1up.com shed some light recently on why exactly Mega Man Legends 3 was laid to rest. Pulling various quotes from Capcom's official Twitter account and company blogs, what was the biggest reason? Apparently fans weren't interested in helping to create the game.

As the Twitter account describes it, "The game was meant to show people how games are developed." In response to a tweet expressing disappointment in the decision to cancel it, Capcom wrote, "Unfortunately so few fans took part in the creation of the game. It was felt the project was not worthwhile. :-(" Subsequent tweets reinforce this point; one states, "We weren't asking people to do much but response to dev rooms was cool at best," while another reads, "It's a shame the fans didn't want to get more involved :-( if we saw there was an audience for MML3 people might change minds."

Now, look. It's things like this that really incense me. Reading this, it looks like Capcom passes the buck entirely on to the fans of the series and people who were marginally interested in MML3. To scrap a game based solely on the idea that the public was not willing to participate in weird, behind-the-curtain development projects is ridiculous. The company has laid it out that the game's development was primarily driven by it's pet project, Devroom, whereby members of Capcom Unity could submit ideas that would be reviewed by developers, discuss aspects of the game before it had come together and give you an inside look at the development process of MML3. On paper, this is a very quirky and interesting feature. Allowing hardcore fans to have a place to gather and have some form of direct communication with the developers is great. Having a place where everyone can get the curtain drawn back on game development is great, both for fans to get an inside look at the game they're so interested in and people who are simply interested in the process. But to cancel a game because people aren't willing to participate? That's crazy.

Ignoring the fact that MML3 was garnering the most attention and fan interaction on Capcom Unity's website than any of their other franchises, they are perhaps not drawing the right conclusions from whatever data they are staring at. A lack of fan participation in the creation of the game might stem from the fact that they are not interested in helping you develop your game; they are interested in playing your game. Not everyone who was into the idea of MML3 wants to sign up for Devroom and spitball ideas for things to be in the game. Not everyone wants to put their personal information even more out there for the sake of your development cycle. Not everyone wants that curtain drawn back. What the fans want is a goddamn game. If your meta-project for your game was not well received, perhaps it is more of a indication that they don't care about it, but that does not detract from interest in your game. To slap those in the face who had been participating all this time with lines such as "It's a shame the fans didn't want to get more involved," is insanity. Admittedly, Twitter is a PR hell, but as someone who was interested in playing this game, but not developing it, I feel kind of slighted as a consumer.

1up.com shed some light recently on why exactly Mega Man Legends 3 was laid to rest. Pulling various quotes from Capcom's official Twitter account and company blogs, what was the biggest reason? Apparently fans weren't interested in helping to create the game.

As the Twitter account describes it, "The game was meant to show people how games are developed." In response to a tweet expressing disappointment in the decision to cancel it, Capcom wrote, "Unfortunately so few fans took part in the creation of the game. It was felt the project was not worthwhile. :-(" Subsequent tweets reinforce this point; one states, "We weren't asking people to do much but response to dev rooms was cool at best," while another reads, "It's a shame the fans didn't want to get more involved :-( if we saw there was an audience for MML3 people might change minds."

Now, look. It's things like this that really incense me. Reading this, it looks like Capcom passes the buck entirely on to the fans of the series and people who were marginally interested in MML3. To scrap a game based solely on the idea that the public was not willing to participate in weird, behind-the-curtain development projects is ridiculous. The company has laid it out that the game's development was primarily driven by it's pet project, Devroom, whereby members of Capcom Unity could submit ideas that would be reviewed by developers, discuss aspects of the game before it had come together and give you an inside look at the development process of MML3. On paper, this is a very quirky and interesting feature. Allowing hardcore fans to have a place to gather and have some form of direct communication with the developers is great. Having a place where everyone can get the curtain drawn back on game development is great, both for fans to get an inside look at the game they're so interested in and people who are simply interested in the process. But to cancel a game because people aren't willing to participate? That's crazy.

Ignoring the fact that MML3 was garnering the most attention and fan interaction on Capcom Unity's website than any of their other franchises, they are perhaps not drawing the right conclusions from whatever data they are staring at. A lack of fan participation in the creation of the game might stem from the fact that they are not interested in helping you develop your game; they are interested in playing your game. Not everyone who was into the idea of MML3 wants to sign up for Devroom and spitball ideas for things to be in the game. Not everyone wants to put their personal information even more out there for the sake of your development cycle. Not everyone wants that curtain drawn back. What the fans want is a goddamn game. If your meta-project for your game was not well received, perhaps it is more of a indication that they don't care about it, but that does not detract from interest in your game. To slap those in the face who had been participating all this time with lines such as "It's a shame the fans didn't want to get more involved," is insanity. Admittedly, Twitter is a PR hell, but as someone who was interested in playing this game, but not developing it, I feel kind of slighted as a consumer.

Over the past year or so, I have been developing a serious dislike for Capcom and everything they do.

Capcom have been losing their way after Shinji Mikami left. Resident Evil 4 was the last great, amazing thing they created. After that, what else have they done? Street Fighter IV's ultimate (sort of) mainstream breakthrough, but they are quickly fumbling over themselves with dumb business decisions. They're pretty much up there now with Activision, in my opinion.

Capcom have been losing their way after Shinji Mikami left. Resident Evil 4 was the last great, amazing thing they created. After that, what else have they done? Street Fighter IV's ultimate (sort of) mainstream breakthrough, but they are quickly fumbling over themselves with dumb business decisions. They're pretty much up there now with Activision, in my opinion.

What a weird turn-around in public opinion this is. I could have sworn that earlier this year Capcom was the golden child: revitalizing the flagging fighting genre to great health, rebooting a ton of franchises and dominating the downloadable market with them, building an excellent fansite, and putting out some decent iterations on IPs; all this giving them the reputation of one of the most forward thinking companies around. I'd agree that they've stumbled a bit recently (and they may have been standing at the top of the stairs), but you guys are so fickle. 
 
It honestly seems like an all around dick move to cancel this game, but I'll play devil's advocate and say that it's fairly reasonable for them to do so since it seems that it was mainly an experiment. Of course they would cancel it if for some reason that experiment just wasn't going to work out. As for the tweet, well, they gave that twitter password to the wrong guy.

@Akrid: Not everyone's necessarily had such a huge shift in opinion on Capcom. I've never really been a huge fan of their games. Which isn't to say I don't enjoy them, but I am a very passive fan. I appreciate that SFIV brought back the Fighting genre, but I can't say that has impacted my life greatly, nor has their fansites or any game they put out really. I don't hold reverence for this company, thus all I have seen of late has been some god-awful PR and game design moves, making this entire thing seem like a public bitchslap to the average consumer.

And I can understand the idea of this being an experiment, but man, people were kind of oddly excited about this. Imagine being one of those who is on Devroom, every day, talking about new features to implement, reflecting so many aspects of development, only to be told that your enthusiasm simply wasn't enthused enough for them to finish this game, which they tried so hard to make you a part of?

It's that part that really seems to turn the whole thing on its head, and to cancel MML3 betrays the entire purpose of it -- to develop, craft, and create a game that has been influenced heavily by the community fan base. The emphasis being on 'create'.

I'm not calling Capcom the boogeyman in all aspects of life, simply that this in particular is an aggressively dick move that I feel really weirdly slighted by.

Over the past year or so, I have been developing a serious dislike for Capcom and everything they do.

@Khann:

Things I don't like about Capcom

1. Lost Planet anything
2. Not learning from the level of innovation in RE4 and instead poorly replicating it, multiple times if you include The Mercenaries 3D
3. The releasing of a vanilla fighting game, followed up by a retail expansion that renders that game useless, followed by an inevitable third update.
4. Wanton misuse of DLC
5. Dead Rising Exploitation. I.E. Dead Rising: Case West, Dead Rising: Off The Record

Among other things, I'm sure. That's just what springs to mind.

I thought they canceled it because Mega Man is no longer relevant , but even if they didn't get billions of ideas , if some one gave them 1 good idea it seem very dickish to cancel the whole thing out ..... problem with capcom is hat they want way too much , when in fact their fan base is dwindling either because their games aren't relevant or through dumb moves (aka all the shit they are doing to the fighting games)

Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3...is rumored to come out this November.....
 
That shit just came out in February.....
 
Capcom is transparent now...

Man, I didn't even know about this game being a thing.  I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that didn't know about it either.  Pretty silly of them to cancel based on lack of interest.  Maybe they should've promoted the game more.

Wait I didn't even know Mega Man Legends 3 was a thing until I found out the demo was delayed on the 3DS store. 

@JCTango: @bartok:

See that's the problem. They didn't market it well at all and then blame the public and hardcore fanbase for not being interested in something that the average person isn't seeing. It's like they expected their Devroom users to not only create their game, but to also market it.

Capcom are hell for doing this and milking the cash cow to death. I saw this when they released street fighter 4 that there would be alternate version released, they did with street fighter 2 with a press joke being made about  "what next in the street fighter 2 installment saga, are they gonna bringout street fighter 2 the turbo ultra nutter hovis bread edition", Now we have Maverl vs Capcom 3 ultimate edition next with extra dlc characters being announced, i hope we don't have to buy a new game and that they give you the choice to download an update like they did between SSFIV and the arcade edition. As for them killing of mega legends 3 due to lack of interest by the community, why are they going to the community for idea's in the first place, they're the dev's not the community, they are supposed to come up with the ideas for the game. Are games companies starting to run out of idea's for making games, I think too many are resting on their laurels(i.e relying to much on 1 or a couple of successful franchise(s).

@JCTango: They put Mirror's Edge 2 back on the table? Fucking awesome. I was probably one of the few who thought that first game was great and wanted to see another, more refined one get put out.

@aspaceinvader: It's not so much that they're running out of ideas as it is that this particular project was a super fan-driven experiment. The allure of having your own input actually influence, if not entirely shake up and change, the development of a game is a huge draw to hardcore fans of any series. To look at any chunk of a game and go, 'I helped make that,' would make me puff up with pride, especially if it was on one that I was so serious a fan of as to register at a website dedicated to that game. I can support the underlying meaning of this experiment, but to handle the aftermath so poorly, to allow someone in your company to post message blaming the community and public. That's just krayzee.

I will give you that Capcom is becoming an increasingly frustrating company though. Their practices and operations are starting to jade me as a consumer.