For years, Capcom has dangled the carrot of a Darkstalkers revival in front of fans. The last time they stoked that fire was during the 2013 release of Darkstalkers Resurrection. Back then, producer Yoshinori Ono told fans that if they wanted more Darkstalkers, they needed to buy the Resurrection collection in big numbers.
“We won’t be releasing a new installment in the Darkstalkers series anytime soon. As we didn’t manage to hit our sales targets for Darkstalkers Resurrection,” Ono told Famitsu (via Event Hubs). “At the end of the day, there are just some brick walls that a salaryman can never overcome. For instance, if a game doesn’t sell over 2 million copies, then we’d have to put the brakes on any plans for a sequel.”
Ono is gone from the company, but that hope remains. Fans believe that if they support a re-release, there’s hope for a new iteration. That brings us to the upcoming Capcom Fighting Collection, which brings together Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire, Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire, Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, Cyberbots, and Red Earth in a single preservation-friendly package. Old habits die hard and fans still have hope that supporting the collection might see the return of one or all of the series. Mostly Darkstalkers though.
Capcom is shutting down that idea preemptively.
“I genuinely want these titles to be played once again on current-gen consoles. I also want people who may have seen them but never had the chance to play them to get this opportunity. That said, we do not think that this will necessarily increase the possibility of these series being revived,” said Capcom producer Shuhei Matsumoto when asked by Game Informer about the potential for any revival.
Instead, Matsumoto stressed that the collection is mostly about preserving Capcom’s history and introducing new players to these classic titles. He also mentioned the Street Fighter V costumes that are inspired by characters from many of these titles.
“I think classic materials should definitely be preserved. This is true not only for games but also for all industries and cultures,” he added. “My goal is to revitalize the community by doing so. I also want people who have never played Capcom’s past titles to get a chance to, and I want people who jumped in after Street Fighter V to be able to say, ‘I didn’t know that costume was from this character!’ and fall in love with the characters, world and story from these original titles. I believe one of my jobs is to create these kinds of opportunities for our players.”
Capcom Fighting Collection releases June 24 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on June 24. You should buy it to experience all these excellent Capcom classics, but don’t expect to see Darkstalkers 6: Vampire Hunter Savior anytime soon.
