After running into the montage of Legend of Zelda commercials Skullkid700 put together which has been popular recently, we felt the urge to look back and enjoy other amusing Japanese video game TV spots that can only come from the ingenious Japanese minds. With all the laughs these ads give, it's only fair to share to you guys so nobody misses out on the great stuff they watch in the land of the rising sun. If you're ready for hilarious commercials, brace for impact and check the videos out at the full article!

Near the start of this year, a glimmer of hope appeared for many a Clover Studio fan in the guise of the newly formed SEEDS Inc. development house. And while the studio kept its quiet for these past few months while it gathered strength - we spotted recruitment feelers on their site during our last visit - SEEDS seems to be making preparation for a new game.

There aren't much details on what this new title will look like, although info snippets taken from Famitsu indicate it's being planned for a multiplatform release for the next-gen (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and portable (PSP, NDS) consoles.

This new project is further expected to be headed by Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya. Inaba was the former head of Clover Studio, while Kamiya is known for directing Capcom titles such as Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and Okami. That's all the info we've got for the moment, although we're certainly hoping this new project bears fruit.

Ouch.

Kotaku reports on a GDC 2007 Q&A session with Lost Planet producer Keiji Inafune, and when he was asked about the closure of avant-garde Clover Studio, he had one thing to say. Bluntly. They didn't sell, therefore...

Keiji clarified that he DID think that Viewtiful Joe and Okami were great games (heck, critical acclaim agrees with him there). The problem was that "Games are not a work of art... it's a product... a commodity" (heck, sales of Okami sadly agree with that perspective. So do Lost Planet sales).

Based on this quote of Inafune's response, it seems that there must have been a clash of perspectives, and on approaches to promoting a game, between Clover and Capcom:

... the producer didn't do his work. The producers work is to make the team make good games and then sell those games. The producer has to do the promotion... Certainly to get good reviews is part of his job. However, the producer has to make sure the game sells [on par with the review]. I think the producer dropped the ball there. Capcom said they would do it, but Clover said "Oh, we'll do it ourselves." And I think this was a failure.

To paraphrase: it doesn't matter if you're the great Picasso, you STILL need a market-savvy marketer if you wanna make mad money (well, that definitely means advertising majors have their job secure in the gaming industry). A sad commentary in a mass-market industry, or the harsh Darwinian reality of the economics and psychology of gaming?

Verily, a company does sit on its bottom line, but where lies the line between the bottom line and racing for the bottom?

Capcom may be putting a Wii-fied Okami rumor to sleep, and Clover Studio will soon be closing up shop, but don't think that this will be the end of the team that has brought us the likes of Viewtiful Joe. On the contrary, this may just be the beginning.

Much like how nature has cycles of life and death, the wilted clover slowly comes into our sight again in the form of the SEEDS development house that is taking root on the web. Their website does not carry any ongoing development news at the moment, but it is recruiting members to their ranks.

What does strike us is the current roster working at this new studio: Directors Hideki Kamiya (Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe and Okami) and Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, and RE4) are noted to be involved on SEEDS' roster, as are Nao Ueda, Mari Shimazaki, and Masami Ueda - all of whom were also part of the development crew for Okami. This studio also takes root in Osaka (Clover Studio's home base), and will be under the command of former Clover president Atsushi Inaba.

And in case you're wondering, they're now hiring planners, programmers, designers, sound people, and promotional staff. Must love dogs.

In light of the end of Capcom's Clover Studio, the studio responsible for games like Okami, Godhand, and (the Clover Game handheld people experienced) Viewtiful Joe, Gamasutra was able to get an interview with Atsuhi Inaba, the Clover head.

The interview is not really that recent (dated last TGS) but in it is a very interesting bit that should balance out the "electronic games are getting stagnant" sentiment that is moving around "the intarweb." Well maybe not balance out, but it should be a good cookie for discussion board people to chew on.

At some point in the interview Gamasutra asked Inaba what he thinks is the reason that Capcom seems so invigorated. Of course they meant "invigorated" in the sense that after years of rehashes and updates, Capcom releases "fresh" games.

Inaba's response was such:

I don't really know myself! That's hard to say... after all, the games that came out in the last two years were made in the last five years – so I'm not sure if you'll feel that way about games coming out in the next two years that are being made now by the Capcom of today. It's a hard question to answer. The way we move staff around, how we structure our teams, how we manage all of that, has been really revised over the last few years at Capcom, so you may be seeing the results of that effort now in the games. It's definitely made development easier for us.

We've put into bold the interesting bit. We are guessing that a lot of people who are quick to complain stagnation, forget to factor that we really have no idea what "innovative" games the developers have under wraps at the moment. So perhaps the countless versions of "Something vs. Capcom," are just there to fund risky projects like Okami. Inaba did mention that he started out in Capcom thinking he would be making a Resident Evil game but after some shuffling around, the Resident Evil he was working on turned into Devil May Cry.

As with gaming, people are quick to say that the PSP is experiencing a form of comatose. Some are even quick to say that the handheld has "failed". Sales number might not be comforting but, still, the PS3 might change things, and a new game or homebrew that we still aren't aware of might be in the works.

Anyway, back to Capcom, with regards to what Inaba has said, do you guys think that the way Capcom is acting today contributes to the development of "innovative" games five years down the line? Are the handheld makers doing the same?

Clover was born with a mission: to produce creative, innovative games. Two years ago, Capcom claimed that the industry had grown stale on a diet of recycled sequels and genres and that the time was right to look past muscles, cars, football, and guns and introduce some truly original (obscure) content and ideas into the scene. So starts Clover.

There were some hits on Clover's part: Viewtiful Joe, God Hand, and Okami were all artistically original and were amazingly fresh. The problem is that they were only critical hits. The hardcore and the appreciative loved them. They "got it" because they were fresh, bold, and at times satirical. Nobody else did.

Capcom is after all in the business of making money. It's only logical that they drop a venture that isn't profitable anymore. We as gamers can't really blame them and zealously (fan-boy-ish-ly) call them evil. So what exactly can you blame on Capcom?

The full article awaits after the jump!

Depending on how you look at this, it either means a dissolution or a revolution for one game maker in the business. A recent press release has put up notice that Capcom will be dissolving Clover Studio, one of their subsidiary companies.

If you've ever played a Viewtiful Joe game (there were versions for the PS2, PSP, and DS), or if you've heard about the exploits of Amaterasu in Okami for the PS2, then you can thank Clover Studio for developing those games. Unfortunately, Capcom's decided to let them go. According to their press release, the reason for the dissolution is as follows:

Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has met the goal of developing unique and creative original home video game software, however, in view of promoting a business strategy that concentrates management resources on a selected business to enhance the efficiency of the development power of the entire Capcom group, the dissolution of Clover Studio Co., Ltd. has been raised and passed at a Board of Directors' meeting.

Does this spell the end of Viewtiful Joe games and quirky titles from the game maker? Not necessarily. Over at the Insert Credit website, there is some speculation that this was Capcom's move to save face. The reason for this idea is that Atsushi Inaba, Clover Studio's CEO, had thoughts of leaving Capcom to form his own studio, and he may have taken all of Clover with him.

Whether or not it's a full scale dissolution or a simple parting of ways, we'll find out in the coming months, as the dissolution of Clover is scheduled for March 2007. We'd love to see more Viewtiful Joe action in the future for all platforms, so we'll keep our fingers crossed.