Mega Man Legends 3 cancellation sparks fan controversy

Capcom's cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 was bound to cue some complaints from the fan base, but a mixed PR response has left some fans angry and the future of the character in doubt.

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There's probably no right way to nix the sequel to a beloved cult franchise, but Capcom's recent mixed messages regarding the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 certainly haven't helped the company's cause. Comments made by Capcom Europe further attracted negative attention from spurned fans.

A Capcom Europe tweet seemed to claim that the response to the dev room, a community project meant to get fans involved in creating and choosing assets, was too weak to press on with the project. "Unfortunately so few fans took part in the creation of the game," the tweet read. "It was felt the project was not worthwhile."

Disappointed fans took this to mean they were being blamed. Many pointed out that the also-canceled Prototype Version was meant to gauge interest, and expressed intent to purchase it to show their support. Some snarkily pointed to Capcom's own dev room video, which says participation in the dev room was not expected--"Of course, it's OK to just hang back and watch too!"

The rep has since clarified that it meant Capcom itself didn't do enough to spur interest in the dev room initiative. Still, the damage had been done, and other territories distanced themselves from the comments. Capcom US senior VP Christian Svensson commented in a Capcom Unity thread, "As far as the Capcom Europe thing, I'm not sure what that's about. I do know that the European fanbase for MM in general is far smaller than NA or Japan."

Svensson reassured fans that Mega Man is important to the brand, and says he brought up the response to the cancellation to his bosses in Japan. It is hard to tell how Capcom feels about Mega Man these days, though. The series, and Legends in particular, was the brainchild of Keiji Inafune, who left the company after making some harsh comments about the company and Japanese game development in general.

Since then, both Mega Man Universe and Legends 3 were canceled, and there are currently no announced Mega Man games slated for release from Capcom. They even left him out of the newly-revealed Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, explaining that the character wasn't among the "top requests" from gamers. In spite of fan fervor, it seems Capcom doesn't think the series is popular anymore.

If you're interested in a bit of Internet activism, though, you can Like the "100,000 Strong for Bringing Back Mega Man Legends" group on Facebook. So far it's up to 13,000 members, so it still has quite a bit more to go before it hits its goal number.

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  • reply
    July 22, 2011 12:45 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Mega Man Legends 3 cancellation sparks fan controversy.

    Capcom's cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 was bound to cue some complaints from the fan base, but a mixed PR response has left some fans angry and the future of the character in doubt.

    • reply
      July 22, 2011 12:55 PM

      If they're not going to do it, they should really outsource it to a studio that's interested.

      • reply
        July 22, 2011 2:31 PM

        Capcom isn't going to do that with a huge ip, if the game goes bad, it looks horrible on Capcom (outsourcing ports doesn't count here)

        • reply
          July 22, 2011 2:35 PM

          It wouldn't have been the first time a big studio has done so, even with huge IPs.

    • reply
      July 22, 2011 3:01 PM

      What did they expect when there were weekly updates on the game, heavy participation from rabid fans, then all of the sudden cancel the game? Its not like there was any competition on the 3ds to worry about.

    • reply
      July 24, 2011 7:33 PM

      meh... I'd prefer to see a proper updated Side-scrolling Mega Man anyway.

      Give us a new Mega Man X style game for consoles, enough of this portable stuff.

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