Capcom Pulls Marvel vs. Capcom From Digital Stores

[Steven Bogos]

Capcom Pulls Marvel vs. Capcom From Digital Stores

After December 17, there will be no way for new customers to purchase DLC for Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3.

Capcom has announced that it will be discontinuing both Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 from Microsoft and Sony's digital storefronts. Both games, as well as all of their respective DLC, will soon be unavailable for purchase. While physical copies will still be available in stores until stock runs out, as soon as the games are pulled from XBLA and PSN, there will be no legitimate means for new customers to obtain DLC for these games.

On PSN, at least, Capcom is slashing 50% off all of the two games' respective DLC packs. Capcom asks us to "Stay tuned for details about any sales on XBLA".

Here is the schedule for when these games and their DLC will become unavailable on each platform:
12/17 for PSN in North America
12/19 for PSN in Europe
12/26 for XBLA globally

Capcom did not offer any explanation behind the takedown, which we will simply interpret as "Capcom being Capcom". The implications on tournament play are unclear, as two characters (Jill and Shuma) will be completely unavailable to new players. Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 released just two years ago, on November 15, 2011.

Source: Capcom Unity [http://www.capcom-unity.com/combofiend/blog/2013/12/13/last-days-for-umvc3-and-mvc2-on-psnxbla-store]

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[Therumancer]

That's interesting, to be honest I kind of wondered how this kind of thing would work out with both Disney and Capcom involved. It's easy to point fingers at Capcom as a gamer, but given what a cash cow Marvel is for Disney I wouldn't be surprised if some of it came down to that end of things. Honestly though I never would have predicted the explosion of a product already on the market this way, but I wasn't banking on ever seeing a "Marvel Vs. Capcom 4".

Looking at the situation with Gazillion and their "Marvel Heroes Online" game and some of the things that have been floating around that community when it comes to licensing characters and such, it occurs to me that Disney might be the culprits, demanding a bigger share of the money due to the increased value of IPs in that game. Allegedly Gazillion winds up having to do a lot of it's pricing based on how much it costs them to get permission to use each specific character they put into the game. Supposedly Nova got delayed so long despite being an initially promised character due to fights with Marvel over the cost of the license after the fact due to some projects they have planned. Putting the character out for the price Marvel wants would lead to him supposedly being twice the price of Spider Man, Deadpool, Or Iron Man who are the most expensive IPs Gazillion got the permission to use... which was kind of unexpected. Of course a lot of this is from in game chat... but it does occur to me that a lot of IPs Marvel/Disney values very highly are present in that crossover game, and if the rumors are true a pre-existing deal might not hold depending on the wording of the contracts.

 

[siveon]

It's official: they don't want our money.

 

[Drauger]

Ok..... now please DC comics remember those awful mk vs dc games? why don't you guys go over there and talk with capcom I heard they also make cross overs and are free at the moment...............

 

[Mister K]

Welcome to digital distribution age. People who are bend over: you!

 

[MrBaskerville]

And so it begins, luckily i have updated all my ps3 games and i have all the good stuff on disc.

They should make the characters free before they dissapear, it really is a shame to lose all this stuff.

 

[yamy]

Most likely some sort of license agreement they had for the characters had ran out and they have to pull it off the shelves before they get sued.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

CAPCOM seems to be making one bad decision after another. This is a huge step backwards.

 

[bafrali]

Meh. People who were willing to buy it would have already bought it by this point so it is understandable.

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't having your game on the market place cost you money? It would make sense to take down a product if it is not selling enough to cover its costs anymore and Capcom can't go around burning money nowadays.

 

[MonkeyPunch]

It is because they have lost the license on this game. That simple.
"Capcom being Capcom"... there's usually always a reason as to why companies do things like this.

Most likely some sort of license agreement they had for the characters had ran out and they have to pull it off the shelves before they get sued.

They won't get sued and they are not pulling anything off the shelves. They are just not allowed to produce more stock and have to cease offering it for download.
The physical copies will still be sold, just that Capcom aren't able to produce any new copies of either title.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

My instincts are telling me two things;

1- I'm hungry, get a sandwich.
2- There is considerably more to this story than first seems apparent. Perhaps on Marvel's end?

 

[Vaccine]

Sounds like their license for Marvel(or even that specific title involving Marvel) ran out?

 

[Dark Knifer]

Guess too many people were recording lets plays.

Or marvel wanted someone else who isn't hated to handle their franchise.

 

[FoolKiller]

Sounds like their license for Marvel(or even that specific title involving Marvel) ran out?

Agreed. Remember those wonderful couch co-op hack and slash games called Marvel: Ultimate Alliance? Those DLC vanished for the same reason. I think that the bigger problem is the way Disney (Marvel) handles its licensing.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Um...okay? This seems really odd and I would like to know more about why this is happening. Until then, I guess I'll go with the licenses running out like most other people are.

 

[Naqel]

is this in preparation for the launch of McC4

It's in preparation for "This Time Seriously Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3".

It's only going to be a minor patch in terms of gameplay, but it'll include all the previous DLC, and a whole new box art that spoilers the future DLC. It also won't be backwards compatible.

 

[Rad Party God]

Well that sucks, no wonder that "Ultimate" edition seems more enticing for new MvC3 players. It's easy to point fingers at the easiest target, in this case Capcom, but also let's consider for a moment that this could be Disney/Marvel's doing too.

Ok..... now please DC comics remember those awful mk vs dc games? why don't you guys go over there and talk with capcom I heard they also make cross overs and are free at the moment...............

As far as I know, there's only 1 MK vs DC and I doubt Injustice counts just because it's the same MK devs and Scorpion is a playable character.

 

[StriderShinryu]

It is because they have lost the license on this game. That simple.
"Capcom being Capcom"... there's usually always a reason as to why companies do things like this.

Most likely some sort of license agreement they had for the characters had ran out and they have to pull it off the shelves before they get sued.

They won't get sued and they are not pulling anything off the shelves. They are just not allowed to produce more stock and have to cease offering it for download.
The physical copies will still be sold, just that Capcom aren't able to produce any new copies of either title.

Bingo.

Sure Capcom makes some dumb decisions from time to time, but does anyone really think they would just stop selling a game on someone elses digital storefront because they have decided they want to stop making money? Come on, that's just dumb.

The licensing issue is why it took so long for MvC3 to even get made in the first place. Capcom needs to have a partnership with Marvel (and now Disney) to even produce the game. It's not solely their property.