Speaking to MCV, Michael Pattison, Capcom’s head of marketing for Europe and the US, revealed that they had to outbid a few “high-profile” publishers to pick up the rights to Dontnod Entertainment’s Remember Me.
The game was first revealed at Gamescom 2011 under the working title Adrift. Pattison explained that as soon as Capcom saw Dontnod’s concept art they knew that they wanted to publish it.
“I was searching on the internet at the time and saw some of this concept art, and I was taken aback. So we took a trip over to Paris and it all happened very quickly. There were a number of very high-profile publishers looking at it at the time and in fact there were deals waiting to be signed when we arrived. Capcom is not usually that quick to make decisions, but as soon as we saw this we had to put our hat in the ring.”
Pattison also restated that Capcom wants to turn Remember Me into a major franchise, and is planning to release the new game next year with a huge marketing push, despite the challenges of launching new IPs this late in the console cycle.
“All the market research will tell you that new IP doesn’t work this late on in the hardware cycle, because consumers are supposed to be preparing themselves for next-gen. But it was evident at E3 that those companies that ‘won’ were the ones that tried something a little different. Consumers are looking for something new.”
Personally, I was glad to see Capcom come forward with a new IP for current-gen systems. This console cycle has not been like any other, and I’m not all that excited for it to come to an abrupt end with the release of new expensive video game systems. My guess, assuming Remember Me turns out to be a decent game, is that many gamers feel the same way and will be happy to welcome a new franchise for their current consoles.
Remember Me is currently scheduled to launch in May of next year for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.