Capcom Opens Up to IGN About SFxMM and the Blue Bomber’s Future

Capcom caused quite a stir with the announcement of Street Fighter X Mega Man, the free-to-download PC game designed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of both respective franchises, and right on top of things is IGN, who discuss with Capcom Senior Vice President Christian Svensson and Senior Community Manager Brett Elston the details surrounding the development of the title, more titles on Virtual Console, and their other work with Mega Man after Cancellation Day last year.
Right off the bat, Svensson gets down to what the feelings were around the office following the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3, which itself was preceded by the cancellation of their other big Blue Bomber title of the time, Mega Man Universe:

“After the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 and Universe, there was a cooling down period where even discussing the prospect of a Mega Man title was difficult. The wounds were still fresh for us (just as they were for fans). We’re at a point now where it’s not as painful and constructive discussions are happening again.”

The article goes on to explain the problem Capcom ran into with oversaturating the market with Mega Man games, and on how the Street Fighter X Mega Man project came about:

This new ‘cross’ entry is a fascinating project, as it’s not even something Capcom sought out. At EVO 2012, SF X Mega Man developer Seow Zong Hui approached Svensson, brandishing a laptop with a couple demo levels operational. Sensing an opportunity to do something special, Svensson quickly assembled a few key Mega Man fans from the Capcom office, including senior community manager Brett Elston, as a sanity check, to make sure what Zong Hui had developed was as good as it seemed. It was, and Capcom brought in some of its resources to assist in the game’s development.

As for why the game is only available as a PC download, there are a few reasons, though they express the possibility of a console release at a later date:

The selection of the PC as the distribution platform was fairly simple considering Zong Hui was not a licensed console developer. The implications and costs associated with attempting to arrange that would be incredibly steep, and Capcom was eager to keep this project free for fans. Svensson admits that it might be possible to release the game on other open platforms, but focusing on just one was necessary to make the December 17 launch.

Looking beyond the anniversary tie-in, the off-again, on-again subject of a robot reboot came up. In addition to Svensson’s thoughts on the matter of dealing with the background of a seven-series franchise, Elston added, “If you’re worried about an overly gritty “M” rated, third person cover-based shooter, don’t be.”

For more of Svensson’s thoughts on working with Hui on the game and Mega Man‘s future, check out the full article over at IGN.

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