Devil May Cry reboot 'was always going to upset people'

The decision to reboot Devil May Cry was always going to upset some fans, Capcom has admitted.

The new game – which launches on January 15th – was initially greeted with dismay by vocal Devil May Cry fanatics. Gamers were unhappy with the new direction, the new UK?developer and even the hair colour of the hero Dante.

But Capcom’s European marketing boss Michael Pattison believes that as people go hands-on with the new game, opinions are starting to change.

“There is always going to be a core fanbase that will question our intentions,” he told MCV.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

Some how I feel taking a step backwards wasn't their intention, however. No matter how you look at it, people are not liking the direction. There is something fundamentally wrong with what they did and they don't seem to 'get it'.

[Blackdeath_663]

agreed.they knew people would be upset and that they would screw over a large portion of their fanbase,they admitted to doing so and yet they did it anyway. capcom have lost the plot.
i think its unfair on ninja theory because the reboot as a stand alone game doesn't seem all that bad at all but by changing the art style of the game,the story, and most importantly the core fighting mechanics of the game that the franchise is famed for AND have the audacity to call it DMC game is just ridiculous.
(all of this is without mentioning the awful comments of the obnoxious protagonist who is by far the most dislikeable lead character of any game)

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

That is exactly my issue. Stand alone game, sure this seems pretty good. But by making it DMC, they've forced comparisons, and the fact of the matter is, it simply isn't up to par.
Yeah I can't help but dislike the new dante. His attitude is horrendous, not to mention inconsistent.

[TheBatman_Fanatic]

I agree and I don't think they will ever see the problem until sales don't meet expectations, hopefully.

[Jinkies]

"believes that as people go hands-on with the new game, opinions are starting to change."

What the hell is wrong with Capcom, honestly why are they lying and saying stuff like this, opinions are not starting to change, people feel the same about it despite the demo.

It's funny how most the of the articles from big sites like IGN for example defending the game over the past few months roughly all say the same thing, the same thing this guy is saying about opinions starting to change.....I think this has all been set up, they've been paying sites off to try and turn public opinion around for real so they can stop lying about it. Hell maybe review scores have been payed off...who knows but since the game is so broken and buggy this can't get good scores.

[HardCover]

Alternatively: These people have more market data than you do, and would choose not to get in serious s*** by blatantly lying to investors just to bamboozle a bunch of pimply faced young adults on the internet.

[MrDead]

They should have an option to play using the old Dante skin. I think the game it's self will be ok but when I look at the new Dante I just want to brake his head, he looks like a smug tw@ and I'm sure he loves the smell of his own farts (South Park).

[PhoenixRising37]

As a wise man once told me, "haters gonna hate."

[FunAndGun]

That man is stupid, don't listen to him. XD

[PhoenixRising37]

It's stupid because if you show the slightest liking for DmC on here, you get a trillion dislikes. A bunch of crybabies if you ask me.

[Ben_Grimm]

Loved the demo and I can't wait to get the DmC and play the hell out of it.

What I loved about Devil May Cry was the over the top, insane action and the new DmC appears to have all that which I love.

Do I wish the original Dante was in it? Sure, I would have also loved for the original producer and team to work on this, especially since I'm one of the very few who loved Devil May Cry 4. But i'm willing to give this new one a shot with an open mind.

[DragonKnight]

"But Capcom’s European marketing boss Michael Pattison believes that as people go hands-on with the new game, opinions are starting to change."

Bullsh*t propaganda lies. Real fans of Devil May Cry have been near unanimous in saying how terrible the demo was and it released 2 months before the game releases, so you know that all of that is going into the game.

"“The last Devil May Cry sold well, But it probably hit a ceiling in terms of where we could take it in its current direction. People are being risk averse but if you’re not bringing anything new, you will get a volley of abuse from consumers."

Bullsh*t. Give us Nero's back story, that's one direction. Continue on from Devil May Cry 2, that's another direction. Hell, invent a new evil for Dante to fight, he is a Demon Hunter right? That should give you infinite possibilities. We don't have a problem with new, we have a problem when new is to completely change everything and in the worst possible ways. What is their to be confused about in that statement?

You've lost all sense Capcom. Just stop talking.

[Hanso]

agree also you know like in DmC "Your media brainwash us" basiclly all the reviews that are going to say best DMC yet when its clear to hardcore fans that combat needs some serious fixing! But even Tameem said the game is fine and they wont adress the "fan request" so i guess they dont need me and everybode else..
i will boycott DmC!

[DragonKnight]

Yeah, I read Tameem's tweets playing up the combat. And when a fan directly confronted him about the broken style meter with that video everyone has seen, all he could reply with was "Damn that's some fine comboing right there, why fix it?" Which tells us that NT are proud of how broken the game is.

How anyone can think that framerates that drop below 30FPS (and even having 30FPS for a DMC game is atrocious), a style meter that awards dodging more than actual combos, being able to stay in mid air indefinitely by spamming the same attack over and over as opposed to having to jump cancel to do so, forcing you to use a specific weapon on specific enemies which makes combat annoying when there are different groups of enemies, having no lock on but two dodges, and all the other host of crap in the game is a good thing? It's NOT!

[VileAndVicious]

Hanso have to disagree with you. There are definitely two different types of hardcore fans out there. Sure there are some fans that generally don't like the new direction and that's cool. But there are also plenty of former fans that do like it and are interested in the game the more they've shown over the years. Myself included, that 2010 trailer I hated it a whole LOT and I was pretty vocal about it. But became more and more interested with the same re-redesign of the the new Dante.

Combat is different it took me about 20 minutes or so to get used to the new controls. About the only thing I can say maybe "broken" the is the style Guage which is a very easy to pull off high rankings. As far as the game being to easy.. I mean its a demo of of the an early stage I watched a demonstration of dante must die mode and it definitely doesn't look easy.

[Hanso]

i think this will cost capcom a lot.. remember their initail goal was 5 million units LOL
i think life time sales are going to be 1.2 mill.

the 10 on disk dlc's found already surely wont help them lmao

[FarCryLover182]

They've already discovered the Disk locked content?? haha

[poo342947294792]

why is dante now a emo kid with makeups on and listening to Justin beiber :/

[Dread]

yeah and before he was just a regular dude.

I get why people are upset, but lets not fool ourselfs into thinking that Dante and/or Nero were not a bit metrosexual and emo as well.

I mean look at their wardrobe and hair styles.

With that said, and as a Devil May Cry fan, I will wait for the reviews before making a final decision on whether or not to buy it.

[Grimhammer00]

I'm not sure why there's sooo much hate.
It's a reboot. That means things are going to change fairly radically.

His look? Try devil trigger mode. Spoiler - so I won't say.

I love the demo and I've played every dmc game! Even that rpg devil something that had Dante as your rival. (Barely remember it ....but it was fun I recall)

My only potential issues with the reboot are the same I have with any game - no screen tearing and minimal non-game breaking glitches please. Lol

Vergil side story probably will only be 2hrs long but who cares! It's free with preorder...at least at GameStop, not sure about anywhere else.

[Lord_Sloth]

It is a reboot. None of us wanted a reboot, new Dante's attitude is annoying, the game's themes are uninteresting at best, and the gameplay feels meh at best. Don't even get me started on the music.

Also this new "Devil trigger" (which should be called Floating B&W) features somebody resembling Billy Idol more than Classic Dante.

[Psychonaughty]

Demo was excellent, I hope it sells 20 millions copies to shut up all the haters, not that I think it's possible to shut up the morons.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

20mil? Honestly I'd surprised if it even sold 1 million.

[Whitefox789]

Capcom wants it to sell 5 million copies,

Games like MGS4 sell 5 million copies.

Sorry to say but the DMC market is a niche one, dedicated and loving but a small one. This type of game isn't designed to appeal to the masses.

I mean the best selling of the franchise (according to VGChartz) is DMC3 with its initial release (2.09 mil) and its rerelease (2.21 mil) combined to 4.3 mil, running up in second is the original DMC at 2.99 mil, then the third highest being DMC4 with its multiplatform released being 2.73 mil.

I will also say the haters your talking about are the ones that invested their money into the original releases, so believe it or not their interest is important for sales figures.

Or are you like Tameem where his video game design philosophy is, "Usually the worst creative crimes are made when you're trying to make a game for someone else - some perceived demographic that, in all likelihood, doesn't actually exist." Even though the DMC franchise does have an existing demographic!

[Psychonaughty]

Like you said the past DMC market is a niche one so to try to appeal to them (many of whom have declared their intent to "not give Capcom a penny...") would be foolish.

I think this new DmC has the potential to be a lot more popular, at the very least the controversy has certainly raised it's profile and that will get it a few 100,000 sales extra at least, any publicity is good publicity and all that.

Ultimately DMC never interested me till now as it always looked like a very generic anime cookie cutter b-movie affair with an uninspired male lead and dialogue aimed at the same 12 year olds that thought Bayonetta was cool.

What I don't get is why people want Capcom or platinum Games (which has the original DMC team leader amongst others) to make the new DMC when the former proved they couldn't make a good enough DMC anymore and the latter proved with Bayonetta that they are makers of niche only products.

All I know is that the DmC demo is one of the best demos I have ever played and yes I know that doesn't always translate to a quality final product but first impressions are important. I expect from my experience and more importantly the general consensus from professional previews out there that the game will be getting many 95%.

Will it sell 5 million? I don't know, obviously my tongue was firmly in my cheek when I said 20million, ultimately I don't care how much it sells just that it's a great game, I suspect it will be at the very least a quality game and that will be good enough for me.

[poo342947294792]

cliffy B should play dante in the movie they gonna make of the billion of $$ from on disk dlc

[blackstrr411]

NERO backstory

[Hanso]

They could do a DMC 5 with Dante Vergil and Nero 2 Player online coop just imagine how awesome it would be
or i would like a Sparda prequel 1000years ago when the demons were about to invade earth and Sparda turned his back on them 0.0 A man can dream...

[KMCROC]

I liked the Demo, aside from his look it felt the same button mash here & there ,jump these huge gaps ,throw bad guy in air. May just get it for the hack & slash aspects.

[Grimhammer00]

Ok...so Dante isn't a Heavy Rock guy as much as a Emo-punk kid. Big deal.
What else?

You know.....I would've taken it a bit further and flipped the story. Make Dante the brother who falls and make Vergil the hero. I'd have dug that.

But as it is. I'm down. I'm not too much loving the media is evil story...but it's timely and pretty true.

I'm off to preorder this sucka now!

[Ducky]

Well, the previous DMC games were enjoyable because of the fast challenging combat, and Dante's personality.

The new game already lacks old Dante's personality, and the combat is now slower and simplified as well.

If you like the game, great. As a fan of the older games, it just looks like Capcom wants to milk the franchise by making a reboot that hardly anyone wants made by developers that seem to have no respect for the previous DMC games.
The reboot might be a good game in its own right, but it pales in comparison to the older DMC games.

[Whitefox789]

The whole thing with it trying to relate it to the real world is unnecessary. We have enough problems to deal with in the real world: video games, movies, sports, what have you...

Are suppose to be a slight escapism from that, I don't need to be reminded that the media is corrupted.

You can have games present real world messages but make it subtle instead of blasting it right into the audiences face.

[Sketchy_Galore]

The idea to cast pretty boy Heath Ledger as the Joker and make him look all dirty and goth was met with dismay and upset by Batman fans who thought the people behind this 'reimagining' were just trying to appeal to the dumb tweens by turning a beloved character into a brooding pretty boy. From the first moment he appeared on screen that reaction did a complete 180 and his performance is already regarded as a classic. I know NT are hoping for the same turnaround but after playing the demo the characters and plot seem worse than I ever even imagined. Full of the same dumb 'fight the power, maaaan' cliches that got old in the 80's with clunky slow gameplay to boot.

It's true that fans often jump to conclusions and are often shown to be wrong but using this fact to immediately dismiss any criticism as the rambling of a 'hater' just leaves you with.... well, with this game.

[Xklaw]

They disrespected the fans with this game, and left so many loose ties on the original Devil May Cry. I was willing to give this game a chance, not as a DMC game, but as an hack n slash, but ever since i heard of the fucking Vergil DLC they lost me as a potential buyer. In the words of the "great" new Dante : FUCK YOU!

[GSpartan777]

“The last Devil May Cry sold well, But it probably hit a ceiling in terms of where we could take it in its current direction. People are being risk averse but if you’re not bringing anything new, you will get a volley of abuse from consumers."

He needs to be careful with what he is saying, because DmC is not looking at guaranteed success sales wise. Far from it I will say. VGChartz just released their Pre-Order chart for the US and DMC is not in the top 30 with the lowest being Anarchy Reigns (X360) - 28,769. While you can question VGChartz numbers, seems very odd that a game like DmC does not make their charts.

With Far Cry 3 released the only big named games coming out next are The Walking Dead - A TellTale Games Series and DmC. The PS3 version is ranked #6 on Gamestop's most anticipated games and the Xbox 360 version at #11. They were at #5 and #10 earlier today when I checked and also remember that they have the exclusivity pre-order bonus.

On Amazon the PS3 version is ranked 7 and Xbox 360 version #10 in the coming soon section. These are not indicative of pre-order numbers and includes views and also wish/want. DmC does not look to be in that #1 spot anytime, though it could always have. But all major releases have hit #1 at some point prior to release.

The demo came out 2 weeks ago, yet youtube views are below 10k with only 1 above 20K. Heck, even on the CapcomUnity the views are not that great. Honestly, other than journalist joining this fight of defending Capcom/Ninja Theory to death and the arguing on N4G, I honestly do not think there is much going for DmC. You hardly ever hear anyone talk about it other than here on N4G.

[AtomicGerbil]

Of course they were going to upset some people, but why did they go out of their way to upset every Devil May Cry fan? I would liken it to Disney hiring Michael Bay to direct Star Wars 7 and casting Robert Pattinson as Luke Skywalker. Just sit there for a moment and imagine the backlash for that.

Dante's new look isn't the problem, most would of learnt to live with it. First and foremost is the new Dante's personality, it's one of, if not THE most dislikeable for a main protagonist. I found myself not caring one jot about the character during the demo. The combat is quite clearly a downgrade from previous titles, the lack of lock-on removes an important game mechanic which makes combat a little more of a hit and hope masher and many are perfectly aware of the (no) skill meter. I could go on but this would be a dldr.

What really twists the knife is that Capcom and ninja Theory are well aware that the complete and utter lack of fan service is going to drive the majority of original fans away, but they don't care and have no problem in sharing their disdain for the fans.

I can't comprehend what Capcom are doing, surely with their history in the games industry they would be intelligent enough to realise that to sell an entry in an existing franchise, you appease the fans first and build on that to attract a wider audience. Change is good, nobody can deny that but there are things that have to stay otherwise it might as well be a new IP.

[Whitefox789]

Such as Castlevania: Lords of Shadows?

Or am I the only one who thinks while the game is good, it still doesn't have the Castlevania soul into it?

If you changed Gabriels last name to something else none would be the wiser it was Castlevania

[Kalowest]

I hated playing "Castlevania: Lords of Shadows", that game sucks.

[monkeyfox]

Personally i never really got into the DMC series, glad to see they've taken a new direction... Maybe they will pi$$ of the hardcore but since when has this generation been about the hardcore?

[Dark_Overlord]

I wish Capcom would make up their mind, first its a reboot, then a re-imagining, then an alternate reality, then a reboot again. Even they're starting to trip up over the crap they're saying :/

[Whitefox789]

Left hand doesn't know what the Right hand is doing.