Is Devil May Cry a dead series?

[TheActionGamer]

I don't want to suggest that it's completely gone from public view. It's just that I wish more people everywhere were talking about it. The HD Collection doesn't seem to be getting the Megaman Legacy or Street Fighter Anniversary treatment nor has a new game out or announced.

A few minutes ago I was playing Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition trying to get back into the feel of things. The muscle memory never goes away if you've committed to the game(s). Every time I get back into this game, I always feel myself wanting more. I haven't played this game since 2016 and I'm glad I got back in even if I'm not as good as I used to be. I've done much better, believe me.

Capcom hasn't been promoting the collection with new content, a trailer, or even giving interviews. Maybe make changes to the DMC's. I wonder if DMC3 Special Edition from the HD Collection will get a proper port on PC. Capcom should be talking about this, not just us. Am I wrong for suggesting this?

 

[ToCool74]

Calling it a "Dead Series" seems a bit like you jumped the gun a lot, have you bothered to google search Devil May Cry as of late? I know I have googled it lately and there have been many topics of discussion as of late with the rumored Devil May Cry 5 being on the horison with fans talking about who is going to be at the helm of it and where the series goes from here, A more reasonable question would be is the series "underrated" which is probably what you meant, but a question of whether a series is dead usually goes towards a game series that has not had any sort of news in the last year or two like say a Dead Space or Silent Hill for examples.

 

[Dante's Stalker]

I don't want to suggest that it's completely gone from public view. It's just that I wish more people everywhere were talking about it. The HD Collection doesn't seem to be getting the Megaman Legacy or Street Fighter Anniversary treatment nor has a new game out or announced.

Capcom should be talking about this, not just us. Am I wrong for suggesting this?

This is pretty standard for the DMC franchise. It's been called a cult classic for a reason; only a small portion of gamers have connected with it. In comparison, Resident Evil and Street Fighter and such have a larger fanbase than DMC. I heard about those games long, long before I discovered DMC and that's only because they were more popular, ie, bigger fanbases.

No, you are right, Capcom should do more for the franchise.
In saying that, I can also see why they don't.

 

[V's patron]

To be fair games take a long time to make so it's a possibility the team just split up and went on to other projects.

They might come back or they might not so it's up in the air. I guess you can say its on hiatus.

 

[Sparda's rejected son]

I wouldn't call it "dead" but it feels very niche at times. Plus the title of "Devil..." Always gets raised eyebrows from my listeners. You say "God of War" and everybody talks and smiles, but saying "DEVIL May Cry" and suddenly everyone is apprehensive. Combine that with DMC's over the top Anime-ness and many a "gamer" suddenly become aloof to the series.
Then you have the issue of each game being fundamentally different. DMC1 is Resident Evil with demons, it is slow, methodical, "closed off." DMC2 is a uninspired sequal with interesting concepts. DMC3 SE is what happens when you take those DMC2 concepts and build a whole game based around it. This game also solidified Dante's personality.
DMC4 SE is DMC3 SE's extended DLC. Finally we have DMC the Anime that does nothing for the series and then DmC DE comes out and Dante's everything is revisioned. So what pray tell can you latch onto? Their our four different Dante types while Kratos is the same angry man in every game and that makes it easier to latch onto.
So in short DMC as a whole is niche and suffers from a identity crisis.

 

[Carlos]

I don't know why people think that Devil May Cry is bad just because "Devil" is in it. *Sigh* I will never understand it. It has always been deemed as a "cool" franchise. And that's the point of DMC. Casuals dig it. When the first DMC came out, my community college classmate was raving about it, saying it's a cool game. My brother, who isn't much of a gamer, he loves DMC. I love DMC despite the anime connotations - you don't even realize it's anime until someone else "brings it up." Capcom thinks it needs to go the direction that "DMC: Devil May Cry" did or Kamiya's idea "realistic" direction.

I mean, ****ing leave it alone... god. It doesn't need to be stuck into a "niche" box, or any kind of group. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just advertise it to everyone, and they'll eat the **** out of it. Everyone did when DMC3 came out.

What made DMC, DMC is the over-the-top dialogue, action, and yes, the personality of some characters - namely Dante. When's the last time you saw someone act cool like Dante does, and be this sarcastic little asshole that he is every other scene? Never. You know why? Because nobody is good at getting that feeling than DMC. Nobdody. And it was still there in the reboot (DMC: Devil May Cry).

If DMC5 is real, and it comes out - I hope to god it retains the feel of DMC/3/3SE. I didn't really have too much a problem with DMC: Devil May Cry, but DE was a little better. However, it wasn't a bad game. It just needed better graphics and framerate. More polish, really. The original DMC: Devil May Cry was pretty slow, and choppy at times - but I played through the game - that is saying a lot.

 

[Foxtrot94]

The DMC HD Collection that's gonna come out is the rerelease of a rerelease. To be honest I never expected Capcom to give it much marketing to begin with. However the sole fact that it exists means the series isn't technically dead. If it was, Capcom wouldn't bother porting it over to current consoles. They'd just leave it alone and not care.

As suggested above, it's more on a hiatus. We haven't seen a numbered entry in 10 years but in these years it's not like nothing regarding the franchise has happened. So I wouldn't say dead. But if Itsuno's project is not DMC5, we can start thinking about it.

This should go to Devil May Cry General Discussion btw.

 

[V's patron]

When people say DMC is niche they are talking market appeal. It hasn't made as much as the big hits (RE, Street Fighter) so they are probably hesitant to try again. Game's take alot of money to make so if it underpreforms is it really worth continuing right away? (rhetorical)

So it's not inherently personal why DMC hasn't had another game, it's just bussiness sense (misguided or not)

 

[AgentRedgrave]

Dead? No, the fact that each of the games are now gonna be on current consoles says there's at-least a big enough market for them. Capcom may be using this collection as A) A way of throwing old fans a bone while B) Attract new fans. As to build interest for a new installment

 

[TheActionGamer]

Dead? No, the fact that each of the games are now gonna be on current consoles says there's at-least a big enough market for them. Capcom may be using this collection as A) A way of throwing old fans a bone while B) Attract new fans. As to build interest for a new installment

Isn't that what Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition was made for years ago? Not saying you are wrong or right but Capcom isn't doing enough to promote active engagement with this series in my opinion. It'd be nice to see a comic book or another novel, any piece of media that strictly focuses on the series with teases for future games. I love these games but I can't stand the way Capcom currently treats them on the surface. Then again maybe they are saving that information for E3, assuming this DMC V is real. I hope they go all out in their marketing of the games. It'd be nice to see tie-in media, anything that causes a large resurgence in Devil May Cry.

I really want to be wrong and a hiatus would be a better way to describe the current state of affairs. I hope this HD Collection is more than just porting over the three titles to PC and the current generation of consoles. There is a lot more they could do. I do appreciate this series coming to PC, especially 3.

 

[V]

Hack 'n' Slash has always been fairly niche here.

 

[Carlos]

Hack 'n' Slash has always been fairly niche here.

Maybe to you. But Horizon Zero Dawn, Zelda are both saying "hi."

When people say DMC is niche they are talking market appeal. It hasn't made as much as the big hits (RE, Street Fighter) so they are probably hesitant to try again. Game's take alot of money to make so if it underpreforms is it really worth continuing right away? (rhetorical)

So it's not inherently personal why DMC hasn't had another game, it's just bussiness sense (misguided or not)

DMC isn't niche. Anyone saying that are wrong. The problem is, like this person alludes to:

Isn't that what Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition was made for years ago? Not saying you are wrong or right but Capcom isn't doing enough to promote active engagement with this series in my opinion. It'd be nice to see a comic book or another novel, any piece of media that strictly focuses on the series with teases for future games. I love these games but I can't stand the way Capcom currently treats them on the surface. Then again maybe they are saving that information for E3, assuming this DMC V is real. I hope they go all out in their marketing of the games. It'd be nice to see tie-in media, anything that causes a large resurgence in Devil May Cry.

I really want to be wrong and a hiatus would be a better way to describe the current state of affairs. I hope this HD Collection is more than just porting over the three titles to PC and the current generation of consoles. There is a lot more they could do. I do appreciate this series coming to PC, especially 3.

Capcom has never been good at marketing DMC even from DMC3 on. In my opinion, DMC3 is the pinnacle of the series, but they sold less than their expectation? Well, that's your goddamn fault, Capcom! I could say the same for both DMC4 and the reboot. Capcom is sitting on a franchise that's known as a "cool" series. It just needs better marketing, better advertising, and overall better positioning.

Capcom wants to chase the Call of Duty market? Well then, find $100 Million and ****ing advertise your games the same way. Dummies.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Hack 'n' Slash has always been fairly niche here.

That much is true, this genre doesn't rack up the same numbers as more mainstream ones, but to be fair, even if DMC has always been fairly niche in comparison to Capcom's big hitters such as Street Fighter/Resident Evil/Monster Hunter, it's never been dead and neglected either.

The problem is not how niche DMC is compared to Capcom's bigger franchises, it's that DMC4 cost a lot of money and only met a mixed reception, so after that they were wary about making a new game, fearing the same situation or even worse. Then they rebooted it and all hell broke loose. Two less than successful attempts lead us where we are now, I don't think there's much more to it than that. So it's pretty much as @Z218 said, it's merely a matter of being scared of a new game underperforming.

 

[V's patron]

Horizon Zero Dawn has alot of open world elements so maybe thats what DMC needs (half serious). I was hoping DmC would experiment with that.

Look as much as I was excited for DmC I can admit that it is was risky gamble that didn't pay off. Neither did 4 for that matter and bussinnes are conservative. Everything is risk versus reward and so far they like DMC but it hasn't paid off as well.

So it is what it is. We just hope they are willing to take that risk later on.

 

[Carlos]

Horizon Zero Dawn has alot of open world elements so maybe thats what DMC needs (half serious). I was hoping DmC would experiment with that.

Haven't you been paying attention? DMC3, and by extension, DMC4 and the reboot, have all been flirting with open world - they were still linear still, but open world has been there since almost day one. DMC was supposed to be open world, but because of the hardware, they had to constrain the gameplay to level designs. In DMC3, you traverse in teng ni gru almost entirely. In DMC4, you traverse in a mansion, and a church. DMC's design was pretty level-ish but was semi-open, and the reboot takes you to different levels but it's actually in two different worlds.

Look as much as I was excited for DmC I can admit that it is was risky gamble that didn't pay off. Neither did 4 for that matter and bussinnes are conservative. Everything is risk versus reward and so far they like DMC but it hasn't paid off as well.

THAT's Capcom's fault. You don't change a [popular] character's design, I'm sorry, you just don't. It's kind of like taking Kratos out of God of War, and swapping him with his brother (like Vergil). Thing is with Devil May Cry, you can swap out Dante for Vergil. Why? Because Vergil, unlike many brothers, is almost as popular, if not more popular as the original Dante. They experimented with Nero, and he, in his debut, became popular on his own, too.

Look. Capcom is just not understanding what makes DMC popular. The action genre is still as popular as ever, it's just that Capcom is looking in the wrong places.

 

[V]

That much is true, this genre doesn't rack up the same numbers as more mainstream ones, but to be fair, even if DMC has always been fairly niche in comparison to Capcom's big hitters such as Street Fighter/Resident Evil/Monster Hunter, it's never been dead and neglected either.

The problem is not how niche DMC is compared to Capcom's bigger franchises, it's that DMC4 cost a lot of money and only met a mixed reception, so after that they were wary about making a new game, fearing the same situation or even worse. Then they rebooted it and all hell broke loose. Two less than successful attempts lead us where we are now, I don't think there's much more to it than that. So it's pretty much as @Z218 said, it's merely a matter of being scared of a new game underperforming.

True but here in UK they failed to advertise the game as well as they could have until DMC4/DmC... a lot of people only heard about the first three by word of mouth including me. I specifically remember going into 3 game shops same day when DMC2 was out and seeing a couple of copies in only one of them, and the original only came to my attention after it had gone platinum and was re-released. It was like one of those games they shoved on the bottom shelf since no-one knew what it was and why so many people played the series out of order.

 

[Aurelius]

In my eyes, a series or even a simple game is never dead as long as you love it and continue to play it.