According to recent trademark leaks from Japan on Chizai-Watch, there appears to be interest from Capcom in revisiting the Darkstalkers franchise. Published on August 4, 2020, this latest trademark immediately got the rumour ball rolling, but don’t start dusting off your arcade sticks just yet.
Rather than going back its fighting roots, indications are that the new Darkstalkers title could be a card game in the same vein as Capcom’s existing effort, Teppen. This is not what we expected, and not what a lot of fighting game enthusiasts had hoped for, but in taking a step back, we have to say that this development has the potential for doing more than we initially assumed.
Finding A Wider Audience
Capcom chasing card games as a system makes a lot of sense, given their long-standing popularity and flexibility among digital platforms. At its core, the thanks for these systems might be most owed to casino games. In a contemporary sense, the use of modern online casinos like those on Casino Horse plays an enormous part. By offering a wide selection of card games like baccarat and blackjack, online services let players engage over an enormous range of devices, and with low device requirements. These are concepts that modern video game card titles embrace openly, giving them access to a far wider market than most titles traditionally have available. After all, more platforms mean more players, which means more revenue potential.
The Card Craze
The idea of making a card game instead of a direct sequel to the latest in the series, Darkstalkers Resurrection, fits in perfectly with Capcom’s established patterns and plans. Far from its former glory, the latest generation of Capcom’s fighting game division’s efforts have been marred by frustrations, underperformance, and even outright failure.
“Marvel vs. Capcom Infintite” (CC BY 2.0) by wuestenigel
Street Fighter 5 released in a poor state, as Forbes notes, and is considered poorly among fighting game fans, Marvel Versus Capcom Infinite bombed, and Darkstalkers Resurrection failed to reach sales targets. With former creative head Yoshinori Ono stating that further fighting game releases would depend on the success of their existing titles, the curtain on Darkstalkers might appear closed following the latest 2013 release.
Capcom is not, however, entirely monolithic in their approach to development. Through evolution, their recent releases of Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Monster Hunter have shown they’re very cognizant of trends and popularity. In a roundabout way, this is what led to Teppen, and this is what we believe led to the Darkstalkers card game.
In itself, Teppen was based on the arrival of games like Gwent and Hearthstone. While Gwent might have spun its wheels, Hearthstone was an enormous success, showing the ultimate potential of what card-based video games might achieve. Leveraging these possibilities, as well as the lessons learned from Teppen, the stage could well be set for another successful multiplatform project from Capcom.
The reason we’re excited about a Darkstalkers card game is partly based on a love for the genre and the property, but we also have to factor in what success here could mean for the future. Modern Capcom is a company often terrified of risks, so there is potential that if a new Darkstalkers card game does well, they might consider revisiting the property as a fighting game.
Combine this with the recent shakeup via the departure of Ono as reported by Engadget, and we could be in a new age of Capcom fighting possibilities. Whether this ends up for the better or the worse, we shouldn’t have to wait too long to find out.