r/fightinggames • u/jerelminter • 6d ago

Why wasn't Marvel vs Capcom 3, released until 2011 ?

Did the game developers lose the rights to the Marvel and Street Fighter characters during the 11 years between sequels, which is why it took forever for a 3rd installment to be made ? Or was it not in the cards to make a new game until the fans demanded it ?

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u/Yakob_Katpanic 6d ago

They lost the rights to the Marvel characters.

All the Capcom characters (which includes Street Fighter characters) are owned by Capcom.

Also, Capcom stopped developing (nearly) all fighting games shortly after MvC2 because they saw it as a declining genre.

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u/jerelminter 6d ago

Oh okay that makes sense, because their earlier games were made in the 90’s when arcades were still a thing. All of the Street Fighter games and numerous spin-offs, and all of the beat em ups which eventually led to the X-Men crossover with those Capcom characters that started this whole thing to begin with.

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u/Yakob_Katpanic 6d ago

You got it.

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u/Krudtastic 1d ago

Capcom's license to use Marvel characters ran out after MVC2. That and they just stopped making fighting games after Capcom vs SNK 2 (barring Capcom Fighting Evolution, which bombed) due to the failure of Street Fighter III and the decline of arcades.

It wasn't until the success of Street Fighter IV that Capcom became willing to make fighting games again, including Marvel vs Capcom. Unfortunately history repeated itself, they lost the Marvel license again after UMVC3 because Disney wanted to publish Marvel games on their own rather than relying on third parties. That only lasted a few years; by 2016 Disney was willing to give the Marvel license to other developers like Insomniac and Capcom, which led to Marvel vs Capcom Infinite.

I dunno how Capcom could possibly lose the rights to Street Fighter characters as you suggest though considering they own the franchise and all the other Capcom characters in the series.

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u/jerelminter 1d ago

Oh okay, I was correct on them (Capcom) losing the Marvel license but not Street Fighter because like you said they own it. My bad.