As many long time gamers know, Capcom used to hold the rights to create games based on Marvel comics. It was at that time that they created what is perhaps the greatest cross-over fighting game of all time. Marvel Vs Capcom 2; a triple tag team fighter featuring over fifty of the companies' greatest characters. The amount of variety in the game's roster is simply dizzying. Not even Smash Bros Brawl can claim to have the same level of dream-match, cross-over craziness as Marvel Vs Capcom 2.
Despite it being Y2K, a year when the 3D fighting game were king, Marvel Vs Capcom 2 was still hugely popular. Then, out of nowhere, it the series just died. Capcom wasn't even allowed to press more discs of Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for the PS2 and Xbox, causing the few copies of the game released in stores to suddenly become worth big money. The series seemed truly over, and with its passing died a little bit of the soul of every 2D fighting game devotee.
If any of this strikes a chord for you, then I have good news. Your soul may be saved this day. I've Matlocked a butt-load of evidence that has led me to believe that Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is coming to the USA and to Europe, probably on the Wii, and most likely in 2009. Hit the jump for the details.
Exhibit A: Capcom needs a way to release Tatsunoko Vs Capcom outside of Japan
If you care enough about Capcom fighting games to even be reading this article, then you know that this December, Capcom is set to release Tatsunoko Vs Capcom on the Wii in Japan. The game is a cross-over fighter just like a Marvel Vs Capcom game except with various characters from Japanese animation studio Tatsunoko in place of the Marvel comics icons. This makes sense for the Japanese market, as Tatsunoko's animation has been a part of the Japanese psyche since the 1970's, where Marvel comics are only now beginning to gain some popularity in the Manga obsessed country.
As much as Capcom USA may want Tatsunoko Vs Capcom localized, it's just not likely to happen. In a TGS meetings with "multiple (Capcom) representatives", Spencer from Siliconera was told that due to the North American licensing issues, a game with all that Tastunoko magic going on just wasn't possible to publish outside of Japan.
That's terrible news to non-Japanese fans of Tastunoko characters like Gatchaman and Casshern, but it's incredible news for fans of Marvel Vs Capcom 2. In order to get around all the red tape, Capcom could swap out the Tatsunoko characters for Marvel characters for a fairly low cost, a cost they would probably make back quikcly via the sale of Marvel Vs Capcom 3. But does Capcom of Japan even want to make a new Marvel Vs Capcom game? Well by gum, I reckon they do. Just check Exhibit B and see for yourself!
Exhibit B: Capcom of Japan wants Marvel Vs Capcom 3 to happen
Just recently, Street Fighter IV's producer stated that he'd want to make a new Marvel Vs Capcom. He even said that he met with Marvel at Comic Con 2008, and though he coyly states that nothing is happening between the two companies yet, that he'd certainly like that to change.
It's an answer you'd expect from a guy who wants to get people talking, but doesn't want to draw too much attention away from his current project. If Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is definitely going to happen, the time to announce it would not be while doing press for the build up to Street Fighter IV. But what if you worked for another company involved in the Marvel Vs Capcom 3 project, one that could speak more freely without caring of how it will affect the press and the sales of Street Fighter IV? Well, you'd probably get something like Exhibit C...
Exhibit C: Marvel says it's happening
At this years San Diego Comi-Con, the President of Marvel Studios just came out and said that Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is happening. This is significant for a couple of reasons. For one, it's info coming from a non-videogame related source, and is therefore more credible. For whatever reason, videogame developers and publishers always lie about what they're up to, which is why we often have to turn to the ESRB, the comic book, or the movie industry for reliable inside info on what they're planning (I'm looking at you, Gary Oldman).
Secondly, the fact that the guy even knew what the hell Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is evidence that he's got some familiarity with the series, which tells us he knows about what makes a good Marvel game. In the past, Marvel's dealing with videogame companies was handled by second party negotiators, people who lacked any creative connection to Marvel's characters or interest in videogames in general. It was under their watch in 2004 that EA was handed the rights to start making Marvel games, which lead to the crappy-ass fighter Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. After that snooze-fest was released, it made fighting games fans all the more hungry for the return a real Marvel fighting game, which would probably require someone other than EA publishing the it. That brings us to Exibit D...
Exhibit D: EA lost the liscense to make Marvel games in early 2008
There was a direct correlation between the end of Marvel's relationship with Capcom and the start of their relationship with EA. Though I have not the evidence to prove it, it stands to reason that the EA and Capcom deals couldn't exist at the same time. This is perhaps due to the fact that EA's deal and Capcom's deal were for the same characters. Both were for use of the entire core Marvel comic book universe, as opposed to the rights to make games based on Marvel movies which is owned by various game publishers, or the rights to the Ultimate Marvel line of characters which is owned by Activision.
So if EA lost the rights to make games with core Marvel comic characters, can you guess who has them now? Here's a hint, it like Moc-Pac, only backwards.
Exhibit E: Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is now listed on the ESRB for the PS3 and the 360 Remember when I was saying that you often have to look to non-videogame related sources to find out what game developers are up to? Well, the ESRB is probably number one on the list of those sources, as they require game developers to submit their games for review far before the game's are ready to be released. That's how we found out about Beautiful Katamari coming to the 360, how we found out the Pikmin Japanese Wii re-releases were coming stateside, and so on.
In this case, the ESRB has told us not only that Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is being re-released, but in doing so has told us that Capcom has regained the rights to publish a games based on Marvel characters. Like I said before, Capcom had to stop making money off Marvel Vs Capcom 2 when they lost the rights to make game's with Marvel characters. If Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is to be released on the 360 and the PS3, that means that Capcom must have the rights to make games with Marvel characters again, which means that legally, nothing is stopping them from making Marvel Vs Capcom 3.
Conclusion
Capcom needs to get rid of the Tatsunoko characters in Tatsunoko Vs Capcom in order to release the game outside of Japan. Capcom of Japan wants to make Marvel Vs Capcom 3. Marvel says that Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is coming soon. EA has lost the rights to make games with Marvel comic's characters, and Capcom has regained them. All the evidence is there. Unless there is some fluke accident where a Marvel rep. accidentally poops on the desk of a Capcom Japan executive, Marvel Vs Capcom 3 will be made. The most logical way to make it would be from from the guts of Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, which means it will be on the Wii (and maybe other consoles), and coming to the USA no sooner than 2009 (probably after Street Fighter IV comes out, as to keep Capcom for directly competing with itself).
Now the only thing worth speculating on is which Tatsunoko characters will be swapped out for which Marvel characters. My guess is the Tastunoko guy made out of little yellow rocks will be replaced by the Marvel guy made out of little yellow rocks, and that Tastunoko guy in the skin spandex suit with the big muscles will be replaced by the Marvel in the skin spandex suit with the big muscles. Man, speculating is hard work.
Just you wait and see, folks! Matlock has spoken!
Contest:
5:22 PM on 10.13.2008
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FUCK
YES!
I'm buying myself a Hori arcade stick this second, anyone know where's a good place to purchase them? Amazon?
I got mine from GameStop at a fair price. There's still time.
I need to make some phone calls.
Capcom securing rights to Marvel characters and the re-releasing of the MvC2 on 360/PS3 is more than enough gumption for me to believe that a MvC3 will be coming. Capcom is probably best suited to reviving the fighting genre, hell they're doing it already with SF4 and I can't wait to buy everyone of their games.
Now I'll excuse myself to get a clean pair of pants, thank you...
TEKKAMAN AND KARAS NOOO!!!!!
Also, the Vital Suit character is trippin balls.
I am never going to shutup about that.
Second: Look for MvC2 on XBLA in the future, w/ new downloadable character packs. My friend at Marvel said this was in the rumor mill last Christmas.
Not releasing MvC 3 on PS360 would be a horrible decision, along the lines of not publishing a nearly complete Ghostbusters game.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go fire my PS2 up.
So how would Guile's marriage end?
Will his geriatric aunt get shot, and rather than letting her finally rest in peace, he makes a deal with M. Bison, where the price is making he and his wife forget they were married, and making their daughter not exist except in a spin-off series?
Or will his wife get killed by some weapon the writers are forced to make appear out of nowhere because the executives are so desperate to kill her off, and then those executives deceive the fans into not missing her by lying that she was cheating on Guile, and have Guile start making out with his new, "more interesting" girlfriend, right in top of his wife's grave?
And let's have all the Capcom characters have some issue they all agreed on before, but suddenly start taking sides on it for no reason, and fight to the death over it, ending with Mega Man getting killed by a sniper just to "drive home" the point, that we didn't think was a good point in the first place.
Let's just say I'm not happy with who's running Marvel right now.
Also, switching out characters is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Lets make Starwars VS Starcraft and take out all the Soul Calibur IV characters. We'll just switch the costumes.
This reads more like a cblog.
Super
Smash
Brothers
Brawl
Last time I checked, that game had sold over 7 million copies worldwide. It's a Wii game, a cross-over fighter, and it's got 2D gameplay, all just like MvC. Knowing all that and still saying that there isn't an audience for MvC3 on the Wii is just plain silly.
Also, putting MvC3 on the 360/PS3 would just eat into Capcom's profits from SFIV. I know if I had less money and could only choose between buying SFIV and MvC3, I'd choose the latter.
Competing with yourself = fail.
The smart thing for Capcom to do would be to release MvC3 on the Wii next year, then on PS360 the following year with new features, then do the same for SFIV, then gradually leak out the extra content to the consoles that didn't get it as DLC. That's more or less what Capcom did with SFII back in the SNES Vs Genesis days, and it worked like a charm.
@ Abort- You are the fucking MAN.
Are you serious?
The Audiences for Brawl and a game like MvC or even Street Fighter are completely different.
Halo has guns and is in first person, Left 4 Dead has guns and is in first person. Same game, same audience. Am I rite?
That is me after reading this CBlog.
Did you just compare the audience of SSBB to the audience of MvC?
And what's wrong with the cblogs? Isn't that where you do your writing?
Here's the thing, though. Although Brawl and MvC are similar in the fact that they are cross-over fighters, the thing you need to realize is that there is a BIG difference between Pikachu and Wolverine and who those characters tend to attract. Now, I'm not trying to generalize people here as I love both of those characters dearly, but there are more younger people who bought the Wii that will be more interested in Mario fighting Pikachu than Ryu fighting Wolverine. The demographic that would be more for Ryu vs Wolvie is most likely the older crowd that has flocked more towards the 360 and PS3.
And they're also planning on releasing the 2nd game on those two consoles and NOT the Wii. Which means that if they then release MvC3 on the Wii only (or at least at first), then they would be teasing a large portion of the PS3/360 community that want the game but don't have a Wii and possibly don't want one. It would be a much smarter idea to put the game out for the system that has already received some love for the games already rather than toss it onto another platform.
And just because TvC is coming out on the Wii in Japan, doesn't mean that it can't come out immediately on the other consoles. The game was built for the arcades, not the Wii, so I don't think there would be much problem with shifting platforms. Also, I don't necessarily think they will just slap new skins into TvC to create MvC. That's just way too lazy for Capcom (though they DO reuse Morrigan sprites). I'm sure that they would use the engine when making MvC3, but not actually take TvC and mold it into MvC3.
The most sound strategy would be to release MvC2 shortly after SF4 comes out, then spend the year working on MvC3 and release it a year after SF4 has been out in order to give the two some sales space.
Great matlocking, though.
I smell trouble from you two.
Yes, you goofs, Super Smash Bros Brawl and MvC have similar audiences, more so than MvC has with Soul Calibur or Virtual Fighter. They are both 2D. They are both cross-over games featuring a roster that appeals to hardcore, casual, and even non-gamers. They are both games where you can have fun just mashing buttons, or you can learn to play technically. They are both Chaotic as fuck. They both are awesome. The list goes on and on. Sure, the two games aren't identical, but they certainly have more similarities than differences.
Fell free to disagree with me by claiming to know what every Smash Bros fan likes about Smash Bros, and why every MvC fan likes MvC, and then say they have nothing in common. But there is a reason why Capcom is putting TvC (and potentially MvC3) on the Wii, and it's got to do with knowing their audience, maybe even better than you two do.
I'm not entirely sure that's how the licensing process works. I don't see why they would lose rights to the game. I don't know for sure, but I can speculate.
Nothing's wrong with the Cblogs, it's just that they read like the news of yesterday instead of actual blogs with real content.
I'm not entirely sure that's how the licensing process works. I don't see why they would lose rights to the game. I don't know for sure, but I can speculate.
Nothing's wrong with the Cblogs, it's just that they read like the news of yesterday instead of actual blogs with real content.
MvC = Arcade game.
know the diffrence.
You make some fine points. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up being right.
But I do know a lot of little kids who like both Wolverine and Pikachu. Now if it were Marvel Zombies Vs Capcom, I'd be a little more convinced that the game would have trouble on the Wii. But even then, RE4 Wii Edition and RE:Umbrella Chronicles both sold buckets on the Wii.
Wii owners like them zombies.
@ Yashoki- Oh, I get you. Yeah, I didn't post a link, but EA did lose the license to make Marvel games earlier this year. It's my bad for not putting my proof in the post. I'll try to dig it up.
@ Perdo- YOU ARE A GENIUS. I forgot that MvC was only in arcades, and that arcade games like MvC and Power Stone 2 are never good in groups.
Thanks for the heads up.
Good matlockery sir. I for one hope you're correct.
@Genki
Actually, the arcade version of TvsC is built upon Wii-based hardware so I think that system is a given. Of course I think it's highly possible they'd want to release it on the other systems as well, but whether or not they want to go through the trouble of doing whatever they have to do to bring it up to those graphical standards is anyone's guess at this point. I'd buy it it though.
Link? Also, I think that may have been just for the Ultimate Marvel characters like Holmes mentioned in his article.
@GuitarAtomik
Ah, I see. Well then the release on the Wii makes a lot more sense now.. and if it ends up like MvC2 (where it was made with DC-based hardware and emulates only so-so on other platforms), then the Wii does jump up a bit on my possibility scale.
(Shifting to Holmes)
Buuuuut I like to believe that Capcom has a good understanding of the difference between Japanese gamers and American gamers (and it seems like they've shown it through their recent games). So I think that they might borrow traits from the TvC engine when making MvC3 (like they've obviously done with TvC borrowing traits from MvC2 despite the hardware difference). Plus, as you said, the SF4 producer said he wanted in on the project, so that could affect what it looks like in the end and where it ends up. And they might actually be testing the MvC Online waters by releasing MvC2 on Live/PSN in order to see if they can pull off MvC3 online--something that the Wii's online couldn't possibly handle in it's current state. But I suppose we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?
PLUS! remember the dreamcast and the japanese saturn were the only systems to get the best ports of those games. in fact, the marvel vs capcom games were created with the dreamcasts controller in mind. now.. sega always had the lowest marketshare.. yet capcom made those games best on their systems.. why? because they were the most "arcadey" just pick up and play consoles. no epic gta, halo, metal gear type games on dreamcast (save for shenmue). with sega bowing out, the wii is the closest thing to an arcadey console these days. i mean.. look at the amount of light gun shooters the thing has for it already, fighting games would only make senes to start to shine on the wii to me. oh and ive read a few times online that tatsunoko vs capcom was built on a board that is basically the wiis hardware. makes sense, the game isnt a graphical powerhouse..
shonen jump vs capcom next.. strider vs ichigo, ryu vs goku, megaman vs naruto?! madness.. and id love every minute of it.. (im not even a fan of dbz, naruto, or bleach.. but sometimes those guys make for some fun video games)
Know the similarity.
Still cannot wait for MvC3!!!
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7164
Anything spider-man and x-men related can only be published by them.
Hey, I want to play the damn game online with others (with GOOD online service)! If the Wii had that, I'm sure nobody would care in the least. But it's not exactly that way, is it?
Mario Kart works fine with the Wii. So does Bomberman and a bunch of others. Just because Smash didn't have good online doesn't mean that's how the entire console is. Is it Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network? Of course not. But it does what it's supposed to do.
Well that's odd. The article is from 2005, and although the only Marvel game EA ever released was released 2 months before this article went out, EA still had a Marvel contract for a while, I believe, and just a year before this article, the game based on the Spider-Man 2 movie was released by Activision. So that leads me to believe that these must be separate deals with some sorts of restrictions.
Plus, it doesn't explain why Capcom is suddenly able to release MvC2 again.... unless EA's contract was only for Marvel fighting games or something.. hmm..
That's true, they could iron out any problems like lag and whatnot. However, Nintendo's ridiculous restrictions with things like friend codes, and overly complicated measures for things like voice chat make the experience less than enjoyable when it comes to setting up an online match with someone. Though it does look like Nintendo is easing up on those things a bit now, it's still not nearly as free as Live/PSN's online is (and I don't mean price).
FUCK YES THIS IS AMAZING.
Ive been BEGGING for this game to come for over 10 years! as so do many others! PLZ CAPCOM HEED OUR WORDS AND BRING US THE GLORY!!!