Capcom: Dante changes needed for "visibility"

When Capcom brought developer Ninja Theory on board to make the new Devil May Cry, change was to be expected. But when a new-look Dante was revealed at this year's Tokyo Games Show, plenty of gamers voiced their disapproval.

Capcom executive Christian Svensson has told IGN UK not only was the company expecting a fan backlash, it was part of the plan.

"To be fair, I think some of the strategy here was to create that discussion and dialogue, and I think it drastically raises the visibility of the title versus if we had just done another Dante."

Svensson did point out changing Dante wasn't an exercise in annoying fans, but rather a directive that came from the very top.

"The original concepts that came back for Dante were actually extremely close to the Dante everyone knows and loves," Svensson explained. "The feedback that came back from [Keiji] Inafune and [Hideaki] Itsuno was, 'No guys, this needs to be completely different, we need you to go much further and be much more creative.'"

Inafune is head of production at Capcom while Itsuno is the long running director of the Devil May Cry series.