Capcom — Developer

Japan · Founded 1979 · Developer / Publisher

Capcom built some of the most technically demanding and mechanically precise games of the 1980s and 1990s, including Street Fighter II, Mega Man, Ghosts 'n Goblins, and Resident Evil.

Founded in Osaka in 1979 as I.R.M. Corporation (its Japan Capsule Computers offshoot gave the company its name), Capcom began producing arcade hardware and games before establishing itself as one of the premier publishers for the NES. Tokuro Fujiwara, who designed Ghosts 'n Goblins and Bionic Commando, established Capcom's reputation for demanding, technically polished action games. Yoshiki Okamoto's Street Fighter II (1991) was the single most influential arcade game of the 1990s, creating the competitive fighting game genre and generating over a billion dollars in arcade revenue. The Mega Man series — with characters designed by Keiji Inafune — provided Nintendo platforms with a flagship action franchise through the late 1980s and 1990s. Capcom's transition to 3D gaming produced Resident Evil (1996), which defined survival horror, and Devil May Cry (2001), which defined stylish action.