Right now is a very exciting time to be a Marvel vs. Capcom fan. After years of silence, difficult licensing issues, and a seemingly shaky relationship between Marvel and Capcom that painted a hopeless picture for the franchise, “Mahvel” returns with the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
The masses were convinced for a long time that Marvel vs. Capcom won’t be returning in an official capacity, but despite everything, the companies have reunited not only to collaborate, but to revive seven classic titles that have been absent from modern platforms for ages. This, in addition to several other factors, clues, and words directly from developers (both recent and past), point to the chances of a new Marvel vs. Capcom game (or Marvel vs. Capcom 4 as many refer to it) actually happening on -higher than ever right now.
Marvel vs. Capcom and the Versus series as a whole are beloved by fans and competitors alike in the fighting game community.
Even without an active modern game on the market today, players everywhere have kept these titles alive through numerous means, including finding better ways to play past games online against each other, adding to games like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom : Infinite through PC mods and continuing to create content that not only delves into the specifics of these games, but also the landscape around them and how likely a new one is to be made.
As for the main entries in the series, the last time we saw a new, full Marvel vs. Capcom, it was in September 2017 with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
Unfortunately, many fans did not consider this particular entry to be a “true” Mahvel game for a variety of reasons, including the poor visual design, the lack of major roster brackets due to licensing conflicts for the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters, and its fighting format. 2v2 that evolves from the traditional 3v3 with the support formula people know and love.
That said, the last really solid entry in the franchise that people took very seriously in the competition (and still actively play) was 2011’s Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Needless to say, we’re probably overdue for a legitimate new title in franchise to this point.
Fortunately, things are finally looking up on that front, and you don’t have to look far to see the signs. For starters, and as previously mentioned, the release of the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom — which features re-releases of X-Men Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and The Punisher — is a pretty clear indicator that both Marvel and Capcom are at least willing to work together again and see the value. which the franchise holds.
That alone led fans to think that a new game in the series might be in the works, but there’s more to it than that. In addition, the developers behind Street Fighter 6 also recently shared a little more information about Capcom’s latest crossovers with Marvel and SNK, and not only expressed their great desire to make new joint games with these companies, but explained that seeing brand new entries for Marvel vs. Capcom and Capcom vs. SNK will be determined by fan interest in current and upcoming products such as the Marvel vs. Capcom Collection.
“Capcom’s development team has big dreams,” Street Fighter 6 producer Shuhei Matsumoto said in a recent interview with Dexerto when discussing the potential for new crossover games. “Maybe there’s a possibility of a new Marvel vs. Capcom game. Maybe there is a possibility of a new SNK game based on Capcom.
“I do not know. But if that happens, it will take some time and effort [to] we create and release such games, but in the short term what we can do now is at least reintroduce these past legacy games to a new audience, to people who may not have the opportunity to play them because they may not released on modern or current platforms.
“What we can do at least now is show that, hey, these streaks exist. We love these games. We hope you will too, and maybe in the future if people become familiar with these series, then there may be future opportunities to make bigger games,” concluded Matsumoto.
While Matsumoto’s words are already encouraging in themselves — especially since we all know that Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection is going to be successful and that it’s already topping the sales charts before it even has an official release date – the developer’s comments sound similar to those of former Marvel vs. Capcom and Versus Ryota Niitsuma during another pivotal time in Capcom’s legacy.
Back in January 2010, Niitsuma told Kotaku that Capcom might announce another game in the Versus series if sales of the then-current Versus title Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars sold well enough in the US. He also expressed great interest in creating more Versus series games with other companies.
“I would love to do more vs. series, more Marvel vs. Capcom 2 types of games,” Niitsuma said in the 2010 interview. “There’s all these opportunities to work with other companies, see what we can do with them. There are so many game companies I would love to work with.”
“If sales are really good (for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars), then you could see an announcement this year,” Niitsuma said at the end of the interview.
Funnily enough, just a few months later in April 2010, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds will be officially announced. It would be released on February 15, 2011, and the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 update would follow that November.
Capcom later noted that they already had plans for the MvC3 reveal early in the development process and even before they had everything ready to bring Tatsunoko vs. Capcom to the west, but one might even see this as further evidence that something is already being developed right now.
Ironically, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom didn’t do as well as Capcom would have hoped in the sales department, and we still saw the announcement of another title in the Versus series in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. In 2012, former Capcom USA SVP Kristian Svensson did not provide actual sales figures for TvC, but painted a clearer picture of how it was performing on the sales front.
“Investor relations has never released official numbers,” Svensson began in his 2012 post on the old Capcom Unity forum. “Let’s just say the performance wasn’t close to any of the Street Fighter 4s or Marvel vs. Capcoms and let’s leave it at that. I wish it had caught a little more fire than it did (and the game was as good as it was, it really deserved it), but ultimately I’m not happy with the performance in North America.”
With a new compilation featuring seven classic titles, Capcom’s developers are expressing a lot of interest in creating new crossover games, Marvel is fully on board with Capcom to make the compilation, and recent comments from the developers sound similar to what we saw the previous day’s announcement of a big game, it feels like the odds for a brand new Marvel vs. Capcom game are better than they’ve potentially ever been in history.
However, we’ll just have to wait and see how things pan out, but for the first time in a very long time, it’s good that MvC fans have some hope.
