For those of you thinking that Capcom's recently revealed Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was born from the strong sales of last year's Marvel vs. Capcom 2 downloadable release, well, Capcom's Ryota Niitsuma has some learnin' for you. "We really started working in development in summer 2008. But all the contract and legal negotiations -- that came way before that, as well. So ... we started to produce this game before the success of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 as a downloadable title," Niitsuma told GameTrailers, speaking through a translator during an interview at Captivate 2010 (found after the break).

Notably, Niitsuma's timeline contradicts statements made by Capcom last May. At that time, Capcom's Seth Killian told us, "What we're hoping is that if people get really juiced about [the MvC2 downloadable release], and we can show Marvel that there's a lot of heat behind this, then they'll open up the door for us to do something with '3,' which is something we'd love to do." Boy, the things a company representative will say to guard an early-in-production title.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/23/ma...e-summer-2008/