Couldn't resist responding, despite my attempt to cut back on the time spent here. First off, the fact that the DMC series' future is uncertain, is not news. I'm pretty sure either Itsuno or Kobayashi already made it clear in an interview regarding DMC4 SE a while ago.
''The series isn't dead, not as long as they can milk funds from it.''
I find this a bit of a strange thing to say, almost hostile even. How do you know Capcom is going to 'milk' DMC if they continue the series? DMC4 was a great game that introduced a new protagonist, for use in possible further installments. My point is, the story of DMC hasn't ended yet... in fact, Capcom has many avenues they could explore:
- A game about Nero, about how he is going to become even stronger than Dante... a game that explains where his arm came from and whether or not Vergil is really dead. And whether or not Vergil is his father (I don't know if DMC4 SE has explained this, I haven't played it yet).
- A game about Sparda, to explain what led to Sparda's rebellion (or even his death), or maybe something that further explains why the characters are the way they are.
- A new game about Dante, as he goes through hell to defeat Mundus's allies, or Mundus himself if he has been resurrected like DMC4 seems to imply. Or maybe he'll find Nelo Angelo there... basically, they could go with the story they intended to make for DMC4. Dante going through hell while Nero fights enemies in the human world, or both of them going through different versions of hell (the Fire Hell, Ice Hell, etc). It could open up some nice interaction between Dante and Nero gameplay-wise as well as story-wise.
- Maybe even a game about Vergil, about what happened in the time Dante didn't see him, when Vergil was still a kid. There's so many possibilities.
In summary, they haven't milked anything up to this point (not counting the rehash of DMC3 Vergil they threw into DMC4 SE). At least nothing of major importance. And I have no reason to think they'll milk anything with DMC5. Each DMC game was sufficiently different from the previous one, each one had an okay story to tell, and Capcom still has many avenues to explore. And I'm not even counting any new ideas they might come up with themselves.
Maybe Kobayashi didn't sound very enthusiastic to you...? I don't know, but I don't think we can jump to the kind of conclusion you made.
Even if Capcom aren't sure of themselves, of what they should do with DMC5 story-wise, all they need to do is read fans' ideas and realize that they threw away DMC4's original plot... which they could alter and adapt to the point where they're satisfied with it.