Clover Reborn - Seeds

[Sean]

IGN: Clover Reborn

Clover Reborn
The makers of Resident Evil, Viewtiful Joe and Okami team up. Again.
by Anoop Gantayat

February 15, 2007 - The dagger that pierced the hearts of gamers everywhere late last year when Capcom announced the closure of Clover Studios was swiftly and painlessly removed earlier today (by the god's hand, presumably) with the quiet revelation that talent from that studio has regrouped. Welcome Seeds to the game development community.

Seeds is an all new development house formed by the creators of such hits as Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Tekki, Viewtiful Joe and Okami. Based in Osaka, the same city that former Clover parent company Capcom calls its home, the studio is headed up by former Clover president Atsushi Inaba.

Mysteries abound regarding this new studio. Everything we know comes from this website, which appears to be a recruitment site for the company rather than a site meant for the general public. The only reason we were lead to believe that the site is not an elaborate fake, aside from its professional design, is that Famitsu.com reported on this story earlier today; the company has yet to make a formal announcement declaring its intentions.

The site lists an August 1, 2006 formation date for the company which, as of January, had 51 employees. The company lists as its primary business the planning and development of game software.

The recruitment section lists the following positions: planners, programmers, designers, sound people and promotional staff (the last one seems to be for the company's website). Specific systems and game titles are, expectedly, mentioned nowhere on the site.

Outside of Inaba, big Capcom stars like Hideki Kamiya (director of Residnet Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe and Okami) and Shinji Mikami (director of Resident Evil, Dino Crisis and Resident Evil 4) are also working with the company in some capacity. The site also introduces a few lesser known former Capcom developers, including Nao Ueda (programming work on Devil May Cry, Resident Evil for the GameCube, Resident Evil 4 and Okami), Mari Shimazaki (artist for Okami and Viewtiful Joe) and Masami Ueda (music composer for Resident Evil 1 - 3, Devil May Cry, Okami and Viewtiful Joe 1 & 2).

Obviously, a good reason for any game fan to be excited. We'll let you know when Seeds decides to officially sprout.