster Hunter, Resident Evil and Street Fighter series, have maintained their popularity and continued to produce hit games decades after they were originally created, and Tsujimoto considers Capcom\u2019s organizational transformation to be one of the biggest reasons why this was possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Monster<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the game industry, when a title becomes a series, it often ends up depending heavily on a particular developer, becoming what you’d call an individual-driven title. If that person doesn\u2019t make one, there\u2019s no next installment. The direction of the series becomes tied to the ideas of a single creator,\u201d he explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Development at Capcom likewise functioned this way for a long time, but according to Tsujimoto, the company started feeling the limits of relying on auteur-driven development, especially against the backdrop of fulfilling its responsibilities to shareholders as a publicly listed company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe discussed the issue with the central figures behind each franchise and ultimately agreed that we should abandon that approach. What we came up with instead was the idea that every title should essentially be rebuilt from the ground up. We didn\u2019t mind even if sales temporarily declined as a result, and by switching to a team-based approach to game development, Capcom changed dramatically.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tsujimoto believes this decision has more than paid off, allowing new entries in Capcom\u2019s most valued IPs on a regular basis. This also means that knowledge and expertise accumulated by development teams is handed over generationally, securing each franchise\u2019s longevity. Additionally, he considers this to be just as important when it comes to developing new IPs, with 2026\u2019s Pragmata being a symbol of Capcom\u2019s team-oriented development structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to auteur-driven games, names like Hideo Kojima or Yoko Taro\u00a0immediately\u00a0come to mind, and these types of\u00a0IPs, which are\u00a0practically synonymous\u00a0with an individual\u00a0creator,\u00a0can be extremely powerful when it comes to nurturing\u00a0a\u00a0devoted\u00a0playerbase.\u00a0However, from a company\u2019s perspective,\u00a0this involves the risk of a star creator quitting or retiring, leaving valuable franchises hanging.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0seen how negatively loyal fans can\u00a0respond to\u00a0companies\u00a0rebooting franchises without the involvement of their OG developers, so\u00a0the matter is a lot more complicated than simply owning rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amidst these circumstances, it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0come as\u00a0a big surprise\u00a0that Capcom made a conscious effort to stop depending on auteur-driven development, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0likely far\u00a0from the only developer to do so either. From a gamer\u2019s perspective, however, it is also a shame that this kind of eccentric,\u00a0highly-individualistic\u00a0approach is losing its place in mainstream, large-scale game development.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, Hideki Kamiya, who happens to be a Capcom veteran and is another prime example of creator-led game design, has previously expressed regret<\/a> about game development becoming more \u201cproduct-focused\u201d than \u201ccreator-focused\u201d in recent times, which was one of the reasons why he decided to establish the independent studio CLOVERS, intended to nurture games that reflect their creator\u2019s individuality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: Capcom expanded its workforce by over 200 employees in the past year, with further plans for upsizing\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Nippon Ichi Software president says the \u201csalaryman-ification\u201d of Japan\u2019s game industry is why there are fewer \u201cindividual creators\u201d like Hideo Kojima and Suda51<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Capcom president and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto talks about one of the company’s biggest organizational changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":62837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-68161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nCapcom says shifting from auteur-driven development to team-led development\u00a0is what transformed the company and allowed flagship IPs to\u00a0survive\u00a0for so long - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Capcom president and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto talks about one of the company's biggest organizational changes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/capcom-says-abandoning-auteur-driven-development-in-favor-of-team-led-development-is-what-transformed-the-company-and-allowed-flagship-ips-to-survive-for-so-long\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Capcom says shifting from auteur-driven development to team-led development\u00a0is what transformed the company and allowed flagship IPs to\u00a0survive\u00a0for so long - 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