Capcom Europe clarifies Mega Man Legends 3 devroom comments

The aftermath of Mega Man Legends 3's official cancellation earlier this week understandably embittered many series fans, who felt they were taken for a ride after all the hyping and promises from Capcom.

Capcom Europe is well aware of the bad news, but has attempted to pin the key reason for the MML3 Project's deep-sixing on lack of fan support in a recent tweet:

"Unfortunately so few fans took part in the creation of the game. It was felt the project was not worthwhile."

Sounds like a cold thing to suggest about people who may like Mega Man, but on any other day (and for any other franchise) would lack any sort of game production cred.  To understand the publisher response in the tweet, recall that MML3 Project heavily encouraged participation from fans to take part in helping shape the direction and vision of the overall 3DS game.

One of the biggest developments that emerged as a result of fan participation was the selection of the all-new heroine Aero, who would join the cast of MML characters.

Despite commitment from fans and development staff alike, it's worth noting that MML3 was never really on solid ground the whole time.  It was born as a passion project from Capcom's former head of global production, Keiji Inafune, who would end up storming out of the company last December after 23 years of service in a surprising and controversial move.

The publisher's top brass in Japan has made clear in the past that it didn't consider Mega Man a franchise that held the sort of international appeal that its other IP like Street Fighter or Marvel vs. Capcom did.  MML furthermore was an even less mainstream offshoot of the franchise, so the publisher clearly felt a new MML title would be twice the risk to invest in.

Perhaps in the end it was just too risky an investment after all, and Capcom had to can MML3.  That's one hell of wake up call for fans, so it was unfortunate that the publisher saw fit to pin some degree of the blame on the very people who looking forward to it, no matter what sort of participation was actually expected from them.

Update: Looks like Capcom Europe came across wrong, and has further explained what it was trying to say with its original tweet:

" I was expressing dissapointment with a Capcom marketing tool rather than blaming fans... because we create something and not all fans like it = Capcoms fault not the fans."

Though acknowledging that not as many fans participated in the devroom as it would have like, Capcom clarifies that it knows this was every bit its own fault.