Capcom’s tag-team fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is slated to be discontinued in October of 2018, according to a rumor circulating on the Steam user forums.
The rumor, which surfaced initially on Feb 10th, is from a user currently known as しいちかくwho claims to have received the information from an industry insider who performed freelance work on Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. This same insider was cited as the source who had earlier passed along information regarding the then impending shut down of Marvel Heroes Omega, which ended its active run on November 15th, 2017.
If this rumor is accurate, it means that Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite will no longer be available as a digital title via the Steam, PlayStation, or Xbox digital storefronts. It’s unclear as to whether or not this would also mean the end of the game’s online play.
According to しいちかく’s post, (which has degenerated into some really strange group infighting) the discontinue Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was made by Marvel, who not only forced Capcom to stop work on upcoming seasons of DLC content, such as characters from the X-Men series, but also refused to let the game be featured at EVO 2018.
“I accurately gave the date when Marvel Heroes Omega would be shut down in 2017 and it happened, it is a shame that post no longer exists as the MH forums both on Steam and Original forum was completely shut down by Marvel. However I was the one who made the thread warning against buying further microtransactions in Marvel Heroes even as far back as when David Brevik left Gazillion. My source told me as far back as then Gaz was going bankrupt when I made the post the thread was deleted.
My same source who works as a contractor in the industry has given me a date for when MVCI will be taken down from the Steam Store and it will be October 2018
I know that nobody has any reason to believe me, but I ask that you guys screen shot my post here and just wait for October and you will see for yourself. My source said that work has been done on a Season 2 for MVCI, there are DLC characters that were in development, however work was halted halfway and the season 2 pass was ordered to be discontinued by Capcom.
Currently Capcom has plans to release only 3 more DLC characters separately they will be released individually but it is not polished and
it is not guaranteed to be released either, the decision on this is still pending, work was ordered to be stopped when they were halfway with the 4th season 2 character. Please note that Disney has NOTHING to do with MVCI, it is Marvel’s decision to shut down MVCI and pull it from EVO as it has drawn too much negative publicity and complaints, the reality is Capcom wanted MVCI at EVO but Marvel refused. “
The post also went on to provide further insight into many of the complaints that fans had about the game prior to its release in September of 2017. It claims that the extremely unattractive visual presentation of the game and characters like Chun Li, who’s extremely poor character model cause quite the stir when first revealed at E3 2017, was due to Capcom handling the design themselves, with certain elements being farmed out to outside contractors.
“[T]he artstyle was done by Capcom because this game was the first fighting game that was built in-house by Capcom in over a decade. The problem was Capcom did not have the talent or the resources in-house to pick whatever artstyle they wanted, the resources and talent was extremely limited. Also the reason Captain Marvel looked better than Chun Li at first is because Captain Marvel was outsourced to a designer from France. The reason it took so long to fix Chun Li’s face was because they had to outsource her to another designer to do the fixes.”
While the supposed October demise of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is only a rumor at this stage, (one that must be taken with more than a few grains of salt) the future for the title is anything but bright.
Last week saw two big blows to the future viability of the game on the competitive scene.
First, it was excluded from the lineup of the world’s biggest fighting game tournament, EVO 2018, which will take place August 3 – 5th in Las Vegas.
And second, it didn’t make the cut as part of Capcom’s own Capcom Pro Tour series of fighting game tournaments.
While a lack of EVO presence isn’t necessarily a death knell for a game, (hey, only 8 games made the cut this year) the fact that a major franchise that’s beloved by the fighting game community like Marvel vs Capcom didn’t make it into the tournament in its first year of release is telling.
However, as big a blow as missing EVO is, the fact that Capcom isn’t even supporting Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite as part of its own tournament series is a stark warning bell – one that lends credence to a rumor such as this.
There has currently been no comment from Capcom on the rumor, and we also reached out to EVO’s organizer, Joey Cuellar to see if there was any truth to Marvel nixing Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s involvement at EVO 2018; however, there was no response at press time.
We will update this story as details emerge.
Do you think Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is going the way of the dodo, or do you think this rumor is hogwash? Let us know in the comments section below.