Monday, September 12, 2011

Slim Chance Prototype Version Will Ever Release

Chris Hoffman's tell-all Mega Man Legends 3 Prototype Version Q&A brought forth some amazing details. For in Hoffman's quest to shine light on the ill-fated game, a deeper revelation dawned: Prototype Version was complete. The "prologue" boasted over three hours of high quality content -- environments to explore, intractable NPCs, and ten playable missions. For all intents and purposes, this puppy was ready for launch. 

With the cat out of the bag, fans quickly took to the Ask Capcom forums demanding the release of the finished Prototype. A few short hours ago, Capcom's Christian Svensson stepped in to comment:
"Sorry guys, but I'd bet the chances of the prototype ever materializing are extremely slim. As always, I do appreciate the passion and desire though."

... and fans continue to exist in torment as Capcom continues to withhold knowledge and reasoning behind this decision.

The only official reasoning behind Prototype's failure to launch is supposedly due to the game failing to meet certain (and unspecified) criteria -- criteria speculated to be the game's quality, or lack thereof. Hoffman's recollection of Prototype, however, quickly disproved these assumptions: the game was generally bug free, polished, and pretty darn fun.

Nearly two months since that fateful night, we're still trying to fathom the what and why.

If your passion for Legends 3 is strong, and you'd like to bet against Sven, head on down to Ask Capcom. Please represent our community respectfully. I understand you're pretty flustered, but if you intend to support Mega Man Legends 3 in any way, do so appropriately and with class.

36 comments:

  1. Keep in mind that while he may be Capcom USA's top dog, he said "I'd bet."

    That is not a convincing, nor definitive answer.

    Well, convincing if you allow it yourself to be.

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  2. So then... there is nothing we can do about it? Is this it? That's terrible. The demise of Mega Man Legends/Dash 3 continues...

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  3. If they bet with their precious money now, i believe we never get to see any bit of it.After all what is more important than these green papers?

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  4. @First Anon: Keep annoying them about it. The game's fanbase has gained too much momentum from the announcement of its creation to easily die.

    3DS sales are up and it's cheaper. The 3DS is geting a second circle pad. The library is slightly empty at the moment.Your releasing Monster Hunter, a game that'll surely increase sales and the Capcom fanbase, for the system. Hoffman approved of it, meaning many a Nintendo fan will approve of it.

    Capcom.... Your profit margins slowly increasing and if you want new controls for it Nintendo's given them to you....

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  5. 1. A corporate PR guy will never EVER say no. You could ask him if the sky was green and he'd say that there's a slim chance it could be. It's called defensive communication.

    2. Now more than ever I'm convinced that the "criteria" not met was more due to some internal infighting at Capcom in the wake of Keiji Inafune (and maybe even Ben Judd) leaving.

    We'd like think of such events as unrelated but having worked in several software companies in my life, one or two significant figures leaving a company like that causes ripples that can last for a few years.

    When a guy like Inafune leaves it's not because the right decisions are being made and that Capcom shares his vision, things are off the rails there with a lot of bad decision making going on. In typical fashion they are less trusting of new marketing techniques (downloadable content, community created content) and are basically "turtling" back into an older mode of operation. This is a sign of fear and should not be ignored by fans.

    I'm sure someone at Capcom thinks what they are doing is playing it safe in a tough economy, as outsiders though we can take a more critical look and see some of these recent activities as more desperate moves such as selling extra game content as a whole new title (low development cost/high profit return) or fearing a new Nintendo platform that is mostly unsupported by third party developers.

    I'm sure Capcom will survive, but in 2011 they have done a lot of damage to themselves. The effects of which can last a long, long time.

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  6. Yeah, and the weather will produce meatballs tomorrow. Slim chance in Capcom speak=Never. I mean, why? Why, Capcom, as a company who seeks profit, would you refuse profit? I mean, from the stories (well one) of what PV was like, you would've gotten more money from a little effort (which seems to be your favorite way of existing), and not to mention that the 3DS has a price drop now. STOP BEING STUPID AND RELEASE THE DANG GAME ALREADY!!

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  7. It's so frustrating.

    I freaking hate Capcom. They haven't done anything right for a long time, and with this, they've lost me as a customer.

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  8. capcom is digging a hole. to bury mega man in. so long blue bomber. your fate is now left to be used as a ploy to get your fans to play other games such as the MvC series. such a cruel fate this is. for someone to be playing marvel vs capcom 4 sometime in the future, only to say "who is the robot?".

    oh well, there's some pretty good mega man fan games out there. if capcan't, the fans can!

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  9. We only have one guys word to go on that played it for a bit. Perhaps the bug testers found some sort of critical game crashing bug in the engine that wouldn't be noticed in casual play.

    It's really the only thing I can think of.

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  10. @ 1st Anon:

    A slow and painful death indeed.

    .....

    FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE SENSIBLE STOP THIS MADNESS!!

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  11. That title actually sounded positive to me.

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  12. Why is everyone so butthurt here? We learned a long time ago that it would never be released, so why do you think there's even a possibility?

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  13. alrighty guys

    as some of the other people here have said, keep bothering capcom. do not bother them. bothering means we're doing it just for the hell of it, which we arent. we are telling them off. we SHOULD be telling them off, and we should be getting some sort of response. sure, UMVC3 is going to be good, so is the possible new MH game, but that isnt what the majority wants. every single person here should not be saying 'release legends'. no, all of you SHOULD be saying is 'why arent you telling us what happened'. why do we want the game released if we dont know why it got canceled in the first place?

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  14. This issue died months ago. I love how people like to revive it whenever possible. /sarcasm.

    It's not going to be released. Get over it.

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  15. SO. DISAPPOINTMENT,

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  16. Sven was the same guy who said "Maybe yes, maybe not" in regards to Ace Attorney Investigations 2/Gyakuten Kenji 2. And it seems pretty clear that us western folk won't be getting it either...

    So, SO frustrated...

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  17. All anons are missing the point:

    THEY ARE SITTING ON A FINISHED PRODUCT.

    THERE IS NO REASON FOR THEM NOT TO RELEASE IT.

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  18. @Tom

    Again we only have ONE man's word who played PART of demo for a SHORT amount of time as to how complete it was. Like stated previously that doesn't mean it was fully debugged and Capcom might have ran into something they didn't fell they could fix in a reasonable amount of time.

    This is not rocket science people.

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  19. @Tom
    Not all the anons bro.The ones you talk about are the 'realist' bunch who likes to be screwed again and again and manages to get over it somehow.

    People love megaman much to not let it go easily.Get over it

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  20. @ Last Anon.
    It is rocket science since they were making a rocket to save Mega :]

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  21. @ Sir "This is not rocket science people"

    Are you new to people who play Capcom games? Because you seem to be. "Maybe they ran into a bug they didn't have enough time to fix". The heck? That's as lame of an excuse as Sven's "slim chance". The debug mode is obtained when you CLEAR IT. And our dear friend who PLAYED it got to talk about it. So I'd say he played more than enough to give a valid opinion. Capcom =/= a bunch of indie game makers, if they'd run into a bug, they'd fixed it on the several delays they placed on the game's now-nonexistant release. Capcom screwed it's fans over because that's what they do best. Other franchises of theirs are examples of this. And excluding that, we can easily assume that if it WAS a bug, it'd be included in the debug mode. We know nothing of it, so a "fix" would be removing whatever they were planning and making the debug more limited. If the game was as good as it looked, we wouldn't have had to worry about that.

    This is not rocket science. :D

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  22. lol, i'm just surprised they didn't decide to copy and paste mega man legends 1 and 2 to make 3. THEY DID IT WITH MEGA MAN 1-6!

    why else do you think they were able to churn out a game a year? look up the similarities between the games. you'd be more than surprised. and let's not forget the Guns 'n' Roses ripoffs for the X series. Neon Tiger would like to have a word with Slash (the) Beast (ly guitar player).

    capcom knows how to easily make a game. need i remind you all that MVC3 is basicly TVC 2.0?

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  23. Guys. Guys. Duke Nukem Forever was released.

    ...Though let's hope MML3 wouldn't be sucky if it were resumed.

    BUT STILL. The point remains that there is always hope. Don't tell us to shut up!

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  24. what does the e shop have? nothing thats a must have. this would have been the game

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  25. From what Hoffman said, I doubt it would be bad like Duke Nukem Forever. Based on what was shown (29% of the game completed), I'd say the completed game would be close or equal to a Zelda/Metroid game in quality.

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  26. I just don't get it.

    Capcom claims it was lack of interest, but so many people have shown support! I thought the devroom was getting amazing numbers.

    Would it really have cost them THAT much to put the demo out? Maybe they were afraid we'd be even more angry if we had to pay for the demo and didn't get the full game.

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  27. Capcom...
    Works on game everyone wanted... pulls out last minute.

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  28. @capcom knows how to easily make a game. need i remind you all that MVC3 is basicly TVC 2.0?

    yeah because you know tekken and street fighter are comparable because their both fighters

    oh and while your at it why dont you say call of duty and halo are the exact same game to prove how retarded you sound

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  29. @Mega Rock.exe: Scumbag Capcom*

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  30. @ Kips: You're missing the point. A common criticism of MvC3 that I've noticed are complaints of how MvC3 plays more like TvC instead of the previous MvC games.

    Hell, I remember a lot of people talking about how playing TvC to practice before the release of MvC3 was recommended over practicing with MvC 1 or 2.

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  31. @ Sir Capcom = Copypaste
    ...Seriously? "They did it with MegaMan 1-6"? It was the NES. Limited technology. What made the games good was the fact they retained the same formula while introducing new things with every game. If they were copypaste games, we'd have seen MegaMan sliding even on non-ice floors, not charging, not using Rush, not using Items, no two castles, no Beat...
    Need I go on?
    Besides, do you even know how much work it'd take to adapt Legends 1-2 coding for the 3DS, upgrading graphics, adding new gameplay gimmicks, etc? I don't want to defend Capcom, but the issue is them not releasing a game which looked like it'd sell, was long-waited by the fans, and also was FINISHED and apparently FUN.

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  32. What is Capcom? A miserable little pile of secrets! They don't say why the game was cancelled and didn't even bothered to released the Prototype like they said they would! Inafune had to persist just to start development, and the staff put a lot of work on it, but the high-ups don't give crap-com about it and the fans.

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  33. Wow... Capcom really REALLY doesn't want us to have this, do they? It's like they see Mega Man Legends 3 as a big burden, something better left buried deep into the ground never to be dug up again. I think we deserve at least a proper explanation. I want to know EXACTLY why they refuse to release the prototype.

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  34. Maybe their criteria is fans find the MM9 and MM10 secrets? *shot*

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