Despite some fans taking umbrage with Ninja Theory’s DMC reboot at the time of release, Capcom Director Hideaki Itsuno has allayed fears that the lukewarm reception and subsequently less-than-stellar sales have killed off the Devil May Cry series.
Itsuno was quizzed by GameSpot following the recent release of the Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition on current-gen consoles, thought the developer was quick to note that the future of the franchise wasn’t contingent on the success of the remastered port.
I think it’s a bit of a misunderstanding. At the time of Devil May Cry 4, I spoke to an interviewer in Japan and I had given a message to the fans at the end of the interview saying “Let us know what you want to see in the future of DMC.” I spoke to the same guy this time around for the special edition and I kind of just made an off-the-cuff comment along the lines of, “We’re always listening to your feedback, please buy the special edition.”
So I think the fans with internet have taken that there is a literal survey somewhere with check boxes that will feed into a future game, but it was just a general comment on my part saying that Capcom values fan feedback.
As for DMC, Ninja Theory made a lot of changes to the Devil May Cry formula, whisking roguish demon-hunter Dante back to his early days battling the supernatural. Had it gone on to sell gangbusters, Capcom could have been staring at the face of the franchise moving forward, but instead the immediate future of Dante remains shrouded in mystery now that Ninja Theory has gone on to work on its own new IP, Hellblade.
Speaking about the divisive nature of its launch, here’s what Itsuno had to say about the reboot’s launch two years ago.
If it had been a world changing hit, it might have changed the course of the series by becoming the new DMC. But at the same time, if it was a lot less successful than it was, it might have just been a flash in the pan failure that never got followed through with the definitive edition this year. In a way, I’m actually really pleased of where we were able to hit between those two separate extremes.
At the moment, it seems that the Devil May Cry franchise is simmering in a state of limbo – no pun intended – with little-to-no word on a potential sequel to Ninja Theory’s bold reimagining or a bona fide Devil May Cry 5.