A newly reformed Digital Eclipse announced today that, in partnership with publisher Capcom, it will release Mega Man Legacy Collection later this summer for Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC, and following up with a 3DS release in the winter. The collection will bring together the first six titles of the Mega Man series, each in 1080p, and it will offer a set of new challenges and bonus "museum" content.

I know, I know, why am I writing a news story about the re-release of some Mega Man games? Well, first, Capcom hasn't exactly treated the Blue Bomber well over the past few years–the cancelation of Mega Man Legends 3 is still a real sore spot with some fans.

Second, between Silent Hills and Desura, there's been a lot of conversation recently about game preservation, with fans worried about losing access to games as they slip through the cracks of digital distribution networks and short-term contract agreements. On top of the concern around access to games, there's also a case to be made that we should care about the quality of restorations, ports, and re-releases.

This seems to be the modus operandi for the newly reformed Digital Eclipse, which is developing the collection. The history of the company is a weird knot that involves merging and breaking off of other studios (like Backbone Entertainment, Other Ocean, and Foundation 9), but Digital Eclipse has always been involved in porting and emulation. Over the years, they've had their ups and downs–I wasn't a big fan of the "smoothing" look that it gave to the emulated Sega Genesis games on XBLA (Streets of Rage 2 deserves better!) But the new version of Digital Eclipse seems singularly focused on quality game preservation.

The company has even created a "Head of Restoration" position, held by Frank Cifaldi, to oversee the quality of their emulation. Over on the Capcom Unity blog, Cifaldi lays out the case for why we should be invested in game preservation:

“Movies have the Criterion Collection, but there hasn’t been anything like that for games. We’re living in the golden age of a brand new form of artistic expression, and we’re not doing a very good job of making sure our games will be available five years from now, let alone fifty. The more we can do right now to take video game preservation seriously, the safer our history will be.”

I have to admit, maybe this just appeals to me because I've been banging the drum of "the Criterion Collection, but video games" for years now. And I'm not so out of touch as to think that solid Mega Man ports are the single most important goal in the field of games preservation. But my hope is that this new Digital Eclipse will bring this same amount of love and rigor to future projects, especially to games that really have slipped through the cracks.

Check out the trailer for Mega Man Legacy Collection below, and head over to the new Digital Eclipse site to get a bit more on the company and their emulation process.

Awesome, now rerelease 9 and 10 too...

Great news, but realistically I can't see myself buying/playing it unless it one day comes to the Vita.

As someone who owns too many Criterion Blu-Rays, I agree with this sentiment. But Digital Eclipse has not exactly engendered the same amount of goodwill.

Aside from it only being the first 6 games, I'm pretty pumped for this. I wish it was all 10 of the Mega Man games in one collection though. I hope they don't "gameify" the package by locking things behind play walls and not just giving me access to everything immediately. I have played these games many times in many forms over the years. If this is being billed as a preservation, I do not want to be forced to play something to gain access to content.

Just before Mighty No. 9. Huh

Great news. I might pick this up for my 3DS.

@who42knows: Yup. Someone over at Capcom knows what they're doing.

As someone who didn't spend a lot of time with the Megamanz in youth, I'll probably pick this up.

Hmm. Even the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which has been out for over 10 years, includes MM7 and MM8. This'll be kind of a hard sell for me unless the added stuff is really amazing.

A lot of big promises but I'll wait and see if the ports are actually good first.

Maybe they can prove themselves by fixing the PS4 port of USFIV...

1080p Megaman = the best looking game ever made?

Wait no WiiU version? For games that were on Nintendo platforms?

In any event pretty excited for this!

I hope Capcom let's me get in on a season pass for 7-10 DLC.

Frank is a quality dude who loves his retro stuff and preservation of old school games. I'm sure he's gonna do everything he can to make right by these games and the people fond of them.

@slag: Wii U already has virtual console ports of all those games. My guess? Nintendo didn't want this cannibalizing sales of those ports.

Only 1 through 6? Even the older collection had 1 through 8. This seems weird. They should at least of done a Powered Up style retooling. MSRP: 14.99

@slag said:

Capcom don't seem very keen on developing anything for the Wii U. Both the remake and RE0, which were initially Nintendo platform exclusives, shafted the Wii U with their remastered versions. Have they even released a Monster Hunter game on there at all?

It should be at the very least the first 8 games. Just like the other Mega Man Collection put out on GGN / PS2 / XBX. Then they could even follow suit and put all the X games out in a similar collection.

No Vita and no MM 7-10 make this pretty lame. The Game Cube Anniversary Collection even had 7 and 8... what gives?

Uh... that's nice and all but the Mega Man Anniversary Collection had way more than that two generations ago. Would be cool if we could get that, the X collection, and the Zero games all in one.

I'm in!

Although the last time I played a Mega Man game (Mega Man X8) my hands ended up hurting for days.

I'm old.

if this is like 20 bucks ill get it.

but they have had better colections ten years ago.

I guess its a start

I prefer no preservatives please

(Mmm game jerky)

That trailer was almost as good as the Duke Nukem Trilogy E3 2008 one.

Clip art flying all over the fucking place!

Not exactly sure how to feel about this. Anyone else feel like their being led into a trap?

I really can't see this working out the way they intend it to.

Super excited to see that Frank Cifaldi is involved! ^_^

I never understood unlockable art and galleries in videogames.

My 1st thought too

I haven't played a lot of any of the regular Mega Man games, but I've played and seen enough to know I prefer Mega Man X over it some.

Unless it has a modern graphic setting like the Halo remake did... I'm not interested!

Cool. I've never played any Mega Man games, but I've been meaning to. For the music.

you perceptive buggers you.

good point.

Freaking Capcom. I saw the title and thought, "finally all the Mega Man and X series games in one release!" I should have known better.

Thanks and have a mega mega day.

I guess this might appeal to people to whom pixel-perfect emulation of the originals is super important. Personally, I would have preferred an HD remake of some kind.

Yes ok Capcom I will buy this but I still hate you.

One of those times I'm okay with a remaster.

I'm wondering if its a rights issue (I believe this covers only the NES games) or if we will get them as DLC/sequel.

I just want to be able to fight Heat Man with the Ice Slasher. IE I want the game where I fight ALL of the Robot Masters.

While I would love for Capcom to do something other than rereleases (here's to E3???), they do seem to go the extra mile with stuff like this. The REmake remake was really good. DMC rerelease was great, this collection seems pretty spectacular. If they're going to do a kind of cruddy practice, they're at least doing it right.

This new Digital Eclipse sounds neat... but being made up of people from Backbone and Other Ocean doesn't give me confidence.

Its even worse than that old collection that came out years ago.

I admit that when I heard Digital Eclipse are handling the port, my heart sank a little. Then I read that Frank Cifaldi is involved and he has taken game preservation seriously ever since he worked for 1Up. I hope this collection turns out nice. In any case it's good to see that Capcom hasn't completely forgotten about Mega Man.

I already own all the NES Megaman worth owning on Virtual Console, and also Mega Man 4. A collection at this point would at least need to have all Original and X games in it for me to be interested. That'd be impressive, and there would be some games among them I hadn't played.

A better collection would add the 4 Zero GBA games and 2 ZX DS ones. Get all of the main series in one place. I can't imagine anyone wanting to put the time and money into making something like that happen though.

On the subject of Mega Man, I heard somewhere that they were planning of making a new animated series out of it, due in a few years.

Only the first six? Well, we'll see how the quality is! If the ports, presentation, and extra content are all really good, as they seem to be talking up, I'm okay with not getting every Mega Man game ever made in one package.

Only the first three are really deserving of the "museum quality" treatment anyway.

If they eventually get to 8, I wonder if anyone still has the master tapes for all those anime cutscenes.

Dream coming true? Finally.

*heart attack*

I want there to be The Criterion-esque Collection, for this is the console generation that will begin a long line of backwards compatibility, but they need to deliver with nothing more than a single noticeable flaw per game. They need to be so accurate that speedrunners will reliably be able to use them, that's my benchmark. That includes skips, glitches, crashes. It would not be the same otherwise.

man, I read "Mega Man Leg..." and I got preemptively hyped

Sounds perfect for 3DS!

When the Mario Anniversary Collection was little more than a bunch of ROM dumps, I gave up hope of ever getting a "Criterion Collection" for video games. Video games are disposable, even the publisher of the most influential series of all time thinks so.

Oh right. That makes sense then. Still feels a bit wrong, even if it's the smart play business wise for Nintendo.