Capcom aquiring a Western developer in next two years ‘is a given’

Capcom’s US VP Christian Scensson has said ‘it’s just sort
of a given’ that the Japanese firm will acquire a studio in the West in the next two years.

Speaking in an interview with Gamasutra, he said: "My take on acquisition – and I’ve said this internally many times – is that we’re not going to acquire anyone that we haven’t done a game with. Chemistry is so critical.

"That said, I would be sort of surprised if we didn’t acquire a Western studio in the next two years. I think it’s just sort of a given."

That point on ‘chemistry’ suggests that Swedish team Grin, which is currently working on the next-gen remake of Capcom’s IP Bionic Commando, could be a likely acquisition target.

In the interview, he also said that he expects Capcom to start developing WiiWare titles as well: "I’m going to lump WiiWare in with PSP e-distribution, in that we’re looking for the right content first – a lot of the content we have now isn’t quite right in value or approach or interface for WiiWare. I fully expect us to be doing some WiiWare titles very shortly in the west. I won’t speak for Japan on that particular issue, but there are interesting things happening at some point there, maybe."

Capcom recently unveiled a number of new games for digital distribution systems, including the signing of Certain Affinity’s Plunder, a new IP.