Cognition Dissemination: The Chances of a New Marvel vs. Capcom Game

There was plenty of excitement when an Insomniac Games-developed Spider-Man title made its debut at Sony’s E3 conference, for reasons beyond it potentially being the best Spider-Man game in years. Given Disney’s stance on gaming, recently shown through their cancellation of Disney Infinity and complete closure of their game development sector, it didn’t appear Marvel game adaptations would amount to anything more than miniscule mobile titles from here on. But Disney was serious about continuing to pursue these titles through publisher partnerships and external developments. With Marvel Games saying Spider-Man and Telltale’s upcoming Marvel project were only the beginning, this was all some people needed to start wishing and speculating.

While fans have spent plenty of time envisioning what Marvel franchises could make for what kinds of games, and who should handle them, it’s reignited one particular question: Could more Marvel vs. Capcom be on the way? While a small facet of the remaining fanbase would still like an Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 patch to alter its balance and lengthy combos, a bigger one wants a brand new game. The popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reemergence of Marvel’s comic line has only made them more enthusiastic regarding predicting who would join the cast.

Demand for more was enough that it prompted a response from Marvel Games vice president Jay Ong. He had nothing concrete he could say at this time, but responded by saying the Marvel Games staff has heard their requests. For some peculiar reason, this excited fans even further for more MvC, despite it being a seriously noncommittal PR response. Not to mention that Marvel might be too big for Capcom these days, as opposed to five years ago.

When Marvel Games and Disney said they would be working with other publishers to make games, they had multi-million sellers in mind. Titles like the aforementioned Spider-Man, Kingdom Hearts III, and the slew of upcoming Star Wars games from EA will undoubtedly fit that mantra, but a new MvC title wouldn’t be as likely to reach that threshold given prior sales.

Take Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s sales as an example, which sold 2.2 million copies worldwide (scroll down to #21), well below the level of sales Marvel and Disney would expect. And that’s not getting into UMvC3’s lower sales (1.2 million), expected given the pushback against it — it released a mere nine months after the original. While sales of a Marvel vs. Capcom 4 could be higher due to Marvel’s much higher popularity, there’s no telling how the audience would respond to a traditional fighting game these days. Sales still may not be high enough for Marvel Games and Disney’s current standards.

Besides, given that Marvel will have authority over which characters are included from their side, some fans may not want this after all. Sure, this iteration would assuredly include characters peculiarly left out of MvC3, like Black Panther, Black Widow, and Captain Marvel. But Marvel still isn’t playing too well with the X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four franchises, since movie rights for all three are owned by 20th Century Fox. That is, unless a recent rumor pans out, which could lead to them warming back up to both franchises.

Beyond Marvel, though, it’s no secret that Capcom themselves hasn’t been in the best state lately, in terms of their finances and approach to how they develop and release software. For instance, no one would want to see a new MvC launch in a state like Street Fighter V. The audience for this would rather have a complete package, and not a service game that’s essentially a free-to-play title with a base package. People wondered if Capcom could release a fighting game whose feature set was as barebones as MvC3 at launch, and SFV topped that. That it was riddled with online connection issues after launching (and for a couple of months afterward) made it feel even more like a paid beta.

The game also sold below expectations when it released, as they expected to sell 2 million by the end of the last fiscal year, but only sold 1.4 million. Capcom won’t pull support, but they may not be optimistic at the prospect of developing another fighting game at the moment despite this involving Marvel — unless they’re willing to foot most of the budget.

Despite Marvel vs. Capcom 3 having features I didn’t like, such as the overly lengthy combos and the far-too-useful X-Factor comeback mechanic, I’d like to see another one. A new installment could be more balanced by including mechanics that don’t immediately allow for overpowered combos and teams, ostensibly similar to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. But the chances of one happening are so low that it pains me to even think of the gameplay possibilities. This isn’t to say it won’t happen, but given all the previously mentioned factors, you certainly shouldn’t expect it.

P.S. Even if that doesn’t, it would be nice if both companies could at least work together to rerelease the older Marvel and Capcom crossover games digitally, even if they can’t patch UMvC3. Surely Marvel’s current ambivalence towards X-Men and Fantastic Four doesn’t extend to older games too.