Marvel and Japan determining factors for UMvC3's format and release date

Capcom's Seth Killian has said one of the reasons Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 wasn't just released as DLC, is due to the divide over regional acceptance of digital extras.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Killian said Japan is "very much not a DLC market" and complied with Capcom's "strong roots in disc-based" releases, it only made sense to offer the title as a full game rather than release more characters as DLC.

"DLC sales in general in Japan are vastly lower than they are here, even with popular games," he said. "DLC is not as much of a going concern. And online gaming in general is a lower adoption rate. The percentage of people playing any given title online in Japan is much lower.

"Capcom has had different schools of thought internally. You've seen on the Street Fighter front has been a little more on the DLC side. But even on the Arcade Edition there was a balance there where they did do a disc release but they also made it available as DLC.

"Capcom obviously has strong roots in the disc based tradition. That's the way most games are sold in Japan, so this is the way to approach it naturally. Clearly they're active in a global market, but are putting their toes in the water of shifting tastes for consumers in other places. Having just an all DLC release would be considered a strange move in Japan. Having an all DLC release would be odd."

Killian also said a release date for a game is sometimes determined by licensing issues, which is why UMvC3 is being released a mere nine months after MvC3.

"Marvel is a big company that has their own schedule of licenses with windows," he explained. "They have a huge impact on things like that. To have the wide range of characters we've been able to have in the game... we have the license for this specific game, but other companies outside of Capcom have licenses for other Marvel games that impinge. So we have to find specific times where we're able to release products. It's on the Capcom side and on the Marvel side.

"I don't ask anybody to feel sympathetic about that. These kinds of corporate realities and legal contracts and things like that shape all of our lives whether we like it or realise it or not. The Marvel team had slightly different ideas than the Street Fighter team, so they're always going in different directions. But it's a piece of feedback from the Western side at least we've been very clear about, saying there's a lot of talk saying we would like to have this as a DLC option rather than a disc based release.

"Of course there are people here who still like the disc based release, collectors and people who just appreciate the disc who are worried if they're not able to go online then the game won't work.

"There's some from both camps. It's a developing process for Capcom."

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is out later this month on PS3 and Xbox 360.