The cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 cast a dark, waist-high shadow on the franchise's future. This week, however, Capcom gave fans a reason to hope by stating it has far from given up on the Blue Bomber, and that it is only a matter of time before we hear an official announcement for what the studio considers one of its most important properties.
“Mega Man is a key brand for Capcom and will remain so,” insisted Christian Svensson, Capcom's VP of strategic planning and business development, in a chat with GameInformer. "I don’t have any products we’ve announced publicly that I can point to and say, 'see, I told you', but there are 'top men' within Capcom thinking about the future of the brand and where it’s going. We will have official announcements in due course.”
Capcom's decision to scrap Mega Man Legends 3 and its 3DS companion, Mega Man Legends 3: Prototype Version, did not sit well with fans. This was especially true for those who contributed to The Development Room, a Mega Man Legends 3 “think tank” that had been set up to give the community a chance to build their ideas and designs into the final game. According to Svensson, dismissing the efforts of this community-driven initiative was the hardest part of Mega Man Legends 3's death, and Capcom understands it must work to rebuild the trust it lost following the site's closure.
“Our relationships with fans are extremely important and I know we’ve got some that are disenfranchised right now,” he admitted, noting, “Unfortunately, in this situation, there is no panacea. It’s going to take time to rebuild those bridges. Product cycles are long and it’ll be a little while until fans can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And the last thing I want to do is prematurely announce something in the name of sating the fans that gets canceled or redirected later, thereby creating an even larger wound," he said. “I can only ask for people’s patience.”
