Darkstalkers is one of those franchises that has its fans, but isn't the household name it deserves to be. It's a series of fighting games starring a collection of B-Movie horror icons such as a Frankenstein's Monster, a Vampire, a Succubus, a Creature from the Black Lagoon, a Yeti, a Werewolf, an Alien, among others. The first game was released in 1994 in what was the first years of the Golden Age of the 2D Fighter, when companies like Capcom, Midway, and SNK were releasing genre defining titles like Art of Fighting, Street Fighter 2, and Mortal Kombat. Sadly, this franchise, unlike Street Fighter, has been mostly ignored by Capcom since 1997, the last time a NEW game was released for the franchise. Since then, the only use Capcom has made of the franchise was to use some of its characters in their many, many spinoffs, or re-releasing the older games on consoles. Today, however, I'd like to enumerate a few quick reasons why Capcom should make a Darkstalkers 4. I'll start off with the less important reasons and lead up to the most important one.
Reason 1- The Darkstalkers characters still manage to maintain a high level of popularity, especially thanks to their appearances in so many games. Undoubtedly, Morrigan Aensland is the single most popular Darkstalkers character SPECIFICALLY because she has appeared in so many games, that she has officially appeared more in non-Darkstalkers games than there are games of the franchise that gave her birth! To name but a FEW: Marvel vs Capcom 2, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Capcom Fighting Evolution, Namko x Capcom, Cross Edge, Capcom vs SNK, and many more. Morrigan Aensland isn't the only character to appear in other games: characters like Jedah (introduced in the LAST Darkstalkers game), Lilith (also introduced in the last game) and Felicia (the second character with the most appearances) have appeared in many, many titles as well, and in fact their appearance becomes a BIG selling point for those games. Consider the fact that Cross Edge makes it a point to show three of the five Darkstalkers characters that appear in the game right on the front box art, with Morrigan and Lilith right up front, next to the hero. In comparison, the main heroine of the game is relegated to the top right corner of the cover. Also, the second trailer for Marvel vs Capcom 3 featured Morrigan prominently, fighting against Iron Man, whom we must remember was enjoying a HUGE surge in pop culture recognition thanks to the new Marvel movies. Hell, she was the FIRST female Capcom character announced for the game! Not Chun Li, Morrigan! The characters are STILL drawing attention, STILL appearing in games, and these appearances are prominent features for those games, not secret surprises. If the characters are still popular, that means the franchise still has hope.
Reason 2- The franchise still counts on a very dedicated, very enthusiastic fan base that eagerly awaits Capcom to recognize the franchise and give it the chance it deserves. Admitedly, this fan base is not as big as, say, Street Fighter's, but it IS a large group of people that STILL produce art, fan fics, and cosplays of the characters. Hell, Morrigan Aensland is actually one of the most popular characters to cosplay as!
Professional Cosplay model Jessica Nigri as Morrigan...Uh, that's a bit Not Safe For Work.
I found some other cosplays as well, but I wouldn't upload those UNLESS I have the permission from the cosplayer to do so. Also, some of those were Not Safe For Work...
Anyway, doesn't this fanbase deserve to have their dedication rewarded? It's been a whole 18 years since the last Darkstalkers game, and many people STILL produce fan works for the franchise, STILL dress up as the characters, and they STILL buy the remakes! More on that later...
Reason 3- The latest Darkstalkers game, Darkstalkers Resurrection, was little more than an HD remake for the second and third game of the franchise, was released without much fanfare, in the middle of March of 2013. It STILL managed to be the 7th top seller of the month for the PSN. I repeat, a game with minimum publicity and only half a month of sales, STILL managed to be the 7th best selling Playstation Network title of March 2013, receiving UNIVERSAL acclaim from websites such as Metacritic (holding an 82%, which is quite a feat), Electronic Gaming Monthly (which gave it an 8/10), Game Revolution (which gave it a 4/5). I need to repeat this: the game is little more than an 18 year old, two dimensional fighting game with upgraded sprites and graphics, and it STILL manages to gain a high score! Capcom hasn't released a new Darkstalkers game (and by new I mean NEW, as in with new stages, new characters, a new system, etc) since 1997. Every release of the franchise since then has been nothing but remixes, re distributions, and re releases of older games, and the franchise STILL sells. This isn't unprecedented, it's mythological: a franchise has been surviving for over 18 years thanks to crossovers and re releases of older material, and it STILL gets acclaim. The potential is there.
It is true that the current fighting game market, aside from no longer being what it used to be, is simply over saturated. To name but a few games that are currently out there: Marvel vs Capcom, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Street Fighter 4, Skullgirls, etc. Of those four games, three are owned by Capcom, meaning that, currently, Capcom dominates the fighting game scene. Capcom is itself over saturating this market, suffocating it. Street Fighter 4, for example, is actually sold in two different versions: the first version, released in 2008, a second version, called Street Fighter 4: The Arcade Version, released in 2010 with 4 characters added (from previous Street Fighter games), and the latest version, Ultra Street Fighter 4, which adds six stages and five characters to the roster (but they are NOT new because they appeared in previous games. They are just new to Street Fighter 4). Likewise, there exist two different versions of Marvel vs Capcom 3: the original version, and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, which adds 12 new characters (Strider Hiryu, Phoenix Wright, Vergil, Firebrand, NEMESIS, Frank West, Iron Fist, Nova, Rocket Racoon, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, and Ghost Rider). The differences between both games are, otherwise, minimal.
And this is what Darkstalkers Resurrection had to compete against. Not just that, but the games Resurrection was a remake of? They were ALREADY available on the Playstation Network AND Xbox Arcade! And Capcom still had the BALLS to think it'd sell? The fact that it did is simply astounding! Oh but more on Capcom's policies later, and believe me, I have words for it.
Darkstalkers Resurrection was a title released in an over saturated market offering NOTHING new (literally, in fact it was missing three characters) but shinier graphics and online play. It still sold. There were no new characters to play, the gameplay itself was over twenty years old, and it still sold. The market was over saturated with fighting games, and this game STILL sold well enough to crack the top ten game sales on the PSN for March of 2013, beaten by such timeless classics such as Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite. The game was horridly overpriced (15 bucks? I can get Darkstalkers 3 for less than that!) and it STILL sold. Imagine what a Darkstalkers 4 can do...
Reason 4- Capcom promised Darkstalkers 4 if Darkstalkers Resurrection managed to sell well enough. Upon seeing how the game did, Capcom's reaction was "not good enough, so no DS4". Capcom didn't try, OK? They didn't try at all. They released an 18 year old game with bells and whistles on it, barely told anyone about it, and expected the game to sell like hot cakes. And when it didn't, they pulled the plug on the franchise, pretty much stabbing their fans in the back. No, it's more like the company spat on their faces.
The fact of the matter is DSR was a terrible idea. No one asked for a re release of an 18 year old game, the demand was for a BRAND NEW GAME. People wanted a NEW experience, with NEW characters, NEW stages, a NEW story, and NEW music tracks! The fans wanted something NEW, not something re hashed!
One of the basic principles of capitalism is Supply and Demand: the consumer demands something, and the Capitalist supplies it. Sometimes the Demand must arise before the Supply, and other times the Supply gives origin to the Demand. In this case, Capcom did not meet the Demand, instead offering a different product people didn't want.
This is nothing new to Capcom. Back when Street Fighter 2 was becoming the company's big seller, they released not a NEW Street Fighter, but a remake of SF2 called Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition, which allowed the player to play as the four Boss characters from the original SF2. And then they released Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting, which was the SAME game with faster gameplay. And then they released ANOTHER game called Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers, which added four new characters to play as...and that's it. These were all the SAME game, just with different bells and whistles added on, all sold at full price.
In 2011, Capcom released Marvel vs Capcom 3. In 2013, they released Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, both games at full price (60 dollars american). The difference between the two are 12 characters. 12 characters, which could have been added by Downloadable Content, at a fair price of 2 dollars each.
The company also makes business decisions that, frankly, make ZERO sense. An example is releasing Tatsunoko vs Capcom as a Nintendo Wii exclusive. There was zero reason for this, and in fact could be said to have contributed to the games low sales. Another major cause for the comparatively low sales for the game was the fact that, shortly after its release, Capcom announced MvC3, pretty much destroying any hype that could have been saved for Tatsunoko.
Capcom needs to stop underestimating the consumer, and also to stop overestimating their capacity to create a product. It is one thing to re release a product to make some money. Disney re released their films all the time before home movie technology was available, and in fact OPPOSED the idea to put their films on VHS because it interfered with their tried and true business model. But that's not what Capcom's doing. They are not re releasing old games ten, twenty years from the original release, they are re releasing the games at barely a YEAR'S time between! This is bad for business because not only does it hurt the market, it treats the consumer like a sap, because the consumer will feel ripped off for not only having paid full price for what was in retrospect an incomplete game, but also because they are being charged the SAME price for the SAME game with some added material.
What happened with DSR was that this policy FINALLY exploded on Capcom's face. And it's not the first time it had happened! The fact of the matter is that Darkstalkers owes it's current state to Capcom's horrid policy for making sequels!
In Japan, the third game was called Vampire Savior, because the first and second games were called Vampire and Vampire Hunter respectively. Then Capcom dropped the ball and re released VS as Vampire Savior 2, adding some characters that were skipped in the original VS, but removing three characters that originally made it into the game. Likewise, at the same time they released Vampire Hunter 2, which removed FOUR characters in order to put in THREE characters that did NOT appear in the original VS!
Capcom is the biggest reason Darkstalkers, as a franchise, is dead. They are not giving it the support it deserves but they STILL milk it for all its worth. All the fans ever asked for was a new game, one new game, but Capcom tried to rip them off. True, the franchise is not the hit that Street Fighter is, but this just shows how bad an idea it is to try to make lightning strike twice!
It is wrong for Capcom to treat DS as it it were SF. Though they are fighting franchises, they are both very unique, and should serve two different market niches. Capcom could make money off the franchise if they gave it a reboot, give it a fresh lease in life. Make a new Darkstalkers that uses High Definition sprites, combining campy horror visuals with a quirky yet macabre sense of humor. It doesn't need to be a super hit, it just needs to be profitable. Whether they like it or not, Capcom has an obligation to repay the audience that has been patient and forgiving with them.
The consumer has given this company a steady and profitable business. The company has millions of fans across the world, whose loyalty is not only being abused, it's wearing out. The company's treatment of Darkstalkers is NOT the only point of contention consumers have against Capcom, as many previously promised titles have been unjustly cancelled, the most famous of which being Mega Man Legends 3. There are a lot of things Capcom needs to do in order to get their act together again, and making a new Darkstalkers game is just one of many.
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