Capcom has stopped the development of Mega Man Legends 3. The decision has nothing to do with the departure of Keiji Inafune, the publisher. In the last few weeks quite many games for Nintendo’s handheld is deleted.
In september 2010 announced publisher Capcom that the Mega Man Legends 3 in production, a game for the 3DS, the new handheld that Nintendo early 2011 on the market. A month later, it announced that Keiji Inafune, the creative mind behind the Mega Man games, that he Capcom would leave. However, that is not the reason that Capcom and the development of Mega Man Legends 3 has been discontinued. The publisher claims that the game ‘does not meet the criteria to be in full production to go’, without making clear what those criteria are.
Capcom is not the first publisher that a game for the 3DS deletes. Just a week ago, Ubisoft made it known that the development of Assassin’s Creed: Lost Legacy had stopped. Also other publishers are experiencing cuts in their portfolio. For example, Electronic Arts the development of My Garden stop and deleted THQ Saints Row: Drive By. Other publishers let themselves in less obvious terms. So is Bloodrayne: The Shroud for an indefinite period of time is delayed and seems to be DJ Hero 3 for the 3DS cancelled because of the disappointing sales of muziekgames.
Publishers seem to be less enthusiastic about the handheld of Nintendo due to disappointing sales of the 3DS. Sega is the most obvious. The Japanese publisher wanted with Crush 3D is the first 3DS game on the market, but provisionally. The game is ready, but Sega let him be until september on the shelf, in the hope that the handheld device at that time is better sold.