Like many things in the video game industry, appearances can be deceiving. According to one of its key executives, Capcom's inactivity with Mega Man wasn't driven by vendetta, but by a struggle to determine the franchise's future. "After the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 and Universe, there was a cooling down period where even discussing the prospect of a Mega Man title was difficult," admits Christian Svensson, Senior Vice President of Capcom USA. "The wounds were still fresh for us (just as they were for fans). We’re at a point now where it’s not as painful and constructive discussions are happening again."
This new 'cross' entry is a fascinating project, as it's not even something Capcom sought out. At EVO 2012, SF X Mega Man developer Seow Zong Hui approached Svensson, brandishing a laptop with a couple demo levels operational. Sensing an opportunity to do something special, Svensson quickly assembled a few key Mega Man fans from the Capcom office, including senior community manager Brett Elston, as a sanity check, to make sure what Zong Hui had developed was as good as it seemed. It was, and Capcom brought in some of its resources to assist in the game's development.
"We funded development of the project, provided creative input and direction, handled QA, marketing (including the great trailer created by Capcom-Unity’s own Chris Antista), sorted out legal clearances and naturally, handled distribution via Capcom-Unity.com," Svensson said. "I don’t want to downplay in any way, Zong Hui’s contribution. He was the creative visionary behind the game’s concept and execution. He was amazingly responsive all through the development process to our feedback, often turning builds into us every couple of days for more feedback. The iterative process was among the best I’ve seen."
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