Capcom Vancouver

Capcom Game Studio Vancouver, Inc.

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Predecessor	Blue Castle Games Inc.
Founded	July 4, 2004 (2004-07-04) in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Founder	Three individuals (unnamed)
Defunct	January 2019 (2019-01)
Fate	Studio shut down; ongoing development moved to Japan
Successor	Capcom's Japanese studios (for ongoing projects)
Headquarters	Burnaby , Canada
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Yoshinori Ono (studio director 2011–2014)
Products	Dead Rising series, The Bigs series, Puzzle Fighter
Owner	Capcom
Number of employees	~200 (at peak)
Parent	Capcom

Capcom Game Studio Vancouver, Inc.—initially established as Blue Castle Games Inc. and commonly referred to as Capcom Vancouver—was a Canadian video game developer owned by Capcom, with a minority investment from Microsoft Studios. Under the Blue Castle Games name, the company produced notable baseball sports video game titles including The Bigs, MLB Front Office Manager, and The Bigs 2. The studio gained widespread recognition for its work on the Dead Rising franchise.

Following the launch of Dead Rising 2, Blue Castle Games was acquired by Capcom and rebranded as Capcom Vancouver, where it continued to develop entries in the Dead Rising series. In September 2018, Capcom decided to shut down the studio, leading to the cancellation of Dead Rising 5 and transferring ongoing development responsibilities to its teams based in Japan.

History

The company was founded on July 4, 2004, in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, by three individuals who collectively brought 35 years of experience in video game development. It started with a team of twelve employees and one project, The Bigs. Over time, the studio grew to approximately 200 staff members and released three major titles. In February 2008, Blue Castle Games earned the Best New Video Game Company award at the Elan Awards for The Bigs, sharing this honor with another local Vancouver company. Many developers at Capcom Vancouver had previously worked at EA Vancouver, located nearby. From 2011 to 2014, Yoshinori Ono held the position of studio director.

In February 2018, Capcom implemented a workforce reduction of roughly 30% at the studio but maintained Capcom Vancouver's role in supporting mobile game Puzzle Fighter and ongoing projects within the Dead Rising series. On September 18, 2018, Capcom declared it would close the studio after evaluating current projects. A minimal team stayed on until January 2019 to complete certain tasks; remaining development efforts were either cancelled or shifted to Capcom's Japanese studios. Capcom estimated financial losses from these cancellations to be approximately (about ).

As Blue Castle Games

Year	Game	Platform(s)	Publisher
2007	The Bigs	PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360	2K Sports
	Major League Baseball 2K8	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
2009	MLB Front Office Manager	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
	The Bigs 2	Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360
2010	Dead Rising 2: Case Zero	Xbox 360	Capcom
	Dead Rising 2	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
	Dead Rising 2: Case West	Xbox 360

As Capcom Vancouver

Year	Game	Platform(s)	Publisher
2011	Dead Rising 2: Off the Record	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	Capcom
2013	Dead Rising 3	Microsoft Windows, Xbox One	Microsoft Studios/Capcom
2014	Dead Rising Collection	Xbox 360
2016	Dead Rising 4	Microsoft Windows, Xbox One
2017	Puzzle Fighter	iOS, Android	Capcom
	Dead Rising 4: Frank's Big Package	PlayStation 4

Discontinued projects

• Knights of Aegis (2017)
• Dead Rising 5 (2018)

See also

• Capcom
• List of Capcom subsidiaries