Capcom Pulls Marvel vs. Capcom From Digital Stores

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
24,759
0
0
Dark Knifer said:
Guess too many people were recording lets plays.

Or marvel wanted someone else who isn't hated to handle their franchise.
Someone on the roster became too popular. Since people actually liked him/her, Capcom has been working extra hard to excise them from the franchise.

Normally, I'd blame licensing, but this is Capcom we're talking about.
 

Baresark

New member
Dec 19, 2010
3,908
0
0
This is downright amusing. Leave it to Capcom to use digital distribution wrong. The point is the game never has to disappear. There is no physical limitation, discs don't need to be made. Well, I'll chalk this up to Capcom being a Japanese company who fears digital distribution.
 

Dragonbums

Indulge in it's whiffy sensation
May 9, 2013
3,307
0
0
I think I'm going to go with what some people have stated on here and agree that this more than likely has a lot to do with Marvel/Disney licensing issues than Capcom just being stupid and taking the game down for no reason.
 

The Rogue Wolf

Stealthy Carnivore
Legacy
Nov 25, 2007
16,302
8,778
118
Stalking the Digital Tundra
Gender
✅
Yeah, guys, c'mon. We know how goofy licensing processes can be, and while it might be funny to imagine Capcom throwing a hissy fit and saying "We hate you guys so much that we don't even want your money anymore", I promise you that the company is not in fact run by the Umbrella Corporation.
 

Pebkio

The Purple Mage
Nov 9, 2009
780
0
0
No no! I know what this is! Reality finally bent to the rules of Youtube. Some bumble-fuck company in India took MvC for their own in a claim against some video somewhere. The universe suddenly warped and now Rising Sun Farts owns the digital rights.
 

Naeras

New member
Mar 1, 2011
989
0
0
Sounds like a licensing thing. There's no reason why they'd remove all sales of any Marvel-related content otherwise.
 

shrekfan246

Not actually a Japanese pop star
May 26, 2011
6,374
0
0
Lieju said:
rhizhim said:
siveon said:
It's official: they don't want our money.
no, they want our money by artificial scarcity...
How would that work, if they stop selling them?
The same way it 'worked' for Xenoblade Chronicles and the Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii; Production was halted for a long time and then new copies hit the market again at an extra high premium.

bafrali said:
Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't having your game on the market place cost you money?
The physical market, yes. The digital market doesn't have any recurring production costs or the like, however. Companies might have to pay for Sony/Microsoft to host their content on their respective services, but I can't imagine even that would cost very much.

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.
Well, and that's generally what happens. After a few years, production on titles stops and then your only chance at finding them is used and/or online. It's a bit more odd for a publisher to pull the digital versions as well, however, which is why as many other posters have mentioned, it seems like it might be a case of Marvel/Disney holding the licensing rights above Capcom's head and Capcom being unwilling to renew.

Or they could be gearing the market up for the next MvC game. Either is plausible.
 

Roxas1359

Burn, Burn it All!
Aug 8, 2009
33,758
1
0
shrekfan246 said:
The same way it 'worked' for Xenoblade Chronicles and the Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii; Production was halted for a long time and then new copies hit the market again at an extra high premium.
Well the high premium for it in the US was also because in the US GameStop has exclusive rights to distribution of Xenoblade Chronicles. So they get the reprinted copies from Nintendo, and then sell them for a mint as being used, in this case $80-$90 for a "used" copy of the game.
Although I got lucky and managed to get a copy from eBay (on of the original prints) with the manual and reversible cover art for only $50. :D
 

Trishbot

New member
May 10, 2011
1,318
0
0
Welcome to the digital "future", where even on-disc "DLC" of entire playable characters in the roster will soon be made unavailable for future players, leaving the game forever incomplete to new players a mere two years after release.

It sucks. And I expect this to start being a trend more and more as developers migrate from the "old" systems to the "new" ones, where giant chunks of a game (from characters to missions to levels) will be simply turned off so future generations can't enjoy them the way they were meant to be enjoyed.

Even more baffling, even IF it's Marvel yanking back the license (probably), that doesn't explain Capcom pulling their Capcom-only characters and costumes (why yank Jill? Capcom owns her!)
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

New member
Aug 28, 2008
4,696
0
0
This is like that southpark episode where cartman doesn't let people in his amusement park. What this tells us is that capcom are a bunch of clowns.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
24,759
0
0
Lieju said:
How would that work, if they stop selling them?
Evidently, they're having a sale on the games before they're pulled for at lease one of the services. That in itself would do it. Clearing the market then announcing a sequel in the not too distant future is another way they could. The whole 'if you want it you better get it fast' thing leaves a strong mark on the psyche of the consumer.

I'm a fan of OCcam's Razor, though, and I do think licensing is more likely the issue.

bafrali said:
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.
On the same theme, it's extremely unlikely that this is the only game series costing them that kind of money. Are you seriously going to tell me Rocketmen: Axis of Evil is more popular than MVC 2 AND 3?

There are effectively dead franchises still up on XBLA and PSN right now, so it's really hard to buy into this notion that they're 'burning money' on one specific franchise alone.

The Rogue Wolf said:
Yeah, guys, c'mon. We know how goofy licensing processes can be, and while it might be funny to imagine Capcom throwing a hissy fit and saying "We hate you guys so much that we don't even want your money anymore", I promise you that the company is not in fact run by the Umbrella Corporation.
Well, of course not. It's not like they'd name the bad guys in RE after themselves. They merely patterned the bad guys after themselves. You don't remember the time they unleashed zombies on Japan?
 

LiquidGrape

New member
Sep 10, 2008
1,336
0
0
"Capcom being Capcom"?

Really?

I realise it might just have been intended as comedic flavour, but it doesn't strike me as awfully professional to throw that out there. There are people in this very thread who seem to echo that sentiment, so way to encourage that kind of unsubstantiated speculation, I guess.
 

LysanderNemoinis

Noble and oppressed Kekistani
Nov 8, 2010
468
0
0
Elias Islas Rodriguez said:
MrBaskerville said:
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 disappear, it really is a shame to lose all this stuff.
Of course they aint giving them away for free, theyre Capcom....

In the other hand, it isnt starting, its a reality, the digital market will place artificial barriers over which content can be accessed, the mere fact of accepting the terms and services of your console means that you DO NOT OWN ANYTHING, the big companies own it, and they can take it away from you whenever they can without giving you any reason for it, you only play their games because they WANT YOU TO THINK YOU OWN THEM until the digital overrides the physical content, no one will have the rights to anything, GAMES WILL BECOME NOTHING BUT CONSUMABLE DISPOSABLE PRODUCTS. PACKED, LABELED AND SOLD TO BRAINWASHED PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THEY ARE FREE... WHO BELIEVE THEY HAVE A CHOICE.... Videogames wont be enjoyed.... THEY WILL BE CONSUMED AND DISPOSED, like.... condoms....
You ALL dont see the big picture. Youtube for instance. Do you think those IP ID bots are just a big epic fail?? Youtube "shooting himself in the foot"? NOOO0O0O0O0O0O0O.... IT IS AN EXPERIMENT, A BETA (or alpha)... A TEST... THEY ARE TESTING THE ULTIMATE AUTOMATIC CENSORSHIP SYSTEM RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES, EVERY DAY MAKING IT A BIT BETTER, PREPARING IT... FOR THE TIME GOOGLE DECIDES TO TAKE CONTROL.
AND YOU WILL ALL JUST STAY, HERE, WATCHING HOW IT HAPPENS AND LETTING IT HAPPEN, COMPLAINING ABOUT IT LIKE IT MADE ANY DIFFERENCE :p

And this post will be forgotten, and you wont care, you will go on with your lives. And the changes will come slowly, until one day, you wake up and you watch the prison that has been build around you, and youll die in that prison, and so your children, and the sons of your children, on and on....

BRACE YOURSELVES.


(i went a bit off topic, but whatever, i hope the Escapist doesnt erase this post, in the end, it is a simple truth, one we all should already know about, but we just dont want to face it.... Also thats just their plan, its complicated, they dont want to forbid us from asking the questions, or enjoying our lives, they want to make us dont want to ask such questions, they want to make us believe were happy).

I couldn't have said it better myself, albeit a bit less ranty. This is what happens when we allow the "digital is the future" mindset to take hold. The cloud is not the future, it is not good for the consumer, and all it really is is a way to screw people over. Companies can just decide to yank material and aside from piracy (which I don't believe in, period), you'll never be able to get that DLC or that digital game again. Unless I cannot get the game on a disc (ala Lone Survivor or I Am Alive (two most recent PSN purchases)), I will not buy a game digitally, even if it means I have to pay more for it.

While I know it's unlikely, if Steam or the XBLA or the PSN, any digital distribution platform, goes down for some reason, that's it - game over. And while I know not everyone had this hypocritical stance, I found it funny that some of the same people who think digital gaming is awesome balked at the Xbone's original design, because that's the future of all technology, as stated above. Plus, once the government is able to do the same stuff (and worse) because everything thinks the government should play bigger roles in our lives (e.g. health care) yet it's horrible when corporations do things one-fifth as draconian, then you can kiss any and all freedom goodbye.
 

Atmos Duality

New member
Mar 3, 2010
8,473
0
0
So Capcom are either idiots, or desperate.
(Or maybe they're desperate idiots. YOU BE THE JUDGE.)

I'm just going to cast aside some of the..."conspiracy theories" (to put it politely) I'm seeing and think like a business.

For starters, if I were Capcom, I wouldn't produce a game and then shitcan it when it can still bring in revenue unless the cost of distribution outweighed my revenue. Stinkers go to market all the time and digital distribution is pretty cheap, overall.

Which suggests that MvC3 and its DLC sold so poorly that the hosting costs are either gobbling up cash in the long run or the revenue projection is so bad that a quick burst of revenue from a Disneyesque "LAST CHANCE" sale looks like the superior alternative. Furthermore, if what I've been reading from their quarterly reports is to be believed, Capcom is running dangerously low on funds. Trimming costs, however small, are going to be quite tempting.

And that is why I just don't buy the conspiracy theory that this is Capcom being overly controlling dicks for the sake of establishing some sort of precedent for "control". Yeah, from their perspective, control is great, when it serves the bottom line. And severing future revenue forever doesn't do that unless things are truly dire.

Furthermore, franchise exposure moves future games in that franchise; duh. It's why Mario is still an icon 25+ years into the game, and I'd like to think that the same company that published some 50+ MegaMan titles would at least be familiar with this concept.

While their move could point towards Planned Obsolescence, it could only work if Capcom announces an MvC4 or such REAL SOON (given their financial crisis).

But even then, I still don't see that going over so well since they could still sell MvC3 content as a lead-in to MvC4 or whatever hypothetical game that may be. In which case, shitcanning new sources of online content is...stupid.

Planned Obsolescence is a legitimate fear, but it's one where even I still question it. Activision still sells the original Black Ops despite 3 (or whatever it's up to now, I've lost track) new CoD4.x derivatives coming out since Black Ops. Of course, that could be difference between a healthy dynamite franchise and Marvel vs Capcom's underperformance...which brings me back to...

....MvC3 selling poorly. Yeah, sure. I'll go with that. Your guess is as good as mine.
 

Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
1,739
0
0
I wouldn't think this is a licensing issue. These things tend to be worked out for the life of the product, not just two years.
 

link6616

New member
Jul 16, 2010
12
0
0
Baldr said:
I wouldn't think this is a licensing issue. These things tend to be worked out for the life of the product, not just two years.
Eh, depends when the product is made and all that. Sega lost the Ferrari licence a few years ago which meant outrun could no longer be sold. And especially since now "the life of the product" is pretty much as long as it's hosted online. Which is a very different prospect.