Seth Killian Leaving Capcom

[Sabaki]

http://www.capcom-unity.com/s-kill/blog/2012/06/19/goodbye

Seth's blog at Capcom Unity says it all. Considering how soon he's leaving, this news is quite a shocker.

[DEMONKAI]

Wow smh...

Hmmm i wonder why 

[HyperVoiceActing]

So ... what will this mean to the company?

[SanjiSasuke]

So ... what will this mean to the company?

I'll bet it means more to the community than the company.

[HyperVoiceActing]

I'll bet it means more to the community than the company.

In a good or bad way?

[WizzyWhipitWonderful]

Seth Killian; he was the coolest community manager over at Capcom-Unity...

[Darkgargos]

I'm not surprised by this, I mean these days all the main folks are leaving the big time companies left and right. Losing Keiji Inafune was a pretty huge blow to Capcom but they keep on trucking, though not particularly well. The thing is he was just a PR guy and not in any way involved in development, but he always received the brunt of all the hate towards Capcom over the years for every little thing the fans got upset about. Quite frankly I don't know how he put up with it, but I'm sure he has had enough and I don't blame him for calling it quits.

I'm sure he also realizes the current state in which Capcom is in right now, which isn't anywhere good. The quality of their titles has dropped off substantially over the years and they lost so many developers from within that they are forced to outsource almost every game which in the end leaves them and their games feeling hollow. Seth leaving is just another sign that things are not right at Capcom, though you will never hear them admit that and no matter how dire things become Capcom will always act like everything is peachy.

Finding a replacement for Seth won't be easy as he was the best PR guy they had, but I have a feeling maybe Capcom just wants to distance itself from the community as the seething hate coming from that direction is pretty bad. All things considered it's just a sign of a once loving game company going more corporate. As Seth quitting can't mean anything good for them or for us.

But let me say, he will be missed regardless.

[Acey]

DarkG got me thinking...

Seth is a community manager, and the community is very anti-Capcom right now... I wonder if he just ended up overwhelmed with the situation or if Capcom made the decision themselves. Fighting gamers are a salty bunch of people.

[Darkgargos]

It's true the fighting game community is pretty salty, but same can be said of gaming communities in general. People just go into full nerd rage when the slightest thing is changed or any info doesn't suit their tastes. Gamers will complain about anything just for the sake of complaining. Being a PR/Community Manager has got to be hard given the fact that you would have to deal with these things on a daily basis, there is only so much one can take of that over the years.

Seth obviously won't state the real reasons for the leave as I'm sure Capcom wants things to look good. But maybe after some time Seth will come clean about why he quit and maybe some inside info about Capcom from while he worked there. Sure, he could have gotten a better offer from another company, but the timing and just this leave itself makes me believe otherwise.

Heck, I even want to rage quit the net after a days worth of forum (mostly places like SRK and others) reading....so much hate and trolling can mess with your head.

[Trinitronity]

Too bad, that Seth is leaving. I mean, helped Protodude to make the RockMan Corner, which I'm visiting all the time, and I also would have liked to know, what excatly the secret of MegaMan 9 was...
...I mean, really, I already got a headache because of me speculating about, what the MM9 secret could have been...

[Tha Lando ( Le CROM )]

wow..... dang shame. but ...the way things are going for Cap spot. not surprised, matter fact not surprised at all.
i expect even more to wanna jump ship.  Especially if the heads at Cap dont wanna change the way they do things.  Seth being a PR guy means he is the face that the community see's in the front.  I been a PR guy myself many years ago, you know about 50% percent( HA thats even maybe way less or a lil more) of the shady stuff thats going on, you either have no input or very little. depending on how well you can spin crap into gold. . they may allow you to have more say. I wouildnt wanna be min his shoes period. people know who you are and may ask you a ton of questions ( and this may be people he know that aint in his work and might be his friends that do play vid games)  and after so much of it , gets to you. 

yeah i believe all gamers have a hard bones feeling when it comes to all kinds of games. but we should.  I pay great hard earned cash for the games and hoping they done them justice , and especially for the prices these days for the game.  I know goes into making the games, but the gripe is, quality for the buck. dont Jilt me out of my money to make me pay for things that should have ALREADY been in the first versions.  DLC has becopme pretty much with "some" companies, a  shim sham scam way to get more money.  Hopefully it all changes to what it really should been all along used for. Seth Knew this, had to go to sleep with it at home and all.  SO he knew what things were going on, and had comebacks on quite a few questions put forth when asked. He chose to work for the  company interests over giving us consumer quality.He gets paid for it, its his job. but he is just the PR guy, but thats the face we see promoting the games, giving all the specs and techs and having the rebuttles and excuses ready.  So thats who the rants are going to be getting directed towards.  Shame that it is but what can ya do huh? it comes with the job.


well i am glad he got out and maybe now he will have a good peace of mind and not hear anymore rants and worries.  he can now complain with us that do!  ... congrats Seth on your Freedom from Crapcom slavery.

[TheClone45]

I can't blame Seth for leaving Capcom. I'm pretty sure that he had to deal with bulls**t business plans that Capcom made him do and having to go with it even if he hates the idea. After all the ripoff fighting games that Capcom has been making (disk locked content), I'm sure Seth is tired of being complained to from fans, even though it's not his fault. Let's all hope the best of luck for him and that he can seek out a better future.

[Sabaki]

Gotta agree with everything said here. Being a PR guy he gets to experience the best side of the business, as well as the worst. And quite frankly, the worst has been non-stop recently. Dealing with Western gaming communities, his face is out there at many of the events and what not, and he's been at the front line trying to convince the public to get these new fighting games. He literally had to be a salesman for MvC3, UMvC3, and SFxT as he showcased each game, which, when people didn't like what they saw, threw their hate on the poor guy.

Seth's done a lot. Got a dream job at a company of his fave fighting game series. Got to meet many cool peeps and help strengthen the fgc just with his presence alone. He was even planning on pitching an idea to the higher ups @ Capcom for a new fighting game (SF5 perhaps...?) . Looks like things may have come to an end. And yeah, it's a bigger lose to the community than Capcom, since he was a great asset in building trust in fans for Capcom, as well as getting feedback to improve the quality in fighting games.

[Darkgargos]

I think that's the thing here, Capcom doesn't realize who they are losing. If it wasn't for Seth, Capcom would have had a hard time getting these new games to sell and now that he is gone...well it does not bode well for Capcom's future. This is just another great loss among many over the years that Capcom just can't afford. They should be trying to keep these people employed and listening to the fans and changing the way they do business and development. But in the end it's really the board directors aka the suits that run everything and they only care about those $$$.

I can see Seth leaving for a multitude of reasons, the community, Capcom themselves and gaming industry standards now are just a few. I wish him the best of luck wherever he goes, hopefully somewhere with more freedom and honesty. All this just makes me miss the Capcom of the 90's...they were on fire and had more dignity.

[DEMONKAI]

All this just makes me miss the Capcom of the 90's...they were on fire and had more dignity.

pretty much what you said right there is dead on how i feel also. Those were the days you couldnt tell me sh*t about capcom. They are still a good developing company but they are not the same as they once were

[Darkgargos]

Yeah, Capcom has changed a lot over the years....they simply are not the Capcom I grew up with anymore. They used to be 2D gods and developed everything in-house and poured their creative love into each and every title. The games that come from them today lack that "Traditional Capcom" feel. For me, the true Capcom died back in the 90's. But the same can be said of many a company these days sadly.

[Tha Lando ( Le CROM )]

yeah me too , i used to love capcom back in the 90's , even late 80's era. they were putting out good strong stuff and had cool competitors that were about the games and not the bucks., Sega, Atlus and a quite a few others were doing throw downs in the arcades in all kinds of games.  when the home console market started to boom big time they fazed away from the arcade community and stop making it about the games and then about the dollar signs..$$ ching ching! Most the people that played those old nostalgia games are now parents, like me for example, and its our next gen kids that are just really getting more on graphical power in games then they are getting that overall quality fun like we used to have.

there are tho some great games being made these days with the new gen stuff but i think capcom let the suits decide what we want instead of  listening to us for what we want. i know you cant please everyone all the time , thats a fact, but there are things capcom could have done enormously better with the games they put out for the community to buy. Seth just got in the line of fire.  they needed him to do that. i am sure no matter how well he done as a pr dude for capcom, he just to them another guy in the cannon fodder pool. Will Capcom miss him? i am sure they will cause he got things moving that probably would have never moved. As said, he was a great salesmen for them, but just bad press when gettin slammed for stuff that just wasnt right. He dont make the games, but he gets slammed for them.  dang shame but its the position not the man, unless he was fully aware and just said, " hey i dont mind being a chimp, just keep giving me bananas and i will sell them games  no matter what"! The way it is , i dont care who the next great PR person they have, my thing is , will you stop giving me less for my money for more $$ in your own pockets! Seth did the right thing, and if  i was in his position, i would walk too.  Capcom just aint right no more.

  to Seth and  to CrapMyCom!

[Darkgargos]

Wall 'O Text  I blame the games industry as a whole for the state of things, look no further than E3 to see where things are headed 

But in regards to Seth which is what this is thread is about, he truly was Capcom's marketing tool. I'm sure whomever takes his position will most likely be some yes man. Point is Capcom is going to have a hard time without him to pitch their games to the public. Ono's style of making fighters hasn't exactly been too popular with the hardcore crowd....Seth had to really try hard to get SFxT to sell and make it look good. Personally, maybe it's best he got out while he could.

I think if we were in his position we would understand his decision. Things change and not always for the better, but time moves on and the games industry seems to just be one big game of musical chairs.

[Acey]

Wall 'O Text 

Yeah, Lando is the king of essays.

[Darkgargos]

Yeah, Lando is the king of essays.

As I have seen around here apparently. I've been like that too in the past when I'm really into a subject, but sometimes I can get my point across in fewer words.

I think Seth should start up his own game company or something, but then again maybe he is sick of the industry and wants to do something else now.

[Acey]

Seth just tweeted that he's working for Sony Santa Monica on the Playstation team now.

[Darkgargos]

Seth just tweeted that he's working for Sony Santa Monica on the Playstation team now.

You have got to be kidding me....Sony? Someone has some explaining to do.


They must have offered him a whole Lot O' Money.

[SanjiSasuke]

Santa Monica? As in GoW, Fat Princess, flOw, Twisted Metal and All-Stars Battle Royal developers? Sounds good.

[Darkgargos]

I never liked Sony or any of their games so this just makes me go "Meh" and "WTF?" and then "Meh" again  Oh well, like I said, must have been quite the money offer to get him to go over there...no other way he would be there. Capcom probably wasn't paying him enough to try to get their lackluster games to sell.

I wish him the best of luck.....but Sony? *shakes head*

[DEMONKAI]

Seth just tweeted that he's working for Sony Santa Monica on the Playstation team now.

yeah, read what he had to say here:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/02/seth-killian-discusses-moving-from-capcom-to-sony