The Game Awards 2025 presentation has come and gone. 2XKO, the Capcom Fighting Collection 2, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection and Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage were all nominated for Best Fighting Game of the year award, with Fatal Fury ultimately coming out on top over the rest.
While not directly tied to fighting games, the announcement of Mega Man: Dual Override could have some big implications for Capcom in the future. Mega Man’s return as a gaming icon has been long awaited considering that it’s been over six years since Mega Man 11 was released.
In many ways, it’s actually fairly surprising how Mega Man has become such a dormant franchise following his big return with Mega Man 11 on October 2, 2018. However, it’s apparently just in time for the 40th anniversary of the Mega Man series. It’s worth highlighting that, according to Capcom’s Platinum Titles, Mega Man 11 is the most successful game in the Mega Man series.
“Our efforts are focused on core IP such as the Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter franchises, and mapping out mainline series entries and sequels, remakes, new IP, and ports of content to the latest hardware.” — Haruhiro Tsujimoto
To this day, Mega Man 11 has managed to push out 2 million units since its release. This has marked it as Capcom’s 63rd best-selling game ever.
Mega Man: Dual Override appears to be the beginning of a new initiative discussed in Capcom’s 2025 Integrated Report. According to COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto, Capcom will continue focusing on their core IPs (specifically mentioning Resident Evil, Monster Hunter and Street Fighter franchises), but they also intend to support fanbases of some of their more dormant series such as Mega Man, Devil May Cry and Ace Attorney.
“Our efforts are focused on core IP such as the Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter franchises, and mapping out mainline series entries and sequels, remakes, new IP, and ports of content to the latest hardware. We consistently release two to three major new titles each year, but recognize the need to grow our pipeline going forward,” said Tsujimoto in the report.
“Capcom owns a wealth of globally popular brands, such as Mega Man, Devil May Cry, and Ace Attorney. We aim to expand our user base and improve our performance through new releases, remakes, and ports of titles in these series to new hardware. By enhancing brand power and cultivating loyal fan bases, we will grow these into core IPs.”
“Capcom owns a wealth of globally popular brands, such as Mega Man, Devil May Cry, and Ace Attorney. We aim to expand our user base and improve our performance through new releases, remakes, and ports of titles in these series to new hardware.” — Haruhiro Tsujimoto
While not specifically mentioned, Marvel vs. Capcom is also one of those popular brands that Capcom could end up focusing on at some point in the future. Notably, Marvel vs. Capcom: Arcade Classics was released last year, which has seemingly revived interest from fans.
Of course, Mega Man is a character that has been playable in Marvel vs. Capcom titles, as well as the Super Smash Bros. series. While his origins aren’t directly tied to fighting games, his history is closely connected to some of them.
According to a leak that has already correctly called a number of announcements within the fighting game space, Capcom is supposedly already working on a new Marvel vs. Capcom entry. Of course, this does come across as being somewhat difficult to believe considering Arc System Works is also developing Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls.
Regardless, it would seem that Mega Man is making his grand return to the gaming landscape. We could probably expect to see him more prominently in upcoming fighting games as well.
