What does a game have to do in order to secure a sequel? Endear itself to gamers, receive some rave reviews, or simply sell loads and loads of copies? I think we all know the latter is the correct answer but how many copies are we talking?
Well according to Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono, a Capcom game needs to sell at least 2 million copies if it’s to hope of ever getting another outing.
Quizzed by Famitsu magazine Mr. Ono was asked why some games like Street Fighter X Tekken or Darkstalkers don’t get sequels to which the Street Fighter producer replied “If a game doesn’t sell over 2 million copies, then we’d have to put the brakes on any plans for a sequel. All that means is that we weren’t capable enough. And all we can do after that is to reflect on the experience, take what we can learn from it, and try to apply those lessons on some other title.”
So there you have it, according to Yoshinori Ono at least, we’ll probably never see another original Mega Man, Dino Crisis, Devil May Cry, Final Fight, Ghouls’n Ghosts, Okami or any other number of Capcom titles that aren’t either Street Fighter or Monster Hunter ever. Nice one Capcom, real nice.
Arcadepop 
Just like Square these guys have crazy sales expectations. An 8 bit style Mega Man game wouldn’t cost much to make and would therefore need less than 2 million sales to be profitable. No wonder they are struggling financially. That mentality cost them that Mighty Number 9 cash.
A number of Japanese publishers appear to have this inflated view of how well their games should sell but I haven’t a clue how they dream up the actual numbers. That said in the case of Capcom I think a number of the decisions they make are driven by pure greed and that’s not only killing off some classic franchises but the publisher itself.
Concerning Capcom, the “2 million sales or no sequel” routine is limited to AAA games
That’s the problem with this 2 million target you see, Capcom can slap it on any game they like and have done so with Darkstalkers Resurrection already, a port of 2 games, one of which is nearly 20 years old and certainly not AAA and yet, Yoshinori Ono singled it out as having failed to hit it’s sales targets in the same interviewer he revealed this 2 million benchmark.
If Capcom thought for a moment Darkstalkers Resurrection was either a AAA game or would sell any where near 2 million somebody at that company needs their head examined and yet I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly what happened.
Previously didn’t know Capcom expected Darkstalkers Resurrection to sell 2 million but I’m assuming such an overconfident expectation stems from how Darkstalkers characters got popularized in Marvel Vs. Capcom series.
I really have no idea how Capcom comes up with their projected sales figures but they’ve been proven wrong time and again and I predict will continue to be until they decide to up the effort (not budget) they put into the development of their games.