Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite Devs On Preserving Depth, Picking Characters, And Fixing Chun-Li's Face

At E3 2017 Capcom released a story demo for Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite, the latest entry in its crossover fighting game series. This has given fans across the world a very small taste of the new 2v2 fighting system, which is a big departure from what longtime players have come to be used to.

Before E3 and also during it, we talked to associate producer Peter Rosas and producer Michael Evans about the Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite. Below you'll find the amalgamation of two interviews covering a broad range of subjects, from the thinking behind the new format and the emphasis on approachability to narrative ambitions in Story mode and whether Chun-Li's odd-looking face can be fixed.

Peter, you're known to be a professional Marvel player. What do you bring from that background to Marvel Infinite? What are your goals as someone who's seen the competitive side and the development side?

Peter Rosas: So I would say the thing is identity creation, right? Being with the scene for so long, that's one of the key things that I've seen within the scene, that the players there like to play the characters they want to play and develop their own crazy or interesting strategies and really kind of make a name for themselves, really show off their play style, their identity through their team.

With two characters, the ability for that seemed like it was decreasing, so it was like, "Okay. We're going back to partnership. What are we doing here that hasn't been done in any other game?" By opening up the whole switch system, it's just like, there it is. Now it's so open that, even if you have two characters, you'll be able to cement yourself and your identity within that. But then on top of that, once we had the Infinity Stones added, we have that layer that was missing. The Infinity Stones change the dynamic of a team, so you have players who essentially could pick the same two characters but with a different stone in and have a completely different strategy.

There are so many ways to create identity. So that's something that I know the hardcore guys are going to be looking forward to. Also maintaining that Versus series DNA and the integrity of the brand. This game definitely has that high-flying, fast-paced, adrenaline rushing action. It's still there. Players who have been with the series will immediately be able to pick this up and say, "Oh, yes. This is a Marvel game. I can jump around. I can move around as I see fit and still do that."

The other important part of that whole identity thing is making sure that all characters were functional. With the hardcore guys, they're always looking for what's optimal, what would allow them to win the easiest or the most consistently. And sometimes what happens is some characters just end up better than others, or some strategy becomes extremely strong and it just wipes out a lot of the cast. What we wanted to do with this one is make sure that all characters felt viable. All characters felt strong. And whether it was a character design issue or it was an issue [with] a system, we looked at all of that to ensure that the characters felt strong and awesome.

That was really important to me as a person who's been with the series, just to make sure that for the long-haul player, the guy who's going to stick around, that there are options. They can play what they want. They can do what they want. They can essentially create their identity through their play style and [have] it shine pretty brightly.

A lot of the hardcore players are going to be looking at this 2v2 system and the emphasis on approachability, and it might worry them a little bit. Given the attention on the Marvel Universe right now, having that approachability makes sense as it'll help the game be successful. If Marvel was ever going to be a big success on a global scale, this is the time to do it. With that in mind, what would you say to the people that are worried that maybe the 2v2 system loses some of the complexity of MvC?

Peter Rosas: Well, I would tell them that just because the game is more accessible doesn't mean we're sacrificing depth. That's not what we're doing here. We're just making sure that players who are unfamiliar with the Versus series, or unfamiliar with fighting games in general, are able to jump in and have fun. And if they have fun, then they might be interested in sticking around and starting to learn more about the game, their characters, and things like that. The problem with previous entries is that it was a daunting. When you gave a controller to a new player, there was just nowhere to start. They didn't know what to do.

We don't want people to think that there's some prescribed strategy. We want them to just be able to jump in the game, pick their characters, and not have to worry about assist types. We wanted everything to be very easy to understand so players can stick around and keep playing.

That said, due to the level of openness with the switch system and the Infinity Stones, there's some pretty deep stuff there. You can develop some really dastardly strategies, but it really depends on you and how much time you want to put in. I can tell you as a hardcore player that has been with the series for a very long time that there is a ton going on there. I've had the game a lot longer than anyone else and I still feel like I'm just scratching the surface. I like using two characters with one particular stone. But if I change the stone, that whole dynamic is different, even though the characters themselves haven't changed. I'm figuring out different times to switch between the characters, which is now creating new combos, new synergies, and things like that. There's a lot going on.

It's still going to have that Marvel DNA that players who have been with the series will know, expect, and love. But at the same time, we wanted to make sure that players who are unfamiliar with the series, once again, who are brand new to the series can just pick this up and not be intimidated, not say, "Oh, that's a fighting game. That's not for me." Instead they can pick it up and say, "Ah, that was fun. I picked my favorite two characters. I had a ball. Let me stick around. Let me play a few more matches." And ideally, some of those would say, "Oh, I want to compete with these other guys. I want to keep it going."

How much attention have you paid to the readability of the game? That was an issue with Marvel 3. I tried to get some people watching it during EVO and one of the matches was ChrisG, who plays a Morrigan and uses that fireball spam strategy.

Peter Rosas: And there's two [Morrigans].

Yeah, exactly. While introducing the approachability and preserving that complexity, how did you approach making it easier for people without expert knowledge to parse what's happening and understand it?

Peter Rosas: Yeah, fighting games are inherently pretty easy to understand. You have characters, life bars, a timer, and you duke it out until someone is knocked out. The thing that we noticed with, let's say Marvel 3 for instance, is that the game had a lot of visual noise. You had these hyper combos and the screen would transition all crazy, in the background there was s*** being blown up and all kinds of crazy action, and you're like, "Well, who am I keeping track of? And what's going on?" You also had assists, and because you had assist characters who are just jumping in and out of the screen, and you're like, "Wait, who's fighting who?" and "What's doing what?"

So we looked at all of that, and how that's difficult to track for those who are unfamiliar. Because even for players who are familiar, it's hard to track sometimes. And what we did was ... one step was we removed assist types. So what that does is that makes it easier for players who are just trying to jump into battle, they don't have to understand what assist does what. It's just, "Pick a character you like, and another one." By removing that, the flow on the screen is a lot easier to see.

Same thing with a lot the moves: they have visual effects that look amazing thanks to the Unreal Engine 4, but at the same time, they're a lot easier to follow. Hyper combos are still over the top, bombastic, and things like that. But we have now contained where those over-the-top effects appear, so that way everything is bit easier to track. Same thing when you switch characters. They always come in from the side now, so you can always tell when there's a switch happening.

It's just a lot easier and a lot more digestible for players who may be unfamiliar with this game to track. You have characters flying around and doing their thing, and it's over-the-top action with superheroes come to life. But at the same time, you can always tell what's happening now. Whereas before, guys [were] jumping in and out and effects and things like that. It was just like, "Whoa."

There's been a lot of conscious effort put toward a lot of that. The same thing with the readability of life bars and the characters and the gauges. We made sure that all of that is very, very, very easy to digest within the HUD and all that, just to make sure that players who are unfamiliar with it, they can just clearly see what's happening and it feels intuitive. They don't need necessarily somebody to sit there and explain all the little nuances of what's happening and what's on the screen to them.

They need to be able to pick it up and have fun immediately, which maybe in Street Fighter V is a little bit harder to do.

Michael Evans, Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite producer

It feels like more of a grounded game as well. I'm feeling less of an impulse to leap into the air and spam fireballs. Is that something that you've done consciously to try and keep the focus on switching in and out on a ground level, instead of constantly getting into the air and playing keep away?

Peter Rosas: Yeah. The characters are a bit bigger in this game. We wanted them to be large. And they're a bit closer to the screen size so you're engaging a little more. Additionally, when you switch characters, once again they always come in from the ground, so it's easier to track and it's easier to transition into combos. If you go back to the older titles, Street Fighter and things like that, those games weren't necessarily played in the air. It was kind of in the later titles where people started just staying in the air and running amok that way. We wanted to be a lot more entertaining, a lot more digestible, and what's more digestible than two characters going at it? It's like, "Oh yeah, they're just fighting" versus some guy just staying away and beating you from afar.

Same thing with the combos. It's not about keeping the guy extended in the air for 20-30 hit combos. It's about getting your hit in, doing a little bit of a combo, and then figuring out how you land the next hit. That's what's at the heart of the strategy: It's how do you land that hit? How do you use your team to do that?

Michael Evans: Watching EVO, watching the player on MvC3, it's always about how do you land that first hit? How do you open the guy up? And then when they land that first hit, "Oh!" The crowd goes crazy 'cause it's all about how you get in. The extended combos get higher, higher, higher, and that's the execution part of it. Execution is always important, but the real heart of a fun fighting game is really the strategies that you develop and how you outthink your opponent and open them up for that first hit.

How tied are you to the current cinematic Marvel universe, because the Marvel games are known for pulling in characters from all corner of the Marvel universe. At the moment, we're seeing characters that are quite mainstream. Do you have plans to look beyond those characters and bring out some fan favorites? Will we see a Carnage or a Venom or anything like that? Are there going to be characters who aren't in movies and being pushed in front of people right now?

Michael Evans: Yeah, definitely. So we talked a lot about the cinematic feel of the game. That said, the game is not based on the MCU. It's a completely original game. We did take inspiration from what's happening in the MCU but also from comics and everything else. But when we sit down to choose the characters, as fans ourselves, we wanted to see these certain team-ups that seem to make sense or certain character interactions. For example, you have Rocket and X in a teaser and they're playing off of each other in a really cool way. And that's in the Story mode. Also, Captain Marvel and Chun-Li [teaming up] just makes sense [as] two super strong female characters from both sides.

One of the approaches in choosing characters is what would create these moments that everyone would want to see in terms of the characters in the story we're trying to tell. The other is on the gameplay side of things. Marvel definitely leaves it to us in terms of creating the best fighting game because they know we're the experts in that area. So when we're looking at character types and we want small quick characters and large brawler characters and everything, we try and have a good mix there. And also the fan service stuff too.

I just wanted Gambit, he's been missing for a long time. Anyway, one of the things that a lot of hardcore fans will want you guys to speak to the development team working on this. What's the heritage like? I know a lot of people tie Marvel 3 to Ryota Niitsuma, but who's on Infinite? Other than yourself obviously.

Peter Rosas: I was going to say, if you want talent ... we'll talk to you about some talent.

Michael Evans: It's not [Niitsuma]. He's even come out and said he's not very close to it. That said, it is an internal team. But the cool thing is that this team is extremely experienced. The director, Hirose Norio, has been around forever. When I was a kid playing X-Men: Children of the Atom or X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, he was coding that game. These are guys who have been the torchbearers in the sense of Capcom DNA and the feeling of the Versus series. It's been very interesting because we come with the new perspective, what's hot on the streets these days. And they come with the, "When you were a baby I was basically making this." It's that tug of war that's really created an amazing game. We have these guys who are super OGs working on the title, but at the same time, we have a fresh perspective from our side about what's happening recently.

Peter Rosas: You had these guys who created the rule set of the Versus series. They're the ones who said, "Oh, let's have a hit that guy off the ground, and launch into the air combos," and things like that. They're the ones who saw the rules of Street Fighter and threw them all out and created their own rules. So they have their idea of what is a Versus series game. Luckily with myself being in the community for so long and seeing how it's evolved from what they developed into what we play, I've been able to then come back and talk to the team and say, "Okay, look that's that. We get it. Let's evolve it here. Let's make some modifications there." And then you also have Marvel and they're just like, "Oh, it would be cool if..." We could all come together and make this cool game, 'cause we're all really passionate about it.

Gallery

I like how you've basically positioned the Infinity Stones as these devices that break the fundamental design principles of fighting games by letting you mess with area control, speed of characters, and stuff like that.

Peter Rosas: Yeah, and that's what's at the heart of the stones. When you wield these in the Marvel universe you break the laws associated with that stone. We thought about how we can bring that same experience over to a fighting game, where you break the rules of a fighting game. The idea of what these stones can do came from all directions. We were thinking about how should the Power stone work and how should the Time stone work, and things like that. And we've had different Infinite Stone matches that we've tried, and some stayed and some haven't. The idea was basically to have players feel empowered and that's what we have here.

Do you have any esports ambitions for Infinite, and what lessons have you learned from Street Fighter V's early days and are trying to not replicate with Marvel Infinite? Obviously Street Fighter V has had a bit of an uphill struggle and now there's a perception problem around it. How are you approaching Marvel Infinite and trying to make sure that doesn't happen again?

Michael Evans: Sure, so to speak to Street Fighter V. Yes, its launch, let's be honest, wasn't the most successful in terms of the perception. It's for a few reasons, but there's expectation in the market of what a competitive title should be in terms of single-player content and feature set and everything. So Street Fighter V was perceived as having [not much] to do in the game. There was no Story mode, there was no Arcade mode, you could just go online and play, but there was no battle lounge. So you go online and buy it, but the online wasn't working well because of the server issues.

So there's a lot of things. But obviously we've spent the last year working hard at trying to improve each of those in some way. That said, for Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite, we're just mainly focused on making that day-one game a featured product, so including the cinematic Story mode, but also an Arcade mode, 8-player online lounges, everything. We want to make sure that we meet expectations in that sense. And that's in terms of what we learned from Street Fighter V.

Street Fighter V is also an amazing game, but as Peter mentioned with the accessibility this time around, we're expecting a lot more players to come in and try [Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite] out. Maybe even non-fighting gamers. They need to be able to pick it up and have fun immediately, which maybe in Street Fighter V is a little bit harder to do. Maybe not. But there are no simple input commands and things like that that'll give you a combo in that game. Whereas that's something that in Versus games like this we can do, and it's fun.

Peter Rosas: So speaking about esports, the game comes out in September. Unfortunately that's a little bit later in the season, so we can't really integrate in Capcom Pro Tour this year. We don't really have any real esports related plans towards it just yet to announce. But that said, this game as an esport or something that the competitive community can get behind, I definitely see that. This game has, once again, the ability for players to create their identity. It has the strategy development and depth that players who are more hardcore like myself will look for. The possibilities are infinite, literally. Yeah, there's no doubt in my mind that they're gonna play it and throw events for it and things like that.

You have the game on the E3 show floor and people seem to be starting to understand the 2v2 system. There was some skepticism to whether there would still be the depth there, but it seems people are starting to get it. What's it been like to see that happen?

Peter Rosas: It's been great. Yesterday I was on the Capcom Unity stream with Mike Jones from Marvel, and also with a pro player, IFC Yipes. We talked about the system. We basically gave those watching insight as to our decisions. It's not like these things weren't well thought out. You know? We looked at it. What we've noticed is the better players instantly get what we're going for. They are just like, "Oh my gosh. The amount of creativity I have here."

Just seeing all that come together has been pretty awesome. The more knowledge that the more experienced players get out there, the more information they get about the system and the little things you can do, they'll notice that there's quite a bit under the hood, if you're willing to look at it. We're out here telling you about it a little bit more as this event goes on.

Michael Evans: I love seeing the reaction too. I mean obviously as fighting gamers in Capcom we are deep in the weeds on those [fighting game community] boards and sites, and we see all that. We hear you. But it's good to take a step back sometimes, and I go on the Marvel channels and just look at casual people or not even fighting gamers and they're just like, "This Story mode's amazing. Who's this little knight interacting with Thor? That's crazy. These characters are so over the top." The fan service.

In a crossover game like this, having those moments in that crazy fan service, yeah, it's bonkers--of course it is--but we've always wanted to do that and have that Story mode. On the gameplay side, I think people are really starting to understand what we were going for and what we were trying to do with it. It's cool to see that they're finally getting their hands on it.

The thing that I noticed in the Story mode demo is it felt like a lot of the narrative was character sees another character and then makes a quip. Then it moves to the next scene. Is that going to develop into an actual narrative?

Michael Evans: Oh yeah.

Where's the story coming from? Is it you guys writing this? Is Marvel involved?

Michael Evans: It's Capcom. We originally created the story in collaboration with Marvel. The guy who came on to write the script is Paul Gardner. He wrote a fantastic script for us, but we also work closely with Bill Roseman, who's the creative director [at Marvel]. He comes from the New York publishing side. He was editor on Guardians of the Galaxy. He was fundamental in the creation of Guardians of the Galaxy, Groot, and Rocket. He was a great resource and an asset to have. However the story was 100% original, created by Capcom.

It's funny that you mention that, because we know that we're gonna have Marvel fans coming into this. We know that we're gonna have Capcom fans coming into this. Capcom fans may not know the Marvel characters and the Marvel fans may not know the Capcom characters, vice versa. Since what you're literally seeing is the first 25 minutes of the Story mode, we wanted to make sure that you're just thrown into this world. We don't want to tell the slow story of Ultron Sigma, and this is kind of like the Age of Ultron comics where you're just thrown into it. Here's what's happening.

However, it's very important that characters are introduced. It's kind of like the old Cheers TV series. Whenever someone comes in the bar, their name is said. So that happens in the first 25 minutes when people get introduced and we're ramping up. From there it goes to this crazy epic scale. You'll notice that you jump right into this new world and the heroes are already familiar with each other; [that's because] it's like 88 days into it. The world is actually a new universe that's being created by Ultron Sigma, and the heroes have been existing in this universe for a while already.

So you can say that it will develop beyond just Rocket Raccoon saying, "Let's do this" while twirling Ebony and Ivory? I look at Injustice and say, "The strength of this story is it's so good that it spawned its own comic series." Whether Infinite does that or not doesn't matter, but fans like myself want something to really dig into. I don't want just one-liners. You're confident that you'll have more?

Peter Rosas: Oh yeah, man. Without talking too much about competitive products, I have played everything this year including Tekken 7, which just came out, and like you mentioned, [Injustice 2]. I feel really good about our Story mode. It is bonkers, man. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the story that [NetherRealm is] telling also, which is a little more dark and serious and stuff. But there's just these crossover opportunities [in Infinite that] can be so bonkers. It's not that the whole game is just quips and one-liners like that. There is a very nice story arc that takes you through an epic story and to the conclusion. Yeah, definitely. The first part is fun and it introduces the characters and it kinds of gets your feet wet.

Ono said the same thing to me about Street Fighter V and I was burned, so I'm gonna hold you to it this time.

Peter Rosas: Hold me to it, man. Hold me to it.

One of the other things that I'd like you to speak to is some of the designs of the characters. What kind of stage and what level of finality are they at? The obvious one is Chun-Li, who looks really weird. Her face looks--I was like maybe she's a Skrull or something. The other one is Captain America, who is being compared to the Rob Liefeld drawing where he looks weirdly proportioned. The other thing that I noticed was visuals don't pop in the way that Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 did. Even today you see that it looks like it gleams, it shines, it looks so vibrant. Is there room for you to kind of revise the stuff and really look forward?

Michael Evans: It's interesting to see the feedback on that kind of stuff. Not to say that the fans are wrong or nitpicking stuff like that. That feedback is coming and we're hearing that feedback and we're taking it in stride and figuring out how we can improve on things. That said, the game comes out in three months so there's gonna be things that we can do in that time remaining and things that we can't do. When it comes to the overall look of the game, I feel like when people get it in their hands and they see it in motion, they really get what we're trying to do with the cinematic look.

It also comes down to the stages too. The first stage we showed was XGARD. It's very dark and doesn't necessarily show off the colors. The lighting is pretty muted. The other stages we've shown are a stark contrast to that. They're bright [and] the characters really pop. Then there's a lot of complexity and stuff going on in the background that people haven't seen yet. I think as we show more stages, people will be impressed by the variety, with the look of the game and how the characters pop off it.

That said, it's a drastic change from the previous comic book look. When you're doing a toon shaded look like that, with [a] more comic book[-style] shader, it's very easy to make hard line distinctions between the characters in the background. Obviously we've done as much as we can with lighting to make sure that the characters pop off and read well, because it's a fighting game. It's very important for all Capcom fighters that the characters are never in the shadows, never dark, [and] they read really well.

But the decision to go the cinematic direction was--we had a couple reasons why we wanted to do that. One was, at a glance when you see this game, you want to know that it's Infinite and it's not Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 or any other previous iteration of it. From MvC 2 to MvC 3 there was a huge visual jump because it went from 2D to 3D. So this time we're going 3D to 3D, but how can we innovate? That was one thing. We want to do something new.

When MvC 3 came out, the MCU really hadn't started, so the first Avengers movie hadn't come out. The recognition of the Marvel characters [is higher now]. There's all these people that go see Marvel movies and a subset of them are reading comics and stuff and hardcore fans, but I think most people recognize these characters [based on what] they see on screen.

We announced Black Panther and he looks really cool and he's similar to what is being seen in the movies and stuff. The cinematic direction, it ties closely to the story we're trying to tell. It has a story backbone, it's a little more grown-up. It's bonkers, but as you mentioned, Street Fighter V is a little more anime feel, right? This with the cinematic look is paired with the story, which is a little more of a modern epic kind of feel. For those reasons also, we went that direction.

Okay. So just to return to Chun-Li's face.

Michael Evans: Haha. I knew you were gonna say that.

Are you guys gonna look at that again, given the widespread negative response?

Michael Evans: Yes. Well when put that way, I say, I never wanted to look at it again. It's super--no, okay. It is disgusting. [Said jokingly] Of course we will look at it again. We're gonna look at it. Can't promise anything right now, but we want to make our fans happy, man. We're not an evil overlord company, despite the rumors. We do want to make our fans happy. Can't promise anything. We'll look into it. I believe Ono already said something about that.

[Michael's quote, "I never wanted to look at it again. It's super--no, okay. It is disgusting," was said in jest, which doesn't quite carry through into a written transcript.]

There was recently a leak about the characters, and people picked up on the fact that a lot of classic characters aren't there, specifically the X-Men characters like Magneto and Sentinel. How do you guys feel about people being hung up on that?

Peter Rosas: If you were to actually think about it, these characters are just functions. They're just doing things. Magneto, case and point, is a favorite because he has eight-way dash and he's really fast, right? So our more technical players, all they want to do is triangle jump and that kind of stuff. Well guess what, Nova can do the same thing, Captain Marvel can do the same thing. Ultron can do the same thing. Go ahead and try them out.

It's just the function that people are associating with the character, and there's no shortage of that. We made sure that all proper play styles can be represented with our current roster. The design team has been looking at that very closely. We wanted to make sure that if a legacy character doesn't happen to make the roster this time, that play style would still be represented. That somebody who has associated themselves with Magneto wouldn't be lost coming into this title.

Michael Evans: The other thing is, you mentioned returning characters right? If you look at the returning characters and you play with them, you'll notice that they're quite different from their previous iterations. Iron Man, he plays completely different. He has new special moves. Obviously we wanted to keep fan-favorite characters, but since you have the new system they're gonna play differently. In addition to that, new special moves, new hypers, new level threes in some cases, these breathe new life into these characters even if they are returning. So we did definitely make an attempt to do that.

The X-Men stuff, [I] can't talk to. But I do want to talk about the character-selection process because I think it's important. There's three things we're looking at: Gameplay first and foremost of course. The Capcom R&D team and us, we get together and we talk with Marvel about what characters we want to put in. From a character-type perspective, we want our big brawler characters, our characters that can fly, our small characters or whatever. Just from a creative side, gameplay, here's the characters we want. That plays a part.

One of the first things we did was sit down to write the story. When we were thinking about the story we wanted to tell, as fans ourselves on both sides, on the Marvel side there's Mike Jones, an ex-Capcom guy. We're big Marvel fans, so we're sitting down to just like, "What crazy interactions do we want to see? What would happen if Docket, Dante, and Rocket came together? What would happen and who are these pairings that we want to see?" So from a storytelling perspective that also played into the character selection.

Then the third one is obviously the popularity of these characters. X was one we had to get in there. A lot of fans wanted to see X, so we brought him back. Then also we talked with Marvel very closely about their future roadmap, about what's gonna be happening. Your modern Marvel fan, maybe they don't even remember some of the X-Men characters, but they know some of the Guardians characters or Black Panther. You know what I mean? Captain Marvel may seem like a strange pick, but she's fantastic. She fits the gameplay. She fits the story, and they're gonna be really pushing her as a strong female lead all the way up into the movie. We're trying to take everything into account and choose the best characters.

How far are you looking forward in terms of keeping Infinite relevant to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and even the Netflix universe? You've got Black Panther and you've got the Captain Marvel, but there's no Iron Fist, and he just had his own series and he's a character I'd like to see return. How close are you trying to stick to MCU/Netflix and how long do you want to do it for?

Michael Evans: I think there's infinite possibilities there.

Great work on that pun.

Michael Evans: What we can announce at this point in time is just the 2017 character pass, which we've talked about. We've already come out and said, "We're gonna support this game with six new characters in 2017." So they're all gonna come out this year. So those are six characters and six premium costumes. Beyond that we don't have any announcements at this time. But it is called Infinite for a reason.

One of the characters included in the leak was Jedah from Darkstalkers. How broad are you going with Capcom's own characters rosters across fighting games? I'd like to see some Rival Schools characters in there.

Michael Evans: One of the biggest strengths of Capcom is our IP. We do have all these great brands. I'm not gonna speak to the leaks or any additional characters that we haven't announced yet, but anything is possible. We have a great stable of characters on the bench, ready to be tagged in. We'll be looking at that kind of stuff too.

I think this is perhaps the most perfect moment to bring back Skullomania. I know it's difficult but-

Peter Rosas: Oh gosh.

He's a superhero so...

Peter Rosas: It just baffles me to this day. Why does anybody like that dude?

Well he represents-

Peter Rosas: He's a salaryman in a skeleton costume!

No! He's a salaryman until he decides not to be a salaryman. He decides he can be better and just does it. He puts on a costume and a cool scarf and he's gone. He just throws himself head-first into problems. Literally. That's his go-to move. He dives head-first at his opponents. He's a very nuanced character.

Peter Rosas: Okay, I'm starting to see that he's pretty deep.

See, now you get it.

Michael Evans: ….....................