In an internally-conducted interview at Capcom, Dragon’s Dogma producer, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, says that the idea for the game originated from a director at the company wanting to create a “fantasy adventure”. As discussions ensued, the concept ultimately turned into an open world game.
The target audience for Dragon’s Dogma, Kobayashi feels, is “hardcore or fairly hardcore gamers that already have a PS3 or Xbox 360”. Regardless, he hopes that Dragon’s Dogma will be a hit in the same vein as Monster Hunter and Sengoku Basara, both of which were developed entirely from scratch as well, and are franchises that Capcom can rely on for support.
Kobayashi isn’t unrealistic, though. Speaking to the development of entirely new games — which are developed at Capcom every 2-3 years — he says: “There’s no guarantee each new title we churn out will go on to be a big hit, but I’m confident that some of them will become pivotal series in our next-generation of games.
Two examples of the kind of new games Kobyashi is talking about are the Dead Rising and Lost Planet series, each of which has sold over 4.5 million copies according to Capcom’s most recent sales data. While Kobayashi doesn’t mention specific sales numbers for Dragon’s Dogma himself, one of the captions for the interview is: “An entirely new product that aims to shatter the million mark”.
