Capcom is Pissed.
Capcom is a whole new kind of pissed off after getting snubbed from the AIAS awards. You know, the award ceremony that Gears of War has ten nominations for? And you know something, I think Capcom has a point.
Resident Evil 4 was regarded by everyone (including myself) to be the break-out game of 2005. It was fun, intuitive, the revamped gameplay system was downright perfect in every way… you just couldn’t go wrong with RE4. To this day, when I’m not on my Xbox 360, I still pop in RE4 into my old PSDeuce and play a wuick round of Mercenaries (with Wesker, of course.) But when you look at the AIAS winners from previous years, you will find no mention of Resident Evil 4 on there. In fact, you wouldn’t even find Resident Evil 4 on the nominations list.
Now it’s happening again to Capcom, with two of it’s most innovative titles: Okami, and Dead Rising. After feeling that they’re best games of ‘06 were getting snubbed, I guess they were a little offended. In fact, when approached by Gamespot (a real gaming news organization) about this, Capcom posted their rather lengthy retort on their official forums for all to read. They even have links in the report to help you fully understand their side.
But of course, DICE and AIAS are standing by their story, which basically boils down to “Capcom didn’t submit the games, so sit on it.” Personally, I think Capcom should get their dues — Dead Rising was a masterpiece.
We felt it was important to share with you our full response to Gamespot in regards to this story:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6164861…stnews;title;1Here is our response:
According to the AIAS DICE website (http://www.dicesummit.org/awards.php), “Since 1998, the peer-based Interactive Achievement Awards® are dedicated to recognizing the outstanding products, talented individuals, and ground-breaking development teams that have propelled the advancement of the multi-billion dollar worldwide entertainment software industry.” What the site neglects to mention is that a product, individual or development team CANNOT and WILL NOT be nominated for an award unless a company buys its way in to the AIAS.
To reference Gamespot’s story from last year (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/g…?sid=6142471): “Most notable by its absence was Resident Evil 4. Capcom’s horror-survival game earned top honors from many game-news outlets, including GameSpot, but didn’t garner a single nomination from AIAS.”
A rep for the organization told GameSpot that the reason for the omission of the two games was that their publishers did not join the AIAS. “Majesco and Capcom are not members, and chose the option not to be,” said the rep. “According to the rules, you have to be a member for your game to be nominated.” However, the AIAS rep said that Resident Evil 4 could have made the list, as it was written in by many voters. “There was a write-in option, and Resident [Evil 4] got written in, but [Capcom] chose not to play,” the rep said.”
For last year’s awards, so many voting members of the AIAS were upset that Resident Evil 4 was completely left off the list for awards consideration, that the members themselves wrote in the game. Upon seeing the results of the write-in votes, Capcom Entertainment was contacted by the AIAS and told that the game would still not be eligible for any awards unless the company joined the organization. Our company was told, in essence, “Pay to play,” a sentiment echoed in the quote from the AIAS representative.
A rule stating that a publisher or developer must be a member of the organization in order to vote or nominate its own product or people is not unusual. One need only to think back to the similarly-run Codie Awards from 2000, where the award for Best Arcade/Action/Adventure/Role-Playing Game Award ended in a tie, shared by Half-Life and Star Wars Pit Droids from Lucas Learning.
Other than these awards – which seem of dubious merit, at best – and the well-run, but expensive, DICE summit, Capcom Entertainment remains unsure as to the value of being an AIAS member. Does our company really need to pay tens of thousands of dollars in order to present awards to our own games? Capcom Entertainment is supportive of many other programs, such as the International Game Developer Association’s Game Developer’s Choice Awards.
This is by no means sour grapes on our part; Capcom Entertainment is not distraught at lack of inclusion on a list by a company in the business of putting on awards shows. As far as Capcom Entertainment is concerned, we are very happy with the awards and nominations bestowed upon Dead Rising and Okami from the likes of Associated Press, Gamespot, IGN, PSM Magazine, GamePro, Game Trailers, 1up.com, Gamespy, Yahoo! Games, UGO, Spike TV, Team Xbox, the Village Voice, the San Jose Mercury News, Next Gen, Gamasutra and many, many other legitimate critics and editorial outlets. At the same time, Resident Evil 4 is still the highest rated PS2 game listed on Game Rankings, has an average review score of 96%, won numerous awards in 2005 and still continues to sell more than a year after its initial release.
Again, from the AIAS webpage, their awards are supposedly about “Recognizing the best games of 2006,” (http://www.dicesummit.org/index.php). Evidently, they meant, the best games that paid to be recognized. As a company, we find ourselves questioning the value or credibility of awards that seem to honor developers for their creative work, when the truth is that their marketing departments have to pay to obtain consideration. This is in no way to take away from games that have been nominated for AIAS awards. Nominated titles such as Gears of War, Zelda, Guitar Hero II and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion are all fantastic titles that have been similarly recognized by dozens upon dozens of magazines, websites and newspapers around the globe.
Capcom Entertainment would like to thank the gamers who have made Dead Rising and Okami so successful, the media who were similarly moved by the creativity and innovation found within the games and the teams at Capcom and Clover Studios who poured their outstanding passion, talent and creative energies into both ground-breaking games (coincidently, all things supposedly recognized by the Interactive Achievement Awards).
