1979–1984: Founding and arcade games Capcom's predecessor, I.R.M. Corporation, was founded on May 30, 1979 by
Kenzo Tsujimoto, who was still president of
Irem Corporation when he founded I.R.M. He worked at both companies at the same time until leaving Irem in 1983. The original companies that spawned Capcom's Japan branch were I.R.M. and its subsidiary Japan Capsule Computers Co., Ltd., both of which were devoted to the manufacture and distribution of electronic game machines. The two companies underwent a name change to Sanbi Co., Ltd. in September 1981. In January 1989, Capcom Co., Ltd. merged with Sanbi Co., Ltd., resulting in the current Japan branch. "Capsule" alludes to how Capcom likened its game software to "a capsule packed to the brim with gaming fun", and to the company's desire to protect its intellectual property with a hard outer shell, preventing illegal copies and inferior imitations. The successful 1985 arcade games
Commando and ''
Ghosts 'n Goblins have been credited as the products "that shot [Capcom] to 8-bit silicon stardom" in the mid-1980s. Starting with Commando'' (late 1985), Capcom began licensing its arcade games for release on
home computers, notably to British software houses
Elite Systems and
U.S. Gold in the late 1980s.
1985–1999: Console game development Beginning with a
Nintendo Entertainment System port of
1942 (published in Dec. 1985), the company ventured into the market of
home console video games, while its highest-grossing title is the
fighting game Street Fighter II (1991), driven largely by its success in arcades. In the late 1980s, Capcom was on the verge of bankruptcy when the development of a strip
Mahjong game called
Mahjong Gakuen started. It outsold ''
Ghouls 'n Ghosts'', the eighth highest-grossing
arcade game of 1989 in Japan, and is credited with saving the company from financial crisis. Capcom has been noted as the last major publisher to be committed to 2D games, though it was not entirely by choice. The company's commitment to the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System as its platform of choice caused it to lag behind other leading publishers in developing 3D-capable arcade boards. Also, the 2D animated cartoon-style graphics seen in games such as
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and
X-Men: Children of the Atom proved popular, leading Capcom to adopt them as a signature style and use them in future games. In 1994, Capcom adapted its
Street Fighter series of fighting games into
a film of the same name. While commercially successful, it was critically panned.
A 2002 adaptation of its Resident Evil series faced similar criticism but was also successful in theaters. The company sees films as a way to build sales for its video games.
2000–2009: Transition to modern gaming systems In the early 2000s, Capcom focused many of its resources on bringing series from arcade and earlier consoles onto more modern hardware, bringing these games out from 2D to 3D space. One of the most successful titles during this period was
Resident Evil 4 for the
GameCube (2005), which received universal acclaim, was a financial success for Capcom, and led to ports to multiple systems. Other major successes include
Street Fighter IV (2008). While it did remain in the business in Japan, it gradually left the American market in 2003 and closed
its arcade subsidiary in March 2004.
2009–2017: Struggling releases and mismanagement Despite its successes from the previous decade, Capcom released several titles that were considered misfires during the 2010s. Both
Resident Evil 5 (2009) and
Resident Evil 6 (2012) were seen to lean far too much into action-oriented gameplay while forgoing the balance with the survival horror elements of the earlier games in the series. Capcom outsourced the next
Devil May Cry title to
Ninja Theory, resulting in
DmC: Devil May Cry (2013), a re-envisioning of the series that failed to resonate with players. notably, examples are
DmC: Devil May Crys PC version and its
PlayStation 4 and
Xbox One remasters, ''
Dragon's Dogmas PC version, and Dead Rising''s version on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. In 2012, Capcom came under criticism for controversial sales tactics, such as the implementation of disc-locked content, which requires players to pay for additional content that is already available within the game's files, most notably in
Street Fighter X Tekken. The company defended the practice. It has also been criticized for other business decisions, such as not releasing certain games outside of Japan (most notably the
Sengoku Basara series), abruptly cancelling anticipated projects (most notably
Mega Man Legends 3), and shutting down
Clover Studio. On August 27, 2014, Capcom filed a
patent infringement lawsuit against
Koei Tecmo Games at the Osaka District Court for 980 million yen in damage. Capcom claimed Koei Tecmo infringed a patent it obtained in 2002 regarding a play feature in video games. In 2015, the PlayStation 4 version of
Ultra Street Fighter IV was pulled from the Capcom Pro Tour due to numerous technical issues and bugs.
2017–present: Refocus on successful franchises Following several years of unclear direction, management at Capcom changed in the mid-2010s to try to refocus the company on its successful properties. The company recognized that many of its titles during that period were attempts to bring Western game concepts into its titles, but it failed to capture how these mechanics were implemented in Western games. To correct this, the company changed its approach to try to develop games that would be fun for players worldwide, rather than developing games that felt like they were niche Japanese titles. Additionally, Capcom began developing the
RE Engine to replace the older
MT Framework, helping its studios develop across a wider range of hardware including newer consoles. On November 2, 2020, the company reported that its servers were affected by
ransomware, scrambling its data, and the threat actors, the
Ragnar Locker hacker group, had allegedly stolen 1TB of sensitive corporate data and were blackmailing Capcom to pay them to remove the ransomware. By mid-November, the group began putting information from the hack online, which included contact information for up to 350,000 of the company's employees and partners, as well as plans for upcoming games, indicating that Capcom opted to not pay the group. Capcom affirmed that no credit-card or other sensitive financial information was obtained in the hack. In 2021, Capcom removed appearances of the
Rising Sun Flag from its rerelease of
Street Fighter II. Although Capcom did not provide an official explanation for the flag's removal, due to the flag-related controversy, it is speculated that it was done so to avoid offending segments of the international gaming community. Artist and author Judy A. Juracek filed a lawsuit in June 2021 against Capcom for
copyright infringement. In the court filings, she asserted Capcom had used images from her 1996 book
Surfaces in its cover art and other
assets for
Resident Evil 4,
Devil May Cry and other games. This was discovered due to the 2020 Capcom data breach, with several files and images matching those that were included within the book's companion
CD-ROM. The court filings noted one image file of a metal surface, named ME0009 in Capcom's files, to have the same exact name on the book's CD-ROM. Juracek was seeking over in damages and $2,500 to $25,000 in false copyright management for each photograph Capcom used. Before a court date could be made, the matter was settled "amicably" in February 2022. It comes on the heels of Capcom being accused by Dutch movie director Richard Raaphorst of copying the monster design of his movie ''
Frankenstein's Army into its game Resident Evil Village''. In February 2022, it was reported by
Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia's
Public Investment Fund had purchased a 5% stake in Capcom for an approximate value of US$332 million. In July 2023, Capcom acquired Tokyo-based computer graphics studio Swordcanes Studio. In July 2024, Capcom acquired Taiwan-based computer graphics studio Minimum Studios. In March 2026, Electronic Gaming Development Company, the investment company of the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation (MiSK Foundation) announced an acquisition of 5% of shares in Capcom. In April 2026, this was increased to 6%. ==Corporate structure==