The likelihood of Marvel vs. Capcom 4 happening seems higher than ever right now.

It’s an exciting time to be a Marvel vs. Capcom fan right now. After years of silence, thorny licensing issues, and a seemingly strained relationship between Marvel and Capcom that painted a hopeless picture for the franchise, “Mahvel” is back with the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.

Fans have long been convinced that Marvel vs. Capcom will not officially return, but despite all the odds, the companies have come together again to not only collaborate, but to revive seven classic titles that have been absent from modern platforms for ages. This, along with many other factors, clues, and words directly from developers (both past and future), suggests that the chances of a new Marvel vs. Capcom game (or Marvel vs. Capcom 4, as many refer to it) happening are higher than ever right now.

Marvel vs. Capcom and the Versus series as a whole are extremely popular among fans and competitors in the fighting game community.

Even without a modern game active on the market today, gamers everywhere have kept these titles alive through a variety of means, including finding better ways to play previous games online against each other, adding games like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite via PC mods, and continuing to create content that not only delves into the details of these games, but also the landscape surrounding them and what the potential for a new game might be.

As for the main entries in the series, the last time we saw a new, complete Marvel vs. Capcom game was in September 2017 with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.

Unfortunately, many fans did not consider this entry in particular to be a “true” Mahvel game for several reasons, including its poor visual design, the lack of major core elements in the roster due to licensing conflicts for the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters, and the 2v2 combat format that emerged far from the traditional 3v3 with assists formula that people know and love.

This means that the last real solid entry in the franchise that people took seriously competitively (and still actively play) was Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 from 2011. Needless to say, we’re probably overdue for a legitimate new title in the franchise by this point.

Thankfully, things are finally starting to look up on that front, and you don’t have to look far to see the signs. First of all, as we mentioned earlier, the release of the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom Collection — which contains re-releases of X-Men Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and The Punisher — is a pretty clear indication that Marvel and Capcom are at least willing to work together again and see the value in the franchise.

This alone has fans thinking that a new game in the series may be in the works, but there’s more to it than that. Additionally, the developers behind Street Fighter 6 recently shared some insight into the latest crossovers between Capcom, Marvel, and SNK, and not only expressed their eagerness to make new co-op games with these companies, but also made it clear that seeing entirely new entries for Marvel vs. Capcom and Capcom vs. SNK will be determined by fan interest in current and upcoming products like the Marvel vs. Capcom collection.

“The development team at Capcom has big dreams,” Street Fighter 6 producer Shuhei Matsumoto told Dexerto in a recent interview when discussing the possibility of new crossover games. “Maybe there’s a chance to do a new Marvel vs Capcom game. Maybe there’s a chance to do a new SNK game based on Capcom.”

“I don’t know, but if it does happen, it will take some time and effort to [to] We make and release these kinds of games, but what we can do now in the short term is at least reintroduce these older games to a new audience, to people who might not have the opportunity to play them, because they might not be available on modern or current platforms.

“What we can do at least now is show that this series exists. We love these games. We hope you will love them too, and maybe in the future, if people get to know this series, there might be future opportunities to make bigger games,” Matsumoto concluded.

While Matsumoto’s words are already encouraging in and of themselves – especially since we all know that Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection will be a hit and it’s already topping the sales charts before even having an official release date – the developer’s comments sound similar to those of former Marvel vs. Capcom and Versus series developer Ryota Niitsuma during another pivotal time in Capcom’s legacy.

In January 2010, Nitsuma told Kotaku that Capcom might announce another Versus game if the current Versus game Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars sold well enough in the United States. He also expressed strong interest in making more Versus games with other companies.

“I would like to work on more games in the series, and more types of games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2,” Niitsuma said in a 2010 interview. “There are all these possibilities to work with other companies, and see what we can do with them. There are many game companies I would like to work with.”

“If sales are really good (for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars), you could see an announcement within this year,” Niitsuma said at the end of the interview.

Funnily enough, just a few months later in April 2010, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds was officially announced. It was released on February 15, 2011, followed by the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 update in November of that year.

Capcom later indicated that they already had plans to reveal MvC3 early in the development process and even before they had everything in place to bring Tatsunoko vs. Capcom to the West, but one could see that as further evidence that something is already in development now.

Ironically, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom didn’t do as well as Capcom had hoped in sales, yet we saw another Versus title announced in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. In 2012, former Capcom U.S. SVP Christian Svensson didn’t provide actual sales figures for TvC, but he painted a clearer picture of its sales performance.

“Investor Relations never released official numbers,” Svensson began in a 2012 post on the old Capcom Unity forum. “Let’s just say the performance wasn’t anywhere near that of Street Fighter 4 or Marvel vs. Capcom and leave it at that. I wish the game had more success (and as good as it was, it certainly deserved it) but I’m not dissatisfied with the North American performance in the end.”

With a new collection of seven classic titles on the way, Capcom developers expressing strong interest in making new crossover games, Marvel fully on board with Capcom to make the collection, and recent developer comments that sounded similar to what we saw the day before a big game announcement, the chances of a brand new Marvel vs. Capcom game appearing are better than they’ve ever been in history.

However, we’ll just have to wait and see how things develop, but for the first time in a very long time, it’s good for MvC fans to feel some hope.