Rights and licenses can make buying games a nightmare at times. It’s almost always why Marvel games and titles with a lot of licensed music are being pulled from downloadable services. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is one of those Marvel titles that, despite its legendary influence on fighting games and culture at large, has been dragged from digital marketplaces. And now fans are starting a campaign to make this classic of the 90s playable on modern hardware.
# FREEMVC2 12 years since Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was re-released and pulled out of stores and sent to digital jail 7 years ago. One of the most famous games of all time. Please RT if you want MVC2 out of jail. @CapcomUSA_ @MarvelGames & @DigitalEclipse https://t.co/OPWf6YS5RD pic.twitter.com/Gdwkbdqtqq
– Maximilian Tod (@maximilian_) August 2, 2021
Fighting game YouTuber (and the 2013 Killer instinct Cinematics Director) Maximilian Dood leads the hashtag # FreeMvC2, which gained momentum after a tweet in July from Digital Eclipse, a studio known for re-releasing old titles. Max set it out in his latest video (which can be found at the end of the article) and talked about how there are very few legal ways to play a copy of one of the most revered fighting games in the world.
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Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes was originally released in arcades in early 2000 before moving to Dreamcast a few months later. The ports for PlayStation 2 and Xbox followed in 2002 and 2003, respectively. The game was later re-released in 2009 in HD on PS3 and Xbox 360, which even supported rollback netcode, a feature that allows for smoother online gaming and the community to thrive and thrive compete with fewer obstacles.
Although there are some minor differences between the versions, the game was loved by many and is shown in tournaments to this day. There should even be an eight-player invitation to EVO 2020 before the event was canceled.
But this easily accessible HD version was taken off the PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store in December 2013, a little over four years after it entered the high-definition era. This move made the fighting game incredibly difficult (and often expensive) to play, and some of these routes are less than legal.
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There is no particular event propelling this appeal as the game is more than a year and a half past its 20th anniversary. But given its role in the fighting game community, it’s strange that a game isn’t easily accessible and the aforementioned tweet from Digital Eclipse was enough to get that initiative started.
Players, including Max, are asking Digital Eclipse to port the game to the latest hardware. Digital Eclipse recently received $ 6.6 million in funding and asked fans to inquire about what games the team should watch. The answers are full of Capcom games, which makes sense given that Digital Eclipse has re-released many Capcom games, such as: Mega Man Legacy Collection, Street Fighter collection for the 30th anniversary, and of course Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
Again, rights and licensing will likely make the process more difficult. But Max detailed how it could happen, quoting the Capcom Home Arcade bundle which contained the rare arcade title Aliens vs Predator. This unexpected release showed that Disney, Fox, and Capcom could all coordinate to release a game despite the setbacks. Digital Eclipse was also working with Disney when it came out Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and the Lion King in 2019.
