The Capcom Holocaust?
- July 22nd, 2011
- By MogKnight
With the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 to the introduction of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 only within months of the original release and a backlog of previous problems with the recent Capcom games, certainly there are a lot of reasons for objecting the choices that Capcom has been making lately. Of course, this far extends from what has been announced just mere days ago. Capcom has had some problems with inconsistent PC releases and DRM issues and even went under fire due to a game save issue.
There has been a ton of fan backlash on message boards everywhere since the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3. It has gotten so bad that people have started to go beyond the bounds of just ranting and complaining and taking it several steps further of spamming up Capcom’s Stream Chat and threatening to get rid of all their Capcom related merchandise and games. Capcom has also been under the radar of criticism as to how they are treating their fans such as Capcom Euro’s Tweets sarcastically responding to fans about the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 and even some reports of Capcom removing suspected Mega Man fans from their Comic-Con booth.
As crazy as this all is, let us look back at what happened and really ask ourselves if Capcom is really deserving to be in the spot they’re in right now.
But first, lets look at this fancy image that someone posted on Reddit about Capcom’s recent failures.
A good hefty number! Lets go through this list!
Resident Evil 5
It’s true that some of the DLC has been available on the disc and requires a key in order to unlock the data. While this is pretty dumb if one does think about it, Capcom is not the first and definitely not the last ones to do this. Their reasoning for this is due to the fact that the data made for the DLC was made as a separate project and considered not part of the spectrum of what the full price entails.
As much as that bit of news is not really worth absorbing… You have to remember: This DLC was the Versus mode in Resident Evil 5… I’d be surprised if anyone is still touches that mode because it just sucks.
The PC version still has no DLC (namely the stuff introduced in the Gold Edition) and may never see it. One thing to note is that Capcom at least added Playstation Move Support for the Gold Edition of RE5… Without giving support to the original RE5 disc. Bummer.
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
Ah yes, the whole “premium demo” concept. I wouldn’t really call this something that is messed up or screwed up. I just see it as a 5 dollar early DLC. You really don’t have to pay for it if you don’t want to and again, this would not be the first time we would see a premium demo. Even then, there are some minor bonuses to be had for purchasing Case Zero for Dead Rising 2 and definitely is not that short of a demo either.
DmC: Devil May Cry Reboot
This is just a bit too early to tell if this is a screw up or not. Yes, it’s a different Dante and it is being developed by an outsourced company. Still, Ninja Theory (the company in question) did make Heavenly Sword. As far as I know, Heavenly Sword was a good game.
Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2)
The only real reason I can think of as to why Capcom would choose not to localize this is simply because the 3DS was on its advent by the time this game was released in Japan. Though, this was only released in Feb 2011 in Japan, it might be too early to really say this won’t be coming over.
Final Fight Double Impact/Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2
At first, I didn’t see this as too much of a problem considering that if I did own a Playstation 3, my console would be permanently hooked up to the internet. Then the whole PSN was brought down and… yeah, made me rethink about all this. The issue was that in order to play these games on the Playstation 3, you need to be on PSN and online. If you disconnect part way through the game, you get kicked off. This makes it impossible for offline play, even if you just want to play by yourself. Now, granted, Final Fight (And Magic Sword) are both games that have been around for a really long time and Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 just blows and isn’t worth playing to begin with (though the first one is a great game). This is still a pretty bad problem though.
Professor Layton x Phoenix Wright
As far as I know, much like how Street Fighter x Tekken is Capcom developed and Tekken x Street Fighter is Namco developed, judging by how this game looks more like a Level-5 developed game… I’m gonna say that Capcom does not have too much of a say if it would be imported here or not.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3
DLC was announced before release but again, that isn’t something that’s new. And yes, the DLC is on the disc. Again, we can take this as just something dumb but yeah, I’m sure there are some “legal” reasons why it’s like that and how it’s also going to be like that for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. And yes, Mega Man is nowhere to be seen. I will also say that the whole “Strider doesn’t fit” thing could easily just be one of those “on the spot” type questions. You’ve had those experiences before, right? I’m sure you have!
Street Fighter x Tekken
DAN IS KILLED OFF OH NOES! Only in the trailer and heck, he might even be in the game. As far as the whole “Pulling Soul Calibur-esque fighter cameos” thing with Cole being a playable character in the PS3 and PS Vita, yeah it sucks that there was no mention of a possible Xbox 360 exclusive character but I hardly call this a huge problem. This is just something to excite (or anger) the fans and nothing more. Tournaments are pretty much going to ban the use of Cole anyways just because of the exclusivity.
Mega Man Universe
What started off to be a project that would let you create all these different aspects of Mega Man and even throwing the bad box-art Mega Man into the mix, the game started off as a pretty ambitious project by adding a little bit of a Little Big Planet aspect to Mega Man. Unfortunately, the project fell flat and Mega Man Universe would suddenly be unheard from ever again. The suspected reason was due to the fact that Keiji Inafune (pretty much the guy who invented Mega Man) left Capcom to start up his own game companies.
That and the game does not really seem to look all that great in hindsight. I think only the hardcore of Mega Man fans would enjoy it and that could also potentially be another reason.
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition
Nevermind the fact that the game is plagued with weird balancing choices and issues, the PC version did get a few shafts from the eyes of the PC gamers. You need to remember that they went straight from Street Fighter IV to Super Street Fighter IV AE. Fully knowing that though, it has been a good long gap between SF4′s release and SSF4AE’s release. It’s only 40 dollars with a small discount if you bought the Steam versions of SF4 and AE. As far as the Windows Live DRM… yeah, that just blows. I wouldn’t find the rest to be unreasonable though.
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd
Monster Hunter has always been a fan favorite and not deciding to bring this one over here is just… profoundly surprising to say the least. Without even a bare mention of this PSP game or even a whisper about the Playstation 3 HD version, Capcom has been very silent about all this. With nothing mentioned in Comic-Con, maybe Capcom is slowly putting Monster Hunter away for all the American gamers.
Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D
Whew boy, back to this guy again. The inability to erase the save data that is on the game has raised many questions by gamers and retailers, even causing them to refuse trade-ins for this 3DS title. My defense for Capcom: I don’t see a reason to want to erase the save file at all. Maybe I can understand wanting to just start brand new and unlock the random bits of stuff left and right that will eventually get unlocked within a sitting or two of gameplay. Otherwise, you’re playing a Bejeweled edition of Resident Evil here. If this was a full fledged Resident Evil title, I can understand completely and would call Capcom crazy for that.
On that note though, Capcom did say that erasing data would be too difficult to implement… Ain’t that something?
Mega Man Legends 3
As far as I know as someone that is a part of the press: Mega Man Legends 3 was never green lit by Capcom and while it features some bits and pieces of screenshots and videos, the game was never ever considered to be in full production. Knowing that though, Capcom did tease quite a bit of people and leading them into some sort of false sense of security with their Mega Man Legends game. That is probably more of the screwed up part if anything and it feels like everyone is handling the situation all wrong.
But who can blame either side? Sure, being professional is being professional and that is what standard that Capcom should hold. At the same time, I can only imagine how much heat that Capcom is taking as a whole company, with single employees being picked off because they’re simply associated with Capcom.
It’s a freak of a mess and dare I say it, I think if Capcom is indeed removing people from their booth for mentioning Mega Man, I think it’s justified based on how people have been reacting. This could easily lead to safety issues and heck, I wouldn’t want to be in some riot or have stuff thrown at me because I just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time at Comic Con. Call it punishment to the fans but the huge overreaction factor is just way too much and people just need to get a damn grip about what they’re doing.
Plus… Mega Man Legends was just “okay.” They’re not the first games I think of when I think “Great Mega Man Games” I enjoyed the Misadventures of Tron Bonne more than Legends 1 and 2. Of course, that’s an opinion and my own at that. I found it hard to justify trying to make a Megaman Legends 3 when it was first announced and you have to praise Capcom for even attempting it against the odds. Heck, there were probably a lot of other games that were cancelled and we would have never hear of them.
Rather than going on to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on the list, I’m going to start reflecting more on Capcom here.
Capcom has brought us some great games like Lost Planet and Dead Rising and will continue to bring us great games even with all this going on. The funny thing I think about all this is that everyone wanted Capcom to be original. Everyone wants Capcom to stop rehashing stuff and just bring in something original. What might have been a problem though is trying to transition to that mentality. In the process of doing so, they ended up not picking up certain projects or dropping them completely. In turn, they are bringing up other projects such as Dragon’s Dogma and Asura’s Wrath. It does feel like Capcom is trying to keep it safe by going with what works with some of their IPs and dropping anything that could potentially fail. With fighting games on the rise, they definitely cannot lose with Street Fighter x Tekken and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
There are a ton of Capcom IPs that have vanished or only brought back in cameo. Strider Hiryu, Capcom Commando, Ghost and Goblins, Viewtiful Joe. They all have not been subjected to being in a brand new game other than just playable characters in fighting games or just cameos. Mega Man just seems to be tons lower on that list and even mentioned to say that he isn’t famous enough any more. Who is judging what by how is beyond us but Capcom said it was their reason.
Does Capcom really deserve this much fan backlash? Perhaps. Do the fans really have anything to worry about? Never as long as they realize they have the voice to reason. Knowing that, put down the pitchforks and be civil. Let Capcom know, politely, that you want to see these games reach their goals of being in gamer’s hands all over the world. You can be surprised how well they will receive it (and probably less rough about it too).
Hanh "MogKnight" Nguyen is owner and Editor-in-Chief of The Mog Blog. A fan of pushing buttons and making things happen. He has recently been seen going around random GameStops to slowly rebuild his Dynasty Warriors collection.
Related Articles
 Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Officially Announced by Capcom |
 Rumors About Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 |
 Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Official Trailer/Teaser |
