It's no secret that Capcom had some lean years--years when both the quality and sales of their games floundered. Recently, though, they have been on a roll. Key franchises have posted extremely good reviews and sales numbers: from Devil May Cry to Resident Evil to Monster Hunter and Mega Man, everything Capcom touches seems to turn to gold (except for Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite--RIP).

Like all companies, Capcom doesn't just want to achieve success--they want to maintain it. In a recent fiscal report, they outline the way in which they plan to do so. Their plan involves three distinct goals:

(1) [to] strengthen digital sales,

(2) [to] bolster [their] title lineup through the full-scale execution of [their] 60-month and 52-week maps,

(3) [to] awaken dormant intellectual properties.

What really gets me excited here is the third goal: to "awaken dormant intellectual properties". After all, Capcom has a lot of amazing but "dead" IPs that people love--DarkstalkersDino Crisis, Onimusha, Ōkami, Viewtiful Joe, Rival Schools, Final Fight, Ghosts 'n Goblins. If Capcom revives any one of these series, they'd make a lot of fans very happy.

Darkstalkers 4, for instance, is probably my deepest desire in the whole world. The character roster of Darkstalkers is incredibly eclectic and interesting, and I'd love to see them reinvented for next-generation platforms. That said, I will not get my hopes up. I refuse to have my heart broken. There's just no way Capcom plans to give this to me.

I do think Dino Crisis 4 is a very distinct possibility, though. Capcom's RE Engine is obviously great for third-person action games, and it seems like it would suit "Resident Evil with dinosaurs" perfectly. It's funny--Dino Crisis initially released on the heels of a lot of Resident Evil success, and it looks like history may repeat itself. I wonder if we'll see a new Onimusha a little further down the line, too.

I'd also be on the lookout for a new Final Fight game. Final Fight characters keep working their way into Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom games, so they've never really left the public eye. Furthermore, those characters--Guy, Cody, Haggar, Poison--really seem to resonate with people. I bet we'll see a new beat 'em up sooner or later.

The long-shots, to me, are Ōkami 2Viewtiful Joe 3, and a new Rival Schools game. Clover Studio, which developed both Ōkami and the Viewtiful Joe games, was dissolved by Capcom, and the team moved on to form Platinum Games. Rival Schools doesn't have any such complications, but it is a bit of a forgotten series. I'm not sure if it has the kind of cultural cachet that would warrant the development of a new game.

We'll update you as soon as we hear more.