Clover Studios Closed; Creativity Loses Again

Submitted by George Walker on October 12, 2006 – 10:36 am8 Comments

Clover Studios may not be a household name for most people, but Capcom’s in-house “Skunkworks” style studio has turned out some critically acclaimed gems that deliver new and interesting designs and gameplay, like Okami and Viewtiful Joe.

However, Capcom feels, according to 1up, that this approach to game development is too inefficient, and to be honest, I’m not sure Okami and God Hand are to going to be breaking any sales records.

Naturally, this made me think of Firefly. . . . Well, because everything eventually does. But the shut down of Clover Studios is just the latest in a trend that is basically a statement of how The World works, but has always bothered me. That is, sometimes mass media can be so emotional, so well done, lo, even so GOOD that it ultimately fails miserably. I could list for several miles of web post all of the works that fall into this category. Okami is probably the most recent video game example, but I’m certain it won’t be the last.

I keep telling my wife that the Heroes series on NBC is too good for TV, and I’m waiting for it to be canceled after the first 5 episodes or so. This is just what I’ve gotten used to. Usually things that are awesome just don’t seem to sell well anymore.

Subnet6

George, you are right again and this time its unfortunate. I loved Viewtiful Joe, but you know what? I didn’t buy the sequel.

Companies don’t just want successful games. They want games that spawn successful franchises. Viewtiful Joe made for a great “one-off”. I don’t think that series really had legs though, if you know what I mean. The bosses were pretty generic and as fun as the game was, the hero was pretty non-descript.

I haven’t played Okami yet, but its in my rental Queue so hopefully it will arrive soon. Everything I’ve heard points to a tragic end for this up and comer as well.

Anyway, this brings me back to firefly.

What a great series that was. I am so totally bummed that there won’t be more. I was incredibly glad to get Serenity though. That movie was amazing, perhaps the best PURE sci-fi movie I’ve seen since the Matrix.
James

I think the closing of Clover signals one thing to me:

The PS2′s reign has officially come to an end if an excellent title like Okami doesn’t sell piles and piles of copies on the platform.
Name:

Ok, Okami is actually GOOD, you can’t compare it to Firefly. Firefly sucked, that’s why it got cancelled. The only people who liked it were Joss Whedon nerds. And just because Clover got the ax it doesn’t necessarily mean it is the end of Okami or Viewtiful Joe.
Subnet6

Firefly was just over a lot of peoples heads.

I loved it and I’m not a big fan of Buffy or Angel or whatever else Joss Whedon did which pretty much rendors your statement invalid.

Show do NOT get cancelled for sucking or most of whats on TV would be cancelled 10 times over. Are you telling me that somehow Xena: Warrior Princess was so much better than firefly that it should get renewed for 6 seasons? Shows get cancelled when they don’t have the quanity or type of viewership to bring in advertisers. It has nothing to do with sucking.
http://www.aeropause.com George

Serenity (the Firefly movie) has one of the highest ratings on Rotten Tomatoes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/serenity/
Yeah… Firefly sucks, alright. *eyeroll*
http://www.consolecolors.com Kat

Potentially good news – they might just break off on their own!
http://www.bitsbytespixelssprites.com/blog/2006/10/12/clover-studio-closed/
John H.

“That’s how the world works” has been used as an excuse for many things. Too many. It is the mediocre world’s excuse for rule.

The fact is, games like Viewtiful Joe and Okami do not do well because the current generation of gamers is conditioned not to expect anything other than what they’ve seen a dozen times before. To them, to try to create new kinds of play produces things that can’t rightly be called games.

The people who really care about games and have somehow managed to wrangle up a job making them will tend to make games like this — it’s not a case of talent, it’s one of motivation. As they get shuffled around and their departments closed, they will lose that motivation and either start making more of the crap that fills the software shelves, leave the game industry for good, or found their own studio — if they can.
Name:

You Firefly nerds logic is ridiculous. Firefly got sub-standard reviews from tv ciritcs and the general audience. Serenity got sub-standard reviews from movie critics and the general audience. Okami got good reviews from critics all around and I haven’t heard anyone say they didn’t like Okami who actually played it. I have heard MANY people say Firefly and Serenity sucked when they DID see it. Clover closing has nothing to do with Firefly, Serenity, Joss Whedon, or Xena Warrior Princess so shut the h3ll up please you stupid nerds.