Legends is dead
I am intentionally staying away from all discussion about Mega Man Legends 3's cancellation. I am not getting on AIM or Skype or IRC, I occasionally check Twitter but do not post, and I'm not bothering to look for news for TMMN (what other news would there be?). I have been a part of this community for 14 years now, officially half of my life, and I have many, many memories from it. This doesn't need to be one of them. But here I am anyway, talking about it. I guess I just need to get some things off my chest, or maybe I'm full of myself and feel like my opinion means anything. Fortunately few people know of this journal and fewer bother to read it.
The Mega Man Legends series is dead. We will never have another Legends themed game outside of perhaps some little puzzle game for cell phones, and honestly I don't want them go there either. Hell, even those Servbot cameos they love to throw into other games will now come as teases and insults to everyone who backed Legends 3. Barring unusual circumstances, I am pretty sure I will be stuffed in a coffin before they ever consider making another Legends game again.
The reason Legends is dead is because of what a tremendous burn this turn of events was, and the ugly, ugly scar it has left. And I mean that in essentially a literal sense; a kind of disturbing, hard to look at scar that would make a man seriously consider leaving his afflicted wife unless his devotion to her was near religious (sorry to use a fairly misogynistic comparison). Capcom will not be able to utter Mega Man Legends again without everyone having to look at this scar. The very next Mega Man game itself will be looked at with harsh judgment and skepticism, even if it's not a Legends game. Throwing out an X9 for the sake of ironing things over isn't going to work well. Only time will soften this blow. How much, I am not sure, but it will take time, and it will take an exceptionally good Mega Man game. With the 25th anniversary a year and a half away, it's pretty awful timing.
That all being said, the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 is completely rational. The game was never destined to sell well, a combination of its lineage and being on the 3DS (the 3DS factor is probably more of a reason than Capcom is owning up to, I will post on this specifically a little later). I can picture Christian Svensson sitting back at a meeting and acknowledging that Legends 3 ought to be axed. This is not because I think Christian is a "bad man," but because from what I know about him and the time I've talked to him, he is a completely rational business man. In that position you cannot get emotionally invested in a game because following your emotions tends to cause you to make bad decisions.
Now that being said, I think they should have pushed forward with the game anyway. By all accounts it was probably destined to bomb. But there is profit to be made from games besides money. There is good will, for example. Putting together a high profile game for the fans is a good will story that would generate a lot of respect for Capcom. The backlash to the game's cancellation is a bit overblown; not because the cancellation isn't such a big deal but because it's partially made up of people who don't care about Legends, but care about any opportunity to knock Capcom. But it is true that you don't need to be a Legends fan for this to look bad.
Another profit is diversity. Successful developers tend to have a diverse range of products. This is because you can never know where the next big hit will come from. A game that is merely a cult hit today could lead to a phenomenon in the following years. For now, Capcom is putting most of their eggs into Resident Evil and fighters, and these will only go so far before people get burned out on them. RE is already showing signs of it with how people reacted to 5. Capcom's success in fighters is a bit more recent, but they have competition there as well. The latest Mortal Kombat is still selling strong because the developers realized they had to get back to the game's basic arcade roots. As more developers realize the importance of this competition will only increase. Not sure what else there is. Dragon's Dogma looks promising but it will need to be tested like all original titles. DmC also walks on a knife's edge with its fanbase. Asura's Wrath I am certain will bomb. It may sell over a million thanks to hype and promotion, but it will fall in the bargain bin as fast as Enslaved did.
I also think there is some profit in terms of competency. With the public cancellation of two games in the same year, people have to be looking at Capcom with curiosity. What's going on over there? Why do they keep cancelling games, don't they know what they're doing? This should be really evident with Mega Man Universe, which was, at its core, a remake of Mega Man 2, the most well known and best selling Mega Man game of all time. How do you take Mega Man 2 and screw it up to the point you can't go further with it? It makes Capcom look very foolish.
If anything really burns me, it is that Legends 3 is cancelled while Nazo Waku Mansion is still going ahead. This game looks terrible. Granted, I'm sure it cost a bit less to develop despite the amount of voice talent attached to it. But watching the trailer, it looks like complete nonsense. It's way too bizarre and will probably not release in the west (it would only appeal to the niche market that enjoys weird Japanese stuff). Even then, I can't imagine many Japanese 3DS owners rushing to pick this up... what is it even? A minigame collection surrounding sound gimmicks? Initially I thought it was going to be some kind of adventure game in the same vein as Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick. But watching this trailer makes me a lot more wary of it.
Anyway, those are my thoughts of the aftermath therein. I prefer to post this sort of stuff here rather than TMMN because I don't think it's the right tone for TMMN. I have nothing against being publicly critical of Capcom, despite knowing people who work there and considering them friends (it is not really their fault anyway). But it is the fans I truly serve, not Capcom. Nevertheless, people come to TMMN for news and content, not to be assaulted with my analysis and opinions, which are no more true than anyone else.
The Mega Man Legends series is dead. We will never have another Legends themed game outside of perhaps some little puzzle game for cell phones, and honestly I don't want them go there either. Hell, even those Servbot cameos they love to throw into other games will now come as teases and insults to everyone who backed Legends 3. Barring unusual circumstances, I am pretty sure I will be stuffed in a coffin before they ever consider making another Legends game again.
The reason Legends is dead is because of what a tremendous burn this turn of events was, and the ugly, ugly scar it has left. And I mean that in essentially a literal sense; a kind of disturbing, hard to look at scar that would make a man seriously consider leaving his afflicted wife unless his devotion to her was near religious (sorry to use a fairly misogynistic comparison). Capcom will not be able to utter Mega Man Legends again without everyone having to look at this scar. The very next Mega Man game itself will be looked at with harsh judgment and skepticism, even if it's not a Legends game. Throwing out an X9 for the sake of ironing things over isn't going to work well. Only time will soften this blow. How much, I am not sure, but it will take time, and it will take an exceptionally good Mega Man game. With the 25th anniversary a year and a half away, it's pretty awful timing.
That all being said, the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 is completely rational. The game was never destined to sell well, a combination of its lineage and being on the 3DS (the 3DS factor is probably more of a reason than Capcom is owning up to, I will post on this specifically a little later). I can picture Christian Svensson sitting back at a meeting and acknowledging that Legends 3 ought to be axed. This is not because I think Christian is a "bad man," but because from what I know about him and the time I've talked to him, he is a completely rational business man. In that position you cannot get emotionally invested in a game because following your emotions tends to cause you to make bad decisions.
Now that being said, I think they should have pushed forward with the game anyway. By all accounts it was probably destined to bomb. But there is profit to be made from games besides money. There is good will, for example. Putting together a high profile game for the fans is a good will story that would generate a lot of respect for Capcom. The backlash to the game's cancellation is a bit overblown; not because the cancellation isn't such a big deal but because it's partially made up of people who don't care about Legends, but care about any opportunity to knock Capcom. But it is true that you don't need to be a Legends fan for this to look bad.
Another profit is diversity. Successful developers tend to have a diverse range of products. This is because you can never know where the next big hit will come from. A game that is merely a cult hit today could lead to a phenomenon in the following years. For now, Capcom is putting most of their eggs into Resident Evil and fighters, and these will only go so far before people get burned out on them. RE is already showing signs of it with how people reacted to 5. Capcom's success in fighters is a bit more recent, but they have competition there as well. The latest Mortal Kombat is still selling strong because the developers realized they had to get back to the game's basic arcade roots. As more developers realize the importance of this competition will only increase. Not sure what else there is. Dragon's Dogma looks promising but it will need to be tested like all original titles. DmC also walks on a knife's edge with its fanbase. Asura's Wrath I am certain will bomb. It may sell over a million thanks to hype and promotion, but it will fall in the bargain bin as fast as Enslaved did.
I also think there is some profit in terms of competency. With the public cancellation of two games in the same year, people have to be looking at Capcom with curiosity. What's going on over there? Why do they keep cancelling games, don't they know what they're doing? This should be really evident with Mega Man Universe, which was, at its core, a remake of Mega Man 2, the most well known and best selling Mega Man game of all time. How do you take Mega Man 2 and screw it up to the point you can't go further with it? It makes Capcom look very foolish.
If anything really burns me, it is that Legends 3 is cancelled while Nazo Waku Mansion is still going ahead. This game looks terrible. Granted, I'm sure it cost a bit less to develop despite the amount of voice talent attached to it. But watching the trailer, it looks like complete nonsense. It's way too bizarre and will probably not release in the west (it would only appeal to the niche market that enjoys weird Japanese stuff). Even then, I can't imagine many Japanese 3DS owners rushing to pick this up... what is it even? A minigame collection surrounding sound gimmicks? Initially I thought it was going to be some kind of adventure game in the same vein as Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick. But watching this trailer makes me a lot more wary of it.
Anyway, those are my thoughts of the aftermath therein. I prefer to post this sort of stuff here rather than TMMN because I don't think it's the right tone for TMMN. I have nothing against being publicly critical of Capcom, despite knowing people who work there and considering them friends (it is not really their fault anyway). But it is the fans I truly serve, not Capcom. Nevertheless, people come to TMMN for news and content, not to be assaulted with my analysis and opinions, which are no more true than anyone else.