Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 roster leaked

Source: Dueling message board threads on GameFAQs and NeoGAF full of eager gamers fishing for artwork of various characters hosted on Capcom servers.

What we heard: This morning, Capcom officially announced Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, along with four of the 12 new characters: Hawkeye, Ghost Rider, Firebrand, and Strider. Soon after, the GameFAQs thread appeared with links to character art on a Capcom server for three additional characters: Dead Rising's Frank West, Phoenix Wright, and Dr. Strange.

It appears Capcom had all the art files named after the characters portrayed therein, so by taking the same URL for, say, Hawkeye's art and substituting the name of another character, it would be possible to reveal the game's roster with some good guesses. The NeoGAF community quickly picked up on the leak, and what followed was a barrage of guesswork that pushed both threads to dozens of pages in length, and uncovered eight previously unseen pieces of artwork.

On the Marvel side, the new artwork consisted of Dr. Strange, Nova, Rocket Raccoon, and Iron Fist. As for Capcom's additional foursome, that lineup featured Phoenix Wright, Frank West, Resident Evil's Nemesis, and Devil May Cry antagonist Vergil. All of the artwork has since been pulled down, though the server still hosts pictures of Hawkeye, Hulk, and other confirmed characters in the game.

The official word: Capcom had not responded to GameSpot's request for comment as of press time.

Bogus or Not Bogus: Looking not bogus, but clarification should come soon enough. Marvel and Capcom both have panels at this week's Comic-Con where they're slated to discuss the game.

[UPDATE]: Capcom has acknowledged the authenticity of the leak, and provided the following statement:

"Today we announced Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for PS3 and X360 as well as the first four characters and a playable build for this week's San Diego Comic-Con. As part of that, you may have seen some of our new characters for the game pop up on the Internet a bit earlier than anticipated. We are very happy with the positive response to the lineup, but at this point we're only going to focus on the four characters (Strider, Firebrand, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye) we have officially revealed. As for the other eight additional characters, we will have a ton of info, videos, screens and playable code in the coming months. Stay tuned!"