In a games industry dominated by safe bets, Capcom keeps getting weird with it

Right now, AAA games are perhaps the safest they have ever been. The likes of Ubisoft, EA, and Sony have all settled into house styles that permeate through most of their releases, while Konami is focused on revitalizing its tried-and-true classics in Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid by remaking the most popular entries in their respective series.

There's really nothing wrong with releasing safe bets – especially with game development being so expensive and taking as long as it does now – but if you ask me, there's one publisher who is doing it right: Capcom.

Triumph or die

I'm a big Capcom fan. Even during the darkest days of the early 2010s, its franchises have always been near and dear to me. However, since the company rebuilt its reputation as one of the best in the business starting with 2017's Resident Evil 7, it's been a great time. But even outside of releasing near-yearly gems including Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil Village, Dragon's Dogma 2, and Monster Hunter World, Capcom still hasn't lost a willingness to try new things.

Monster Hunter is guaranteed money. Resident Evil is guaranteed money. Street Fighter is guaranteed money. While Capcom could coast off of those and make the happiest shareholders in the world, Capcom keeps getting weird with it.

In 2023, Capcom's PvPvE hero shooter Exoprimal took the developer to new territories – even if it forgot to bring Dino Crisis fans with it. To be frank, it did not hit at all. Exoprimal had fun bits, the shooting felt good, and the hero shooter-esque characters were a solid bunch, but a combination of not being good enough to crack the ever-crowded multiplayer scene and taking too long to introduce mission variety meant it disappeared as fast as it arrived.

On the other hand, 2024's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess was a slam dunk. The tower defense action game hybrid, with its gorgeous look and moreish loop, is beloved by those who played it. Plus, it was helmed by long-time Resident Evil designer Shuuichi Kawata – marking his first director credit on a console game. But it's a tower defense game; it was never going to be massive, and Capcom admitted it didn't sell as well as it had hoped.

Now looking at 2026, one of my most anticipated games – perhaps more so than Resident Evil Requiem – is Pragmata. Aside from its obnoxiously long wait from reveal to release, Pragmata just seems so damn cool. It's a third-person shooter at its core but then adds a puzzle game on top of that. The very brief demo I had a chance to play – and a really strong preview from GamesRadar+'s Ashley Bardhan – both have me itching to get my hands on it, and I'm hoping this will be one that really hits it big. Pragmata also marks another directorial debut, with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance developer Yonghee Cho taking the reins.

Run it back

With Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter established at the top of the totem, dormant series like Dragon's Dogma, Mega Man, Okami, and Onimusha are getting a chance to join the headliners – the latter of which is from yet another first-time director, Sengoku Basara designer Satoru Nihei. And given the backlog available to Capcom, its size rivalled only by Nintendo's, turning to the past is as exciting as original releases. None of those are guaranteed hits, but it's damn it's good to have them back.

Yes, guaranteed wins are great. But they don't matter if you're resigning yourself into stagnation. Capcom showed this in the 2000s with the likes of Killer 7, God Hand, Okami, and Viewtiful Joe, and it's now parading that creative streak with a new generation of talent taking the helm. You don't get Devil May Cry without Hideki Kamiya wanting to make Resident Evil 4 more action-oriented, or Metal Gear without Hideo Kojima getting the chance to helm an action game which he then decided should encourage avoiding enemies. Maybe Pragmata has what it takes to be the next massive Capcom series? Who knows - but without developers getting their chance to get weird, we would never find out.

By offering two very different protagonists, Resident Evil Requiem aims to marry "the most terrifying horror and the most thrilling action"