This information comes from Capcom’s Christian Svensson…
“It’s still not [greenlit]. It’s green lit for prototype, it has not been green lit for production. The distinction is an important one in that the prototype green light allows the team to spec out what they’re going to build and put together a prototype, a playable version of the game to show internally. In this case we’re sharing the prototype publicly with everyone to collect feedback to then go back into the production cycle. Production would imply more headcount put against it and the other part is the full plan for what are we building the final product.
Part of that was supposed to be a collaborative effort between the development room and the fans in a very public, transparent display of what goes on behind the scenes. Part of that transparency is, and making clear to fans, is that we’re not in production. The pins and needles feeling that the team has every day of, “Is this game ever going to come out?” is in some ways shared by the fans who’ve put their blood, sweat, and tears into this thing, too. It’s an ambitious experiment in many ways and that community outreach and transparency is something I’ve been pushing more and more for years. When the team came forward with the approach they wanted to take with this title, I was extremely supportive of providing that level of visibility and input. It’s listening to the market in ways that a lot of Japanese developers don’t do.
The challenge with this of course is that you’re opening the kimono very early on and sharing details on a game we hope comes to market. All of our games start this way. It’s rare when something enters production that it doesn’t come out at that point.”
Man, could you imagine if Mega Man Legends 3 never made it to retail? What is we only received the Prototype Version? I think a lot of fans would be incredibly upset if that happened…
