Creating PS5 game Pragmata a “necessary measure” for Capcom

Capcom published action-adventure Pragmata was at the PS5 reveal event with small children falling from the sky and a dude in a spacesuit. We now have a development update from Capcom’s financial report, as well as an indication of the importance of the game.
Pragmata is slated for 2023 after a delay took it out of the intent 2022 release date. We now know that the development team is “making steady progress on its development” thanks to the financial report (thanks, PushSquare). Perhaps more interesting than all of that though, is that Capcom sees itself as skewing older in terms of employees, and wishes to try and change that focus.

“We have not yet amassed enough developers for our future growth. We will continue to hire more than 100 new graduates and combine that with the hiring of seasoned mid-career professionals in priority fields to utilize our dormant IPs in addition to our existing IPs. This is a necessary measure for our long-term growth along with the creation of entirely new IPs, such as Pragmata.” This is something we have seen Sony trying to do, with a PlayStation Studios team like PixelOpus, where Sony hired the core staff straight out of University and built around that talent.

“Newly hired young employees are given the chance to acquire know-how and skills through hands-on experience in the field as they are assigned to the development of popular IPs and major titles,” Capcom reiterate. “Pragmata is just one such endeavour for our young employees. I feel that incorporating the youthful sensibilities of digital natives adds a new appeal to IP.” Indeed, Capcom sees growth in future by investing in new IP alongside the new talent it is breeding in the Pragmata dev team. Exciting!

What do you think of the news? Is this the right way to build a studio? Should Capcom be sticking to older IP rather than venturing into the unknown? Let us know in the comments!