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.

The developer Flagship is going to be liquidated and merged with Capcom this June 1 (this is not the Flagship Studios that developed Hellgate: London). This is in keeping with the streamlining of Capcom's operations which began with the merger and liquidation of two other studios: Clover Studio and Studio 8.

Flagship, which was established in 1997, is responsible for games such as The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, and Kirby Squeak Squad. However, the employees of the company will not be canned, because they will still be working for Capcom "in the same capacities."

So how will this streamlining affect the game developer? It's still uncertain, but we can expect their investors to be happy with the efforts the company is doing to increase their profit margin.

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.

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!

For those tears that are shed as Clover Studios shuts the lights off one last time in Capcom, they are shed because of some of the original work the dev studio has done on current-gen platforms, from the cell-shaded mash-em up Viewtiful Joe to the soft, sepia brushstrokes of Okami. Their fans have often wondered what Clover would have made of the next-gen wave sweeping over us now - imagine, for example, Okami on a Wii.

So has 1UP, and they scheduled this interview with Clover prez Atsushi Inaba, where they had asked exactly those kinds of questions. "What do you think about next-gen, can you imagine your current-gen games on next gen, and do you have any plans for next-gen?" 1UP never knew it would  be the last time they would speak of Clover - which explained the "sad tone" they noted in Inaba's voice.

Inaba explained that Clover's always thought of fun games first, then tailor to platform next when asked about next-gen platforms. "I think making a game for a controller is a mistake." Rather, their philosophy is to make the game interesting in the first place, and then use the controller to make it even more interesting. He cited the PS3 + EyeToy's Eye of Judgement as an example.

The tone of sadness hit when 1UP asked about any future projects Clover was planning. Inaba became evasive - he needed a little time off, he said - and would not really reveal anything that hinted of a project in the works. It was only after Capcom announced the closure of Clover, and Inaba and Hideki Kamia had left Capcom, that 1UP realized why their interview had gone that way, and why there was no project to speak of.

This may not be the last we've heard from Inaba and company, 1UP thinks, but this may be the last we hear of the Clover team. Sometimes you can tell when a star suddenly winks out of existence from the night sky. There may be thousands more to fill that blackness, but the night is not as beautiful anymore.

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.

Clover Studio released a new video for their upcoming title Viewtiful Joe DS. Winner of IGN’s “DS Game of E3”, we are certainly excited about this game. Viewtiful Joe DS is slated for release on October 3.