Capcom commits to Mega Man, spurned fan base

By accepting fan input during development of Mega Man Legends 3 only to unceremoniously cancel the project, Capcom left many of the Blue Bomber's biggest boosters feeling slighted. The cancellation of Mega Man Universe, omission of the character from Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and lack of an announced, in-development Mega Man game didn't help matters.

In a recent interview with Game Informer, Capcom senior vice president of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson, talked about how the publisher is handling its image with the fan base and discussed plans to regain trust within the community.

"It's going to take time to rebuild those bridges," Svensson said. "Product cycles are long and it'll be a little while until fans can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And the last thing I want to do is prematurely announce something in the name of sating the fans that gets cancelled or redirected later, thereby creating an even larger wound. I can only ask for people's patience."

Speaking directly to the future of Mega Man, Svensson said, "Mega Man is a key brand for Capcom and will remain so. I don't have any products we've announced publicly that I can point to and say, 'See, I told you,' but there are 'top men'… within Capcom thinking about the future of the brand and where it's going. We will have official announcements in due course."

As for the approach to fostering the community in positive ways again, Capcom has plans to extend its "Fight Club" initiative from fighting games to "Fright Clubs" for games like Resident Evil and Dead Rising. A relaunch of its community site is also on the way.

While there are no new Mega Man titles on the release slate, it's clear that the action hero is still receiving a modicum of attention as Andriasang has wrangled screenshots of the forthcoming Mega Man X for the iOS that is set to hit Japan next month.