Dragonball FighterZ's Rise is Marvel vs Capcom's Fall

Dragon Ball FighterZ has seen tremendous success since it’s January launch, selling faster than any Dragon Ball game that came before it. The first week alone saw two millions copies either shipped or sold digitally, which is a historic pace not only for DB but for anime fighters as a whole. To put that number in perspective, Street Fighter V took two years to hit the 2 million mark, while Marvel vs Capcom Infinite only made it halfway there as of December 31st, 2017. Dragon Ball matched and surpassed Capcom’s biggest brawlers in a single week.

What is about this game that draws so many people to it? Why has the community fallen so hard for this new game? The pedigree of both the Dragonball name and the developer Arc System Works plays a part, as these players on social media will attest:

I'm so glad i bought DBFZ over MvCi from r/Kappa

This Redditor says it about as plainly as any one person can: “i was planning on buying MvCi near release, but the beta for FighterZ was starting in that same day, so i decided to try it out, i loved it, i bought it.” Smart timing by Bandai Namco, bad luck for Capcom.

Comment from discussion Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Won’t Be On The Capcom Pro Tour.

This analogy is, uh, colorful, but very indicative of how many players in the FGC are feeling.

In ending, if I had one game to play. I'd probably stick to DBFZ for one reason. Developer support. I'm 100% confident the game will get content update for years to come which will keep the game fresh and evolving. I enjoy playing MVCI more, I just want more content.

— EMPEROR PRYCE (@TheKombatLeague) February 15, 2018

This whole thread has some sound analysis, but it is a lot easier to support a game when you’re confident the developer will also support it. Arc has already announced eight DLC characters, and who knows how many more will follow.

However, could this changing of the guard fall just as much on MvCI’s stumbles? When announcing this year’s EVO 2018 lineup, tournament organize Joey “MrWizard” Cuellar made a great point about the longtime franchise’s newest entry: “It was on a slippery slope, it had a lot of competition going forward, and it just kind of fizzled. Not to talk smack on Marvel or anything. It's always been a great game for EVO. It was the main game for eight straight years... But I don't think people are playing it, and that's the problem.”

Still, despite DBFZ’s tremendous success and MvCI’s gaffes, some notable members of the community are holding out hope that Capcom can right the ship. Arturo “TS Sabin” Sanchez, whose long been a member of the fighting game community, showed that MvCI could live on if the community supports it:

Damn, a "dead game" raised more than SFV S3 yesterday. Don't listen to the memes and trolling people..it gets quite annoying.

You do not need esports for your game to survive.
You do not need EVO for your game to survive either.
As long as people bring the hype (1/2) pic.twitter.com/1crDaAGANu

— TS|Sabin (@nycfurby) February 8, 2018

And they enjoy playing, that's all that matters. Everything is like a self feedback loop. I do not give 2 fucks about MVCI. Yes, Capcom/Marvel messed up. However you should not shame anyone for trying to play what they love.

— TS|Sabin (@nycfurby) February 8, 2018

MvCI pro Richard Nguyen states that while Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite won’t be on the EVO stage, that is not a death knell for the game. “I think Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite not making the EVO lineup will impact the game's current image even worse, but I do think the game will still be relatively popular in the other major tournaments in the year," Nguyen says. "The much bigger negative impact that could happen is if Capcom stops further development of DLC characters and patches. If the future comes to that, I believe that there will be a large percentage of current players to fall off.”

Nguyen’s second point there, for me, is the most important thing. While he’s right that no MvCI on EVO’s main stage will hurt the game, its true death will come if Marvel and Capcom decide to stop supporting it. Capcom was able to recover from Street Fighter V’s slow start and now the game is stronger than ever, and there’s no reason why Marvel vs Capcom Infinite couldn’t see the same treatment with new content a groundswell of community support.

However, if Capcom and the MvC community are going to make a move they’d better do it soon, because fans and players are starting to look past the old guard to the shiny new land of Dragonball, including one name MvC can’t afford to lose: Justin Wong. who has already announced his intention to play DBFZ at EVO,  is also featured, saying “the scene for [DBFZ] is interesting because it’s everyone; people from the Street Fighter side, anime side, 3D side, Injustice side, etc.” Even Dominique “SonicFox” McLean, the NetherRealm king, said in a Twin Galaxies interview that DBFZ would become one of his main games.

If a new game has enough power to pull from all branches of the FGC tree, then Capcom and the MvCI faithful have their work cut out for them. The FGC can only benefit from more quality games to choose from, and it’s time MvCI be brought up to speed. When’s Mahvel? Hopefully sooner than we think.