A rash of reports appeared this weekend after "Bionic Commando Rearmed" producer Ben Judd said "Bionic Commando" can't come to Wii's Virtual Console service.
The confusion escalated when Capcom VP of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson followed up complaints by pointing people to Nintendo. "This is NOT, repeat NOT, a Capcom issue," he said.
That's true, but not the whole story. There is no reason "Bionic Commando" can't appear on Virtual Console, Capcom head of public relations Chris Kramer told MTV Multiplayer last night, but it is true that it's entirely up to Nintendo.
Capcom does not control what appears on Virtual Console, Nintendo does, explained Kramer. Capcom licensed the rights to their games to Nintendo. Effectively, Nintendo has complete control over Capcom's library's appearance on Virtual Console. Whenever a Capcom game appears on Virtual Console, Nintendo's made that decision independent of Capcom.
Kramer said they aren't the only publisher who has this agreement with Nintendo.
In essence, there's no reason "Bionic Commando" can't show up Virtual Console, but Kramer has no idea when -- or if -- that might happen. Whereas Capcom is developing and publishing "Bionic Commando Rearmed," they only take a cut of the profits on Virtual Console releases. Nintendo handles the scheduling and technical work involved.
At least now I know who to get upset at for not having access to "Mega Man 2."
