It’s the End of the World

Okay, so maybe it’s not the end of the world, but Mega Man Legends fans may treat it that way just the same after they catch wind of today’s news. It seems that no Legends title is safe, whether they’ve been released or not.
First, there is the matter of a PlayStation Network re-release of the original Mega Man Legends game (and possibly its sequel). In short: not happening.

Vice President Christian Svensson explains why in this week’s “Ask Capcom” Q&A.

“For example, there are games in our catalogue that have logos or other things that would be identifiable as other people’s I.P. without permission, and either due to historical litigation or fear of potential future litigation, sometimes we aren’t allowed to use those.

“Other things, like for example you had voicework in the game, but the voice actor… Within the scope of the contract that was there, either the contract is lapsed in terms of its term or the contract never defined that digital distribution was an allowable use for their work etcetera. So voice acting, scores, soundtracks, middleware contracts all have to have the same stuff there.

“In some cases, the company that we did things with is gone, but that doesn’t mean that somebody doesn’t own the rights and couldn’t come after us, so in the name of having to protect ourselves, sometimes these things are not going to be able to be put up again, and in the case of the emulations, we can’t make changes to the content, so there’s no way to just sort of remove it and just have it be up there.

“The net result is, in the case of Legends, unfortunately Legends isn’t going to be able to be up there; it failed an I.P. sweep and a contract check.”

On the upside, if you already own copies of these games, their value has no doubt just multiplied.

But, at least we have Mega Man Legends 3: Prototype Version to look forward to when the Nintendo 3DS eShop launches on June 6th, right?

Yeeeeeeeeah… that would be the other thing.

According to Famitsu, Prototype Version has been delayed. The decision was made as the developers felt the quality of the product could be improved. Hard to fault them for wanting to release the best product they can, disappointing as the delay might be.

Unfortunately, there is no new release date set (and no idea how this may affect the contest yet, if at all; Heat Man will update later if anything changes on that front). Siliconera notes that Capcom USA has yet to make an announcement regarding the delay, but the news came just earlier this morning, and they’re likely just getting into the office right about now.

Suffice to say, it seems unlikely we would be getting it whereas Japan isn’t, especially if it’s an issue of quality.

Source: Siliconera, 2

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