Well, let's recap - no pun intended. Devil May Cry is not a franchise that sells like hotcakes. No, it's more in line with popular but not so popular games. I guess Dragon Quest or the Tales series could be similar franchises to DMC than the infamous Call of Duty, Battlefield, Assassin's Creed, and Grand Theft Auto which sold like a billion copies in one week. That said, the series sells and people like the series except for DMC2 which had flawed gameplay but began the control scheme later DMCs would use and DMC4 for the sole reason of Nero and the story being focused on him and not Dante - kind of like why some don't like Metal Gear Solid 2. Capcom really wanted to make big sales across all their franchises even though some of them don't sell as much since the fan-base was already small to begin with or because the interest was dying out like with Street Fighter and Devil May Cry. Shooters became the main and over-saturated focus of the generation. Capcom only had one "shooter" and that was Resident Evil. So, Lost Planet was created, but it kind of went from cool idea to Monster Hunter with guns, to generic shooter - I would have liked the latter two. Resident Evil 6, I think, set an awesome control scheme, but it was more "off" compared to Resident 4, which many felt that RE games should continue like rather than what RE5 and RE6 did. Basically, it went from survival-horror, to survival-horror where players have a greater means to survive, survival-horror shooter, to survival-horror shooter, generic shooter, and weird, but cool melee game all combined. Capcom's focus on DLC and DLC business practices weren't helping fans' views on the company.
So, after 2 years, Capcom announces a new DMC game with a black-haired, gaunt, violent, smoking Dante and Ninja Theory's name was on the project. First, there was backlash on the design of the so-called Dante. Theories ranged from Dante being in hell and in a coma - continuing off of DMC2 -, to Dante being in some nightmare-induced world, a fake Dante, and other wild theories. Here's the thing that went of before DmC: Devil May Cry was announced. Capcom sought developers who could tell good stories and considering Ninja Theory's track record, they picked them, even though past games from NT were written by third-party writers. Capcom was also going through a "westernization" phase to appeal to the larger consumer-base in the North Americas, Europe, and Australia. Capcom wanted to westernize DMC and to use DmC as a fresh start. Ninja Theory, however, researched and understood what Devil May Cry was about, they wanted to continue what Devil May Cry did and add a more engaging story. Hell, most of the concept art they released had DmC Dante looking like DMC Dante; white hair, lots of red, leather, and no smoking but with twists to tie into today's fashion and ideas; the punk look, rebels, disenfranchisement, etc. Capcom wanted none of that, they wanted something extreme and unfamiliar. Ninja Theory complied and created the black-haired, more twisted, and violent Dante of TGS 2010. Both knew that there would be strong reactions.
So here we are, with NT and Capcom receiving tons of backlash, and their public relations confused, agitated, and frustrated by fans. DmC was described as an origin story, a prequel, and a reboot. Nobody knew what the hell it was until now; DmC is a reboot of the DMC franchise. It is an origin story as DMC3 was an origin story. DmC and DMC3 tells us who Dante, Vergil, Mundus, Sparda, and Eva are, what they did, and what made them who they are. DmC is a prequel, why, well if DmC2 comes out, then it'll be a prequel to DmC2.
Ninja Theory's track record is laden with glitches, simple combat, great art, atmosphere, and games with good stories before DmC. That made tons of fans worried that DmC would just be all show and no game. What wasn't said was that Capcom basically handled the combat and Ninja Theory handled the graphics, script, music score, etc. NT might have even been "mentored" by Capcom's combat developers and basically the mentors would tell them to do this and NT's employees would and learn from it. Another issue was their choice of the Unreal Engine 3, which can do dynamic terrain, but heavily taxes any current-gen system. MT Framework on the other hand, has been shown to be able to do high-speed combat and some dynamic terrain. The 30 FPS lock worried fans even more except for PC fans who found out that they would have an unlocked FPS counter.
So, fans were already worried by Ninja Theory, the developer chosen for DmC, a developer not known for good combat, and the PR. Tameem was obviously upset and dogged by angry fans. He has his own limit as does everyone else. What he isn't is a PR person. He's just another developer at NT. Bad move on being one of the PR crew. They should have hired someone else or had someone who understands Tameem and could translate and filter what he was saying. David Cage, anyone? Good developer, good ideas, bad way in how he puts his ideas and opinions out. Cage at times makes it seem that nobody, but his studio has done games that are emotional and thought provoking. Tameem and NT have good ideas, but the way he says some things angered people along with confusing them.
When he referred to DMC Dante not being cool now, but cool back then, it's true. Fashion changes throughout the ages. If it didn't then we'd all be wearing robes, tunics, tights, and other old, crappy, uncomfortable clothing. Fashion in the past decade is different than fashion in the 80's, 70's, 60's, and 50's. DMC Dante is cool; his design was based on what was cool in the 90's and 00's. Fashion changed and DmC Dante sort of fits what would be normal or cool in the 10's. Actually DmC Vergil would be more fashionable and DmC Dante is basically a poor man wearing whatever he can get. Leather jackets were cool back then. Still cool, but not as prominent as hoodies which DmC Dante and Kat wear and "hipster" clothing which DmC Vergil wears. What Tameem said sounded like, "DMC Dante's a loser". Sure, would you have a drink with someone in leather chaps, long, red coat, and fingerless gloves who is flamboyant, a little crazy, and dramatic? It'd be kind of strange even back then. But DMC is over-the-top. DmC is more grounded and you would still not want to have a drink with some wannabe punk, rebel, homeless guy with anger, identity, social issues.
At the same time, fans especially the more outspoken ones basically labeled DmC Dante as a drug addict, loser, and a pile of crap. To Ninja Theory, or any developer in particular, that is an insult. Instead, fans should have offered criticism and asked for changes rather than just spewing out angry opinions. inFAMOUS 2 had Cole with a full-head of hair which made him look like Nathan Drake, random tattoos, and all black clothing. Was there outrage? Yes, but fans asked, although angrily, for Cole to look like his old self from inFAMOUS 1. Y'know, fans could have just said, "NT, could you make Dante a little more muscular?", "NT, I don't like that Dante smokes, it's not part of what makes him cool", "NT, I'd like a longer coat, please." Same thing is sort of happening with Metal Gear Solid V where some people are just saying that Quiet looks like a ***** instead of asking why the hell she looks like this or something else than labeling and harsh opinions. People could have just said, "I don't like ____'s design", instead of saying "_____'s design is disgusting".
Long story short, Capcom didn't say anything about who's doing what and what part they had in Dante's design. The PR wasn't able to tell fans information without confusing them or angering them. Fans's outrage made it worse and basically Tameem snapped and stopped trying to be the nice guy. So, it's not just NT's fault, it's everyone's fault. But people just like to pick on the more outspoken ones, Tameem of NT who represented Ninja Theory and the fans. Capcom, you sly devil, keeping your mouth shut so little to no blame is directed to you.
Also, I'd like to say that Greg aka Gregaman did much more to tell people what DmC: Devil May Cry is than the trailers, articles, and PR did. Combat was the main focus and he basically showed us the combat: the thing fans really wanted to know.
