Monday, December 31, 2012

Capcom Has No Interest in a Mega Man FPS


Just about every publisher wants a slice of the Call of Duty audience, as evidenced by them saying “we want the Call of Duty audience.” The phrase is usually associated with your run-of-the-mill first person shooter: style over substance, adrenaline over depth. Pump out a very simple, shallow shooter and you're set to make some dough.

Though in theory it could bring in a pretty penny, this is a path the Mega Man brand will not take. Over at Ask Capcom, Christian Svensson provided the following reply to the likelihood of a Mega Man FPS:  

"An FPS MM is not a concept I would be comfortable with given the current brand situation. It's not something I would advocate."

So for now, we need not worry about the phrase, "we want the Call of Duty audience" correlating with Mega Man. Now, that's not to say an FPS Mega Man wouldn't, nor couldn't work. The popular 8-bit Deathmatch fan-game (above) is a good example of something like that done right. But in today's market, the expectations and perceptions of what an FPS should be... well, it just wouldn't fly. I see it doing more harm to the brand than good, honestly.

But that's just my two cents. What do you think?

Source: Ask Capcom

29 comments:

  1. In before people complain.

    Honestly, I have to agree here. The brand is not in a very good rut right now for an official FPS game. And even then, not everyone is interested in the prospect of one. I myself don't really like FPS games myself, so I'm fine with there not being an official one.

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  2. Personally I wouldn't like a Megaman FPS even if the franchise wasn't in the state it is right now

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  3. I actually like the idea, if said FPS were made first as a Mega Man game and then as a FPS (think Metroid Prime, which has the FPS gameplay, but completely worked around the brand's own concepts).
    But that's not likely to be kept, if they aimed for the Call of Duty audience.

    First of all, for a Mega Man FPS to work, it had to keep the brand's charm and style, but its a charm and style that doesn't go well with the usual FPS audience that wants realism, little to no color, and a macho protagonist.

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  4. Megaman Prime.

    I'd play it.

    Still, I think Megaman would work better as a third person shooter, like Ratchet and Clank.

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  5. Thank the moons. I'd been fearful of such a thing for ages.

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  6. "A MM game is not a concept I would be comfortable with given the current brand situation. It's not something I would advocate."
    Fixed that for you.

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  7. Sven says a lot of things and goes back on them later. i.e. the "Top Men" comments in comparison to the ones last month about nobody wanting to work on the franchise at all after the cancellations.

    I'd take a random hobos word over his at this point.

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  8. Yeah, I was never a fan of first-person shooters, so I am glad it will not be applied here. I wouldn't mind a game where there is free-roaming, but I cannot see this franchise as anything else but a side-scroller.

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  9. Uh... no. A big, huge, in capital letters: NO.

    Megaman has a story of more depth than simple kill-everything-on-sight. I may be saying this because I am not a fan of FPS but in all honestly I do not like the idea.

    MM8bDM is a nice concept, and I do enjoy it, but I would not like something like that in the market. It might attract new people but it would be losing the die-hard fans. And that would be a bigger loss.

    Keep it Legends style if you are going to the 3D world. AKA 3rd person shooter. That is how it should be anyway.

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  10. Doesn't Super Adventure Rockman SORT OF count as an FPS? Granted, it's only when you fight enemies, but still..!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyW8fsmzI8s

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  11. @ Rockman. SO TRUE! haha! XD

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  12. if they released one maybe back in the early to mid 00's then a FPS could have worked. I would have loved to see the origins of Axl in such a way. In today's market, almost everything is OtS shooters, or has that element at some point. Which I think could work in a type of Mega Man game if they worked towards it.

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  13. I think it could be something fun as a side thing to supplement the series, rather than as a "big" entry to revive the franchise or whatever. Kind of like the Soccer game.

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  14. Sven's word is far from definite, but after the crap Capcom pulled with RE, I'm glad that at least one person at Capcom (pick a region) doesn't like the idea.

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  15. wtf

    come on an official megaman fps is a really stupid idea

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  16. For me it depends on how they handled a MM FPS. It might work OK as a new series or an X or Legends spinoff title, provided they kept the series feel intact. I wouldn't buy a reskinned CoD with a MM paint job, but I'd be all over a MM FPS that got the Metroid Prime treatment.

    If they did decide to make one, I would take the game on its own merits.

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  17. COD style Megaman FPS = Bad idea.

    Halo style Megaman FPS = Good idea.

    Halo and Megaman have a lot in common, I promise.

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  18. Metroid Prime and Portal. If you can get a Megaman FPS to fly on those lines more than the CoD copies(yes, that's what most FPS are these days), then it would be a success. God damn it Capcom stop making excuses.

    Also 3rd person shooter is Legends... I wonder if he avoided that subject because of that???

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  19. Also Protodude... It's not 'Capcom has no interest', it's 'Sven has no interest in a Megaman FPS and in no way represents whatever CoJ thinks of it'.

    Seriously. We've been over this multiple times. It's seems Sven has no clue what CoJ think of anything >_>'

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  20. ^
    Sven is the SVP of CoA. The branches collaborate with eachother.

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  21. I actually wrote down a concept for an FPS game about Mega Man.

    It's an open world horror game that takes place on the moon. There are 8 main moon bases all ruled by your former unit who were turned into mad cyborgs against their will. You play as Rock, a cyborg ex-marine turned mercenary, hired as extra security on a smaller base. After a horrible turn of events, you are the only one left on the moon that can stop a plot to turn all robots on Earth under the control of one man.

    As Rock, you have to travel across the surface of the moon and defeat your former unit and find the location of Wily. However, as the moon rotates you end up on the dark side of the moon where you begin to have visions of your brother who died trying to save you during the fatal mission that lead to your augmentations. These visions manifest into reality and your brother begins to stalk you across the moon. You have to fight or flight in order to maintain your sanity and survive the dark hours of the moon.

    Every cutscene will have hammed up acting and ridiculous action movie dialogue. Rock will also make puns based on the weapons he was using whenever he scores a headshot or dismembers another robot.

    It is over the top stupid on purpose.

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  22. Oh that is a relief

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  23. I made this video for you guys blog, happy 2012 or 20XX, kk
    http://youtu.be/Ls244LXjwTI

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  24. To be honest.. I think Megaman FPS is terrible, just saying. I am glad that Capcom has no interest in a Megaman FPS at all. Good job!

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  25. Personally, I can't stand FPS (with very, very few exceptions), so it's encouraging to hear that Capcom won't even consider making a Rockman FPS.

    On the other hand, an FPS done right, a-la the Metroid Prime games, could prove interesting.

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  26. If a MM FPS game is anything like Metroid Prime, then count me in, that series was FAR from "shallow". But personally, I'd prefer a 3rd person shooter with actual aiming mechanics.

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  27. Hell no! A MM FPS is god damn awful! And I seen some fans giving Capcom ideas about an MegaMan Star Force game using the same gameplay from MegaMan Network Transmission...

    A MMSF game that will have gameplay like NT? Not an good idea since MegaMan Star Force is the black sheep of the MegaMan franchise. Not trying to troll here, but an NT style MMSF game would be horrible and make the MM fans hate MegaMan Star Force even more.

    I don't hate MegaMan Star Force, I liked the series, but it's the truth that the Star Force series is the black sheep of the MegaMan franchise and there is absolutely no hope for a MegaMan Star Force 4 as much as some Shooting Star MegaMan fans begged Capcom for a sequel to Star Force 3.

    But Protodude said it himself that there is no hope for a MegaMan Star Force 4. I could be wrong though.

    Maybe an MegaMan X RPG game like Command Mission, but to fix the mistakes in CM would be better than a Star Force 4.

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  28. Fantasy Empress RolinaJanuary 5, 2013 at 4:31 AM

    Well, at least Capcom is sensible enough not to try it. An MM FPS would likely open a floodgate of nerd rage so strong I'd have no choice but to join it.

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  29. @Musashi the Master: Why the random outburst of SF hate? Whether someone wants something or doesn't gives you no right to come in and shoot their hopes down.

    The main problem with Starforce was the same problem that Battle Network had as well as other Megaman titles including Classic, X, Zero and ZX. It didn't have enough development time. There was less than a year between each game with the exception of 3. Doesn't help it also came out a year after BN6. Had Starforce recieved it, it could have definitely been a better project. Starforce 3 was a major improvement over 1 and 2, and it can be attributed to the fact it actually had dev time.

    If the Megaman titles were getting the Dev time they needed, as many modern games are beginning to experience with annual release dates, we wouldn't be in the f*cking rut we are now. It's not enough time, and it wore out the franchise to the state it's in.

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