Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Producer shares warm message to fans for the much-beloved crossover game's 10-year anniversary
The game is now almost as old as Marvel vs. Capcom 2 when MvC3 first released
February is an important month in the realm of Capcom fighting games with the company still releasing the majority of their new titles and big updates during these 28 days, and this year marks some substantial milestones for where we've been the past two or three generations.
Even just this week serves as the 10th anniversary of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, plus the 5th for Street Fighter 5, and the former producer of the Versus games has shared a heartfelt message to MvC's fans to commemorate the achievement.
Ryota Niitsuma took to Twitter this morning to share a handful of posts for MvC3's Japanese launch date anniversary that shows that he's still invested in fighting games and the love people show that title in particular.
"Congratulations on your 10th anniversary!" wrote Niitsuma. "Are you guys still playing? Are you all having fun? If you are having fun, I am very happy!"
Congratulations on your 10th anniversary!
— Ryota Niitsuma (@Ryota_Niitsuma) February 17, 2021
Are you guys still playing?
Are you all having fun?
If you are having fun, I am very happy!#MVC3 pic.twitter.com/4uYoI0CwsE
He goes into more detail in his Japanese posts where he says that they tried to make a game that could be played for 10 years, and now it's reached that time, which is fairly fitting seeing as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has seen a notable resurgence in recent times.
Niitsuma left Capcom around this time in 2020 though he says that working on Marvel 3 was a fun job, and while he may not be working on fighting games right now, he will continue to support its fans on top of being a fan himself.
When the game was still in development, the producer discussed how fans of MvC2 had many expectations as to how the game should play and feel which he wanted his team to capture while also drawing in new fans to the series.
色々経験させてもらった、とても楽しい仕事でした。
— Ryota Niitsuma (@Ryota_Niitsuma) February 17, 2021
今は格闘ゲームの仕事はしていませんが、
これからも、ずっと1ファンとして応援させていただきます。
And I will continue to be a fan of fighting games.
"There are a lot of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 fans, and they have certain expectations of what this game [is], how it should play and what the controls should be like, and we don't want to turn our back on those fans because we want them to just come in and start playing like they did the old game," said Niitsuma after the game's reveal via G4TV. "But at the same time, we want to expand that audience, reach out to new people, and there are a lot of Marvel fans who aren't familiar with fighting games and they want to see certain characters do these special moves that they're familiar with, but if they're not familiar with fighting games, it might be difficult. So, we want to make sure we implement a system that makes it accessible to them, as well."
From a sales perspective, they technically succeeded with that goal by making the Marvel 3 series of games the best-selling in the crossover franchise to date with over 4.5 million copies sold across all versions.
Marvel 3 remains one of the most-beloved titles within the FGC, but that doesn't mean the game wasn't met with its fair share of criticism and misfortune as well.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 released just nine months after the original title leaving many displeased that they'd have to buy that new version without anyway to upgrade what they already owned.
This was followed two years later by Ultimate Marvel 3 and the rest of Capcom's Marvel library to be pulled from digital storefronts after their licensing contract was not renewed.
The game would be revived for more modern hardware, however, as the companies announced PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC versions of the UMvC3 would be released to help build up anticipation for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
In 2020, Ultimate Marvel 3 saw a sizeable boost to its PC playerbase with the advent of the Parsec streaming service allowing players to match against each other better than what the game itself could provide.
This even led to Marvel tournaments making a comeback including the big Marvel Lives event last fall.
Niitsuma didn't work on any fighting games after UMvC3, but he seems quite proud of what his team was able to accomplish — and for good reason.
