Marvel’s media frenzy fire appears to be cooling off at the moment, especially when it comes to video games.
One comic book insider is claiming that the company is “painfully aware” their games haven’t been performing well and are looking to overhaul that, but what could that mean for Marvel vs. Capcom 4?
According to CanWeGetSomeToast, Marvel may be shifting harder to focus on games moving forward with Black Panther and Iron Man kicking off a new initiative to make them more successful.
It’s looking more and more like an environment for a brand new MvC title to be made is developing and appearing more possible than before.
You may not have realized it yet, but we’re now as far away from the release of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite than MvCI was from the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
If you recall, MvC3 was delisted for years, but unlike Marvel’s Avengers that just got pulled down too, you can still buy Infinite no problem.
Marvel is PAINFULLY aware of how their video games division hasn’t been reaching its potential overall.
There have been whispers of an internal shift for Marvel to focus on games. The new EA Black Panther and Iron Man games will be the start of a push for something BIG. https://t.co/mFp2DQVYFH pic.twitter.com/AwSgGXMGTz
— CanWeGetSomeToast (@CanWeGetToast) September 30, 2023
Any real bad blood between the companies for that failure have more than likely dissipated at this point, especially when Marvel’s faced other gaming disasters much more recently.
We already know Capcom and Marvel have some sort of relationship right now after their Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Arcade1UP machine last year and then allowing Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on the Evo mainstage this year with record-breaking attendance.
There is at least communication there, and all it really potentially takes is a few people on the inside pushing really loudly for something to happen.
Peter “Combofiend” Rosas is now a Senior Producer and Manager for Marvel games, and we can’t really imagine a world where he’s not first in line trying to nudge something forward.
Capcom is the most successful they’ve been since at least the ’90s with their stocks reaching record highs in 2023, so they’re in a much better spot than they were 6–7 years ago when Marvel Infinite was being worked on and still trying to regain their stride.
Couple that with the success of Street Fighter 6’s launch, and Capcom is looking like a much sweeter potential partner now than much of what Marvel’s been dealing with lately.
It’s not exactly apples to apples, but Marvel Snap has done extremely well for the company too, which shows people still have an interest in recognizable characters and fan service in a smaller, arcadey experience — that they hopefully realize can apply outside the mobile market.
Setting up a new MvC today may be even more complicated to get both sides to agree on what to do, but we have at least seen some through the MvC2 cabinet release.
We still expect, however, that a renewed partnership wouldn’t immediately lead to a new game, but more likely a release like MvC2 or Marvel classics collection, which could be sweetened up beyond fighting games with other old Capcom arcade titles like The Punisher.
As fighting game fans though, we know those Capcom collections don’t always actually lead to something new, so a Marvel vs. Capcom 4 isn’t a guarantee even if we eventually get that.
If they have the staff for it now, Capcom would also probably like to be able to compete with Bandai Namco and Arc System Works better in having multiple fighters out in the wild at once.
Although a Marvel vs. Capcom collection could conceivably come at any time, MvC4 is still probably multiple years away from fully materializing.
But the stars finally seem to be realigning to where that’s a legitimate possibility again.
Until then, we’re probably going to have to deal with at least a few more ridiculous Marvel vs. Capcom 4 rumors though.
