I mean between Rockman & Forte and Rockman 9, a decade, less if you count the GBA version :) and yeah other Mega Man series did go on in that time, but people still crowed for a new classic Mega Man.
Also to be fair, most of the subseries had run their course by that point. ZX Advent in 2007, Star Force 3 in 2008. I do note how long it takes for new megaman games to come out though! Megaman once a decade!
Much has been written about Inafune’s departure as a cause, but somewhere I heard an interesting fact that around that time, Capcom was also changing how new entries were approved.
Mega Man was never big sales-wise. Only Mega Man 11 has exceeded 2 million copies after a steady trickle over 7 years; the number of games that exceeded 1M is in the single digits. But the games were cheap to make so they still achieved high ROIs, which at the time was enough to greenlight a sequel, but then they started prioritising total sales volume.
Star Force 2 and 3 sold less than half of what the latter Battle Network games achieved, ZX didn’t catch on and if you look at reviews of the time, critics were sick of what they saw as cheap, samey sequels flooding the market with outdated gameplay.
Now Capcom wants to harness more “core IPs” and keep them relevant by interspersing occasional new games with rereleases of older games and cameos in other games (Mega Man is in Fortnite now). That way they hope to prevent either absolute silence or “oversaturation”.
I know this thread is about GTA but c’mon, look at my pfp.
Y’know, the sales thing gets me. When the famicom was current, the ~2m sales that Mega Man 2 made were very big numbers. The series just kinda got outclassed by Capcom’s later hits like Street Fighter II, (12m units on home platforms alone by 1994) Resident Evil, (over 5m on PS1 alone, game also had PC and Saturn ports) and Monster Hunter. (PSP entries selling 1-4m units per entry, World selling 30m units) Idk why Mega Man never hit it massive though. Difficulty? Seems weird, but the clamoring for Megaman online is always way louder than the sales let on…
Star Force 2 and 3 sold less than half of what the latter Battle Network games achieved, ZX didn’t catch on and if you look at reviews of the time, critics were sick of what they saw as cheap, samey sequels flooding the market with outdated gameplay.
This is nasty as hell to me. I know they made like eight or nine RPGs in as many years between Battle Network and Star Force, but tbh I’ve always thought the MM seeies broadly was really versatile. Also “outdated” is so silly.
Sure would be nice to see them do that Mega Man X9 they teased in the X Legacy Collection… or a new Legends 3 Idk…
I mean between Rockman & Forte and Rockman 9, a decade, less if you count the GBA version :) and yeah other Mega Man series did go on in that time, but people still crowed for a new classic Mega Man.
Also to be fair, most of the subseries had run their course by that point. ZX Advent in 2007, Star Force 3 in 2008. I do note how long it takes for new megaman games to come out though! Megaman once a decade!
Much has been written about Inafune’s departure as a cause, but somewhere I heard an interesting fact that around that time, Capcom was also changing how new entries were approved.
Mega Man was never big sales-wise. Only Mega Man 11 has exceeded 2 million copies after a steady trickle over 7 years; the number of games that exceeded 1M is in the single digits. But the games were cheap to make so they still achieved high ROIs, which at the time was enough to greenlight a sequel, but then they started prioritising total sales volume.
Star Force 2 and 3 sold less than half of what the latter Battle Network games achieved, ZX didn’t catch on and if you look at reviews of the time, critics were sick of what they saw as cheap, samey sequels flooding the market with outdated gameplay.
Now Capcom wants to harness more “core IPs” and keep them relevant by interspersing occasional new games with rereleases of older games and cameos in other games (Mega Man is in Fortnite now). That way they hope to prevent either absolute silence or “oversaturation”.
I know this thread is about GTA but c’mon, look at my pfp.
Y’know, the sales thing gets me. When the famicom was current, the ~2m sales that Mega Man 2 made were very big numbers. The series just kinda got outclassed by Capcom’s later hits like Street Fighter II, (12m units on home platforms alone by 1994) Resident Evil, (over 5m on PS1 alone, game also had PC and Saturn ports) and Monster Hunter. (PSP entries selling 1-4m units per entry, World selling 30m units) Idk why Mega Man never hit it massive though. Difficulty? Seems weird, but the clamoring for Megaman online is always way louder than the sales let on…
This is nasty as hell to me. I know they made like eight or nine RPGs in as many years between Battle Network and Star Force, but tbh I’ve always thought the MM seeies broadly was really versatile. Also “outdated” is so silly.
Sure would be nice to see them do that Mega Man X9 they teased in the X Legacy Collection… or a new Legends 3 Idk…
Also na this is a Mega Man General Megathread now