14 DAY TRIAL // DmC Devil May Cry, the upcoming reboot of the classic franchise made by Capcom, generated a fierce backlash among the gaming community when it was first unveiled, but the Japanese publisher has revealed that it understands the initial reaction to the game, given how much it changes the mythos of the series.
Capcom’s Devil May Cry franchise is one of the benchmarks in the hack and slash genre, delivering top-notch experiences with each new installment.
With the upcoming DmC Devil May Cry, however, UK-based studio Ninja Theory is completely reworking the franchise by introducing a grittier visual style, a new version of its protagonist, Dante, and a new universe for him to explore.
As you can imagine, this didn’t exactly delight fans who wanted their old Dante back and even resorted to death threats against Capcom and Ninja Theory.
Now, ahead of the game’s launch in January, Capcom producer Alex Jones talked with VG247 about the backlash from fans.
“Yeah, now it’s fine,” he said about the feedback from fans, “but I could have done without having to fear for my life [laughs]. There was always going to be people who saw new Dante and who didn’t want it, and that’s fine. We understand – I understand – that people are passionate about it, so this isn’t a bad thing.”
According to Jones, Capcom realized that fans would eventually start to appreciate what it’s doing with DmC, so it kept releasing new screenshots and videos whenever possible.
“Being angry about it – yeah I get that – but we always said, ‘when you see the game and you play it, trust me, you’re going to understand that we were doing the right thing’. Now that’s happening, so yeah it’s vindication, but it’s not like smugly sitting back and going ‘ha ha’. It’s more like, ‘We understand why you guys had doubts, and we knew that we had to prove this to you, and we were happy to do it.’ That was our responsibility.”
DmC Devil May Cry is now one of the most anticipated titles from Capcom and will be released on January 15, 2013, for PS3 and Xbox 360, and later next year for the PC.