At a Capcom demo earlier this week, I saw updated versions of classics like “Bionic Commando” and “Street Fighter II Turbo” on Xbox Live Arcade.

I wondered how the company decides which games to port over to XBLA and PSN. “We go to our community to see what games should be brought back from the library,” said John Diamonon, Associate Product Manager at Capcom. They look at the poll results on GameSpot, among other things.

“To choose titles to revive, we see if we can give old franchises the modern touch, and we evaluate the fanbase and see if there’s a market for it,” he said.

One way of checking up on “the market”? Looking up Capcom games on eBay. Read more…

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.”

I was so busy reading all the comments today about N’Gai Croal’s reaction to the “Resident Evil 5” trailer that I didn’t get a chance to pass on the info that the game is now confirmed as taking place in Africa.

Joystiq and Kotaku have done the work for me, here and here, respectively. Both point to the Capcom blog entry that includes the announcement.

Here’s the how game’s producer Jun Takeuchi put it:

When we first started out to make ["Resident Evil 5,"] we had a lot of discussions within the team as to where we should set the game. Some felt that we should create something with the traditional dark, foreboding atmosphere we are used to.

As a next-gen game, others felt we needed to do something completely new. So we had these two completely opposing opinions. And on top of that, there was the story to follow.

We settled on the fact that we really wanted to show the origins of the virus. So for the setting we thought how about using the place where humankind was born?

Well, I’m not a scientist, so I don’t know how things might change in the future, but we thought we should use Africa, which is now called the birthplace of humanity, as the model.

Takeuchi then explains how themes and use of light and darkness should set this “RE” game apart from the others.

So, no, the game is not set in Haiti. It’s in Africa. Just like the first “Metal Gear,” the next “Far Cry” and the beginning of “Halo 2.”

I do believe I said months ago that this game looks like it was set in Africa. That’s back when people were yelling at me on the Internet, instead of yelling at N’Gai.

Earlier this week, I posted an interview with gaming journalist N’Gai Croal of Newsweek.

During our conversation about the portrayal of black people in games, we talked about the controversy surrounding the “Resident Evil 5” trailer that debuted at last year’s E3.

It depicts a white protagonist going into an apparently poverty-stricken village (the location is unspecified) and killing throngs of black zombified men and women (see the trailer yourself).

Croal’s reactions were so detailed and thoroughly-described that we decided to highlight them in their own post.

Multiplayer editor Stephen Totilo wrote about his uneasiness upon viewing it, and commenters from other outlets discussed whether or not the trailer was racist. Some agreed with Totilo, but quite a few people disagreed. Earlier this week, developer Morgan Gray explained that he didn’t have a problem with it either.

Croal’s first reaction to the trailer was, “Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game.” He explained his thoughts on the trailer and how he would have preferred Capcom to treat it:

“It’s like when you engage that kind of imagery you have to be careful with it. It would be like saying you were going to do some sort of zombie movie that appeared to be set in Europe in the 1940’s with skinny, emaciated, Hasidic-looking people. If you put up that imagery people would be saying, ‘Are you crazy?’ Well, that’s what this stuff looks like. This imagery has a history. It has a history and you can’t pretend otherwise. That imagery still has a history that has to be engaged, that has to be understood. … If you’re going to engage imagery that has that potential, the onus is on the creator to be aware of that because there will be repercussions in the marketplace.”

Here are more of his thoughts on the matter…

(As with all of the articles in this series, we strongly suggest you read the piece in full before commenting.)

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San Francisco — Ben Judd, a producer at Capcom, is sympathetic to many an online complaint about the two “Bionic Commando” games he is producing — the first major new ones in 20 years — perhaps because he too can be a pest.

In fact, if Ben Judd wasn’t good at being a pest, there probably wouldn’t be anything for anyone to complain about. When I asked him last week at the Game Developers Conference why the “Bionic Commando” series was coming back after so many years on hiatus, he told me it was because he kept nagging his bosses about it, for the last four years.

So, those “BC” fans complaining about the new PS3/Xbox360 game’s hot dog arm?

Judd has nagged worse, but does feel bad enough about the complaint that the color of the tubes on the hero’s arm are now “more like snake skin.”

Those “BC” fans not happy with the main character’s hair cut?

He’s impervious, saying “when you try to re-do a game that’s 20 years old, that nostalgia has crystallized.” The crew cut isn’t coming back, though maybe it could be an unlockable.

Those Nintendo fans feeling left out and aggressively petitioning Capcom to bring some sort of “Bionic Commando” to the Wii?

He’s reasonable, saying, “I understand where they’re coming from.” But he’s also realistic about the suggestion that it should involve swinging the remote to make the game’s hero swing his bionic arm: “If we did a Wii version it would not be with one-to-one swinging… you couldn’t do [that] for more than 10 minutes.”

So what about Judd’s own nagging? And how does the PSP — a system the new “Bionic Commando” is not being released on — play two key roles? You read about one of them earlier today.

For the rest, read on…

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Some of you may remember when Multiplayer pondered the question of who should make “Halo 4″. We’re pondering a new hypothetical today.

With the news that EA and Marvel have parted ways after the closing of the EA’s Chicago studio, it means that the license for Marvel inspired fighting games is now up for grabs.

That leaves the question that is near and dear to my heart … who will step up to make the next fighting game worthy of starring Marvel’s super heroes?

Once held by the 2-D fighting kings, Capcom, the license is not only a lucrative, but one that has spawned some of the greatest fighting games of all time. While the perfection that is “Marvel vs. Capcom 2” may never again be achieved, there are a variety of other publishers that could do the license justice.

I consider the top candidates — and some longshots — below.

Read more…

Remember “Dead Rising“?

How could you not: Capcom’s zombie action-adventure title was one of 2006’s bestsellers, enamoring gamers with its classic storyline and everything-is-a-weapon, sandbox-style gameplay.

Another thing the Xbox 360 exclusive had were amusing and fun-to-get Achievements. How did they come up with them?

Game designer Goda Hidehiro gave us his answers via e-mail (which were translated from Japanese). Here’s an excerpt about the easiest Achievement in the game:

Hidehiro: It would be “Freefall” or falling 16 feet. I imagine that those Achievements are achieved without the player knowing about them. I’m glad that [one] serves as a good hook to draw people’s attention, so that the player might think, “This game has some weird Achievements.”

Read on to learn about Hidehiro’s favorite Achievements, why he thinks gamers are obsessed with Achievements and what he’d like to see in “Dead Rising 2.”

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MTV News intern Steven Roberts is a fighting game expert.

The recent “Street Fighter IV” trailer got him thinking about what the next installment in video games’ most famous fighting series desperately needs. We asked him to share. So take it away, Steven…

Okay, so Capcom decided that they were planning to release “Street Fighter IV.” But what’s next?

Don’t get me wrong. I am excited to hear the good news. Better yet, I am excited to see the good news. Capcom released a teaser-trailer to the web out of nowhere. It featured a 3-D calligraphic styled Ryu and Ken sparring — though sparring sounds inappropriate considering the cans of whoop-ass opening up — under the moonlight.

Despite the jaw-dropping trailer, what’s next? Again, don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge “Street Fighter” fan. I have been a fan since playing “Street Fighter I” in a Brooklyn laundromat as a kid. My cousins, friends and I took turns playing each other in “Street Fighter II” on Super Nintendo. Hell, we still play “Street Fighter III” on the Dreamcast.

But what would make “Street Fighter IV” a unique experience? “Street Fighter II” introduced “loser plays.” It gave you eight unique characters – a number that has since grown – and there was one character that you were bound to relate to. “Street Fighter Alpha” introduced air blocks, chain combos, super combos to the series. “Street Fighter III” brought us, well, parrying.

Don’t take this the wrong way, because the ability to parry was awesome, but only experienced players knew how to take advantage of it. I doubt the average player, unfamiliar with fighters, noticed the feature. They were more interested with the new characters and sprite design.

The question remains for Capcom: How can they win over this new generation of gamers ten years later?

Read more…