It’s an exciting time to be a Marvel vs. Capcom fan. After years of silence, licensing challenges, and a seemingly rocky relationship between Marvel and Capcom that painted a dire picture for the franchise, Marvel is back with its next installment. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
For a long time, the public was convinced that Marvel vs. Capcom would never officially return, but against all odds, the two companies came together again to not only work together, but also bring back seven classic titles that had long disappeared from modern platforms. This, plus several other elements, clues, and direct word from the developers (both recent and older), make it clear that the chances of a new Marvel vs. Capcom game (or what many are calling Marvel vs. Capcom 4) actually arriving are now higher than ever before.
The Marvel vs. Capcom and Versus series are popular among fans and competitors in the fighting game community.
Despite there currently being no active new games on the market, players around the world have kept these titles alive in a variety of ways, from finding better ways to play older games against each other online, to adding to games like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite via PC mods, to continuing to create content that delves not only into the details of these games but also the landscape surrounding them and the potential for new games to be made.
In terms of mainline titles in the series, the last time we saw a completely new Marvel vs. Capcom game was back 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 poor visual design, a lack of major staple characters due to licensing conflicts with X-Men and Fantastic Four characters, and a 2v2 combat format that deviated from the traditional 3v3 with assists formula that people know and love.
That means the last real solid entry in the series that people took seriously competitively (and still actively play) was 2011’s Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Needless to say, it’s probably too late at this point for a genuine new entry in the series.
Luckily, things are finally starting to turn around on that front, and you don’t have to look far to see signs of this. First, as mentioned above, the release of the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom collection (which includes 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 re-release of The Punisher) is a clear indication that both Marvel and Capcom are at least willing to work together again and value the franchise.
This alone has fans speculating that a new series may be in the works, but that’s not all. Street Fighter 6 developers also recently shared further insight. The company spoke about Capcom’s latest crossover with Marvel and SNK, not only expressing a strong desire for new collaborative games with these companies, but also explaining that the latest Marvel vs. Capcom and Capcom vs. SNK titles will be available depending on fan interest in their current and upcoming products, such as the Marvel vs. Capcom Collection.
“The development team at Capcom has big dreams,” Street Fighter 6 producer Shuhei Matsumoto told Dexerto in a recent interview discussing the possibility of new crossover games. “There may be a chance we can do a new Marvel vs. Capcom game. There may be a chance we can do a new SNK game based on Capcom.”
“I don’t know, but if that were to happen, it would take time and effort to make it happen. [to] We can still create and release those types of games, but what we can do now in the short term is at least reintroduce these older legacy games to new audiences who may not have had a chance to play them because they weren’t released on modern platforms.
“At least what we can do now is show that these series exist. We love these games, we hope you do too, and in the future, once people become familiar with these series, there may be an opportunity to make bigger games,” Matsumoto concluded.
Matsumoto’s words are already encouraging in themselves, but we all know that Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection will be a success. Even though there is no official release date yet, it is already topping the sales charts. — The developer’s comments are similar to those of Ryota Niitsume, a former Marvel vs. Capcom and Versus series game developer, during another key period in Capcom’s history.
In January 2010, Niitsuma told Kotaku that Capcom may announce a new Versus game. He expressed a strong interest in collaborating with other companies to make more Versus series games if their then-latest game, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars, sold well enough in the US.
“I’d like to do more fighting series, or Marvel vs. Capcom 2 type games,” Niitsuma said in an interview in 2010. “There’s a lot of potential to collaborate with other companies and see what we can do together, and there are a lot of game companies I’d like to work with.”
“If sales (of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars) are really good, I think we’ll be able to announce it this year,” Niitsuma said at the end of the interview.
Interestingly, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds was officially announced just a few months later, in April 2010. It was released on February 15, 2011, followed by the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 update in November.
Capcom later revealed that they already had plans to reveal MvC3 early on in the development process, even before all the preparations were in place to bring Tatsunoko vs. Capcom to the West, but this could be seen as further evidence that something is already in the works right now.
Ironically, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom did not sell as well as Capcom had hoped, but still led to the announcement of another Versus series title, Marvel vs. Capcom 3. In 2012, former Capcom USA senior vice president Christian Svensson would not reveal actual sales figures for TvC, but said: He painted a clearer picture of his sales performance..
“Investor Relations has never released official numbers,” Svensson began in a 2012 post on the old Capcom Unity forum, “simply say that the performance was nowhere near that of either Street Fighter 4 or Marvel vs. Capcom. I would have liked it to have been a bit more popular (and it really was, because the game was good), but ultimately I’m not happy with how it performed in North America.”
With a new compilation featuring seven classic titles on the way, Capcom developers showing great interest in creating a new crossover game, Marvel being all-in on working with Capcom to create the compilation, and recent developer comments that seem similar to what we’ve heard in the days leading up to a big game announcement, it feels like an all-new Marvel vs. Capcom game is more likely than it’s ever been in history.
That being said, we’ll just have to wait and see how things unfold, but it’s been a while since MvC fans have had any hope.
