Onimusha: Way of the Sword sold more than a million copies in its first day.
Capcom has been on a roll thanks to recent successes like Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata. Its latest game, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, got off to a strong start as well, selling more than a million copies on its release day. The company is looking to capitalize on that momentum by revisiting franchises that have been dormant for some time.
“In addition to regularly releasing major new titles each year, Capcom is focusing on re-activating IPs that haven’t had a new title launch recently,” it said in a press release touting the sales figures for Onimusha: Way of the Sword. “The company is working to further maximize corporate value by leveraging its rich library of content, including this title.”
This is the first new mainline Onimusha game since 2006’s Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. Developing new intellectual property is important and it can pay off, like we’ve seen with Pragmata. But there’s a reason why developers and publishers keep mining old franchises. Capcom is already doing that with the Okami sequel and Mega Man: Dual Override. There are plenty of other options for the company to delve back into.
For instance, there hasn’t been a new Dino Crisis game since 2003. Fans have been clamoring for a fourth game for a long time. There has been some movement for that series lately. Capcom released a bundle of the first two games last year and it brought them to Steam in February. Dino Crisis 2 is slated to hit the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog later this year as well. Those seem like just the kind of moves you’d make to remind folks how much they liked previous games in a franchise before announcing a new entry.
Dead Rising could be in the mix too, following a recent remake of the first game in that series. I’d also like to see a new Lost Planet game, even if it seems less likely than some of the other options. That series has been on ice since Lost Planet 3 arrived in 2013.
However, there are two particular sleeping giants in Capcom’s catalog that seem primed for fresh entries. Devil May Cry hasn’t had a new mainline game since 2019’s Devil May Cry 5, while it’s been a decade since the last new Ace Attorney title. Devil May Cry is Capcom’s fifth most successful IP — after Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter and Mega Man — having sold 41 million copies. The Ace Attorney series has sold 15 million copies.
