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Capcom Vancouver

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Capcom Vancouver
FormerlyBlue Castle Games Inc.
(2005–2010)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedJuly 4, 2004; 20 years ago (2004-07-04)
FounderRobert Barrett
DefunctSeptember 18, 2018; 6 years ago (2018-09-18)
FateDefunct
SuccessorThe Coalition
Headquarters
Burnaby, British Columbia
,
Canada
Key people
ProductsDead Rising series
Number of employees
200[1] (2018)
Parent
Websitewww.capcomvancouver.com

Capcom Game Studio Vancouver, Inc.[2] (formerly Blue Castle Games Inc.), more commonly known as Capcom Vancouver, was a Canadian video game developer owned by Capcom with minority stake partnership by Microsoft Studios.[3] As Blue Castle Games, the company was the creator of several successful baseball sports video games, including The Bigs, MLB Front Office Manager and The Bigs 2. They have also developed the Dead Rising series.[4][5][6] Blue Castle Games was acquired by Capcom after the release of Dead Rising 2, and renamed Capcom Vancouver, where they continued to work on the Dead Rising series.[7][8] Capcom announced the closure of the studio in September 2018, cancelling Dead Rising 5 and moving other development to their Japan-based studios.

History

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Blue Castle Games logo

The company was formed on July 4, 2004 in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada by three core founders with thirty five years of combined video game experience. Starting with only twelve staff and one game (The Bigs[9]), the company grew to 200 people with 3 shipped titles.[1] In February 2008, Blue Castle Games won the award for Best New Video Game Company at the 2008 Elan Awards for The Bigs, in a tie with another local Vancouver company.[10] A wide number of developers in Capcom Vancouver were formerly of EA Vancouver, located only a couple blocks away from their studio. Yoshinori Ono was the studio director from 2011 to 2014.[11]

In February 2018, Capcom had laid off about 30% of the studio, but had continued to use Capcom Vancouver to support Puzzle Fighter on mobile and ongoing work for Dead Rising games. On September 18, 2018, Capcom announced the closure of the studio on reviewing the state of development of current projects. While a skeleton crew remained through January 2019 to complete certain projects, remaining development work was either cancelled or transitioned to Capcom's Japan studios.[12] Capcom estimated the cost of the cancelled projects equated to about ¥4.5 billion (approximately US$40 million).[13]

Games developed

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As Blue Castle Games

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Year Game Platform(s) Publisher
2007 The Bigs PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360 2K Sports
Major League Baseball 2K8 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
2009 MLB Front Office Manager Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
The Bigs 2 Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360
2010 Dead Rising 2: Case Zero Xbox 360 Capcom
Dead Rising 2 Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Dead Rising 2: Case West Xbox 360

As Capcom Vancouver

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Year Game Platform(s) Publisher
2011 Dead Rising 2: Off the Record Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Capcom
2013 Dead Rising 3 Microsoft Windows, Xbox One Microsoft Studios/Capcom
2014 Dead Rising Collection Xbox 360
2016 Dead Rising 4 Microsoft Windows, Xbox One
2017 Puzzle Fighter iOS, Android Capcom
Dead Rising 4: Frank's Big Package PlayStation 4

Cancelled games

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Company Homepage". Capcom Vancouver. Archived from the original on 2012-09-19. Retrieved 2012-09-21.
  2. ^ "Capcom Group". CAPCOM Investor Relations. CAPCOM CO., LTD.
  3. ^ Jasper, Pieter (June 8, 2020). "Dead Rising 4 was supposed to be a The Last of Us competitor – the story on Capcom Vancouver unveiled". XboxEra. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
  4. ^ Johnny Minkley (2008-11-07). "Blue Castle making Dead Rising 2". Archived from the original on 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  5. ^ Brian Crecente (2008-07-09). "Dead Rising 2: Dead Rising 2 Set in Vegas?". Kotaku.
  6. ^ "Blue Castle Games - Games under development". Blue Castle Games. Archived from the original on 2008-09-09. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
  7. ^ "Capcom buys Blue Castle Games".
  8. ^ "Capcom Buys Dead Rising 2 Dev Blue Castle Games".
  9. ^ "2K Sports - The BIGS". 2K Sports. Archived from the original on 2008-09-13. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
  10. ^ "2nd Annual ELANS Winners". ELAN Awards. 2008-02-15.
  11. ^ Sarkar, Samit (16 June 2014). "Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono resigns from Capcom Vancouver (update)". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  12. ^ Tolito, Stephan (September 18, 2018). "Dead Rising Studio Capcom Vancouver Shuts Down". Kotaku. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  13. ^ Arif, Shabana (September 18, 2018). "Capcom Expects To Lose $40 Million After Cancelling Dead Rising Studio's Games". IGN. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  14. ^ "Capcom Vancouver Cancelled Games". Siliconera. 2020-06-07. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  15. ^ "Knights of Aegis, Broken Horizon and Lost Star, cancelled Capcom Vancouver's games". GamesFreezone. 2017-02-10. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  16. ^ "Dead Rising 5 Development Detailed by Game History Secrets". Siliconera. 2020-06-07. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
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