The golden age of Capcom is here, ladies and gentlemen

I was out of the loop for a couple of days and perhaps I shouldn’t have. After an extremely dry February, which boasted a total of 4 high profile games coming out and somehow none of them turning out to be memorable, we’re back in business now. February was actually so dry, in fact, that it wasn’t 4 games, it was 5. You forgot about Crackdown 3. Don’t worry though, everyone forgot about Crackdown 3. Even Microsoft forgot about Crackdown 3.

But, the drought is over for now and spearheading this new era is Capcom’s Devil May Cry 5, right on the heels of Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 Remake. In less than a fortnight, DMC 5 has hit the peak of almost 90 000 concurrent players on Steam alone. Bare in mind, this is after Monster Hunter World turned out to be Capcom’s most successful PC launch in history, peaking at 300 000 concurrent players.

I should hope the boys and girls at Chūō-ku, Osaka are breaking out champagne and glasses, but given their cultural norms, this probably elicited a smirk and a “otsukare-sama” from the CEO. Be that as it may, Capcom is on a great roll lately, releasing games that seem to rub the gamer community zeitgeist just the right way. No big controversies, no flamewars, just wholesome gaming. How I miss the days when this was the norm.

Speaking of which, Devil May Cry 5 even included an unexpected gift, in the form of a DENUVO-free ‘Developer’ version briefly released on Steam, though some say it was leaked. I don’t know if you can call it so much a leak as an honest mistake, but according to anecdotal reports, it boasts an ever-so-slightly better performance than DENUVO version. Nothing major, but some people are having a field-day with it.

As for the game itself, it’s good. Really good. Up there with Devil May Cry 4 in terms of core gameplay quality, but boasting even more variety between 3 different characters at launch. A plethora of highly motivated emotions swirls inside me as I write this, so in fear of spoiling anything, I’ll contain myself.

Trust me, you don’t want me spoiling aaanything for you. Go play Devil May Cry 5, it’s a fantastic hack & slash game that I can already say is going to win a ton of awards and immediately deserves a spot as a staple of the genre. Itsuno done did it again.