Pokken Tournament DX was released the same week as Infinite on mutually exclusive consoles.note Pokken Tournament DX was released for the Nintendo Switch, while Infinite was released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Developed by Bandai Namco, another of Capcom's fighting game rivals (coincidentally, one of Bandai-Namco's other games like Tekken 7 featured Akuma before he appeared in Street Fighter V; probably as a cross promotion), Pokken Tournament DX outsold Infinite in several markets in the launch weeks of the title, despite releasing a few days later and on only one console.
Arc System Works, one of Capcom's main fighting game competitors, has two titles that can be seen as competing with this game:
Dragon Ball FighterZ, due to that game's similarities to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (3-against-3 fighting system, assists, and in general the chaotic nature of the game). This was turned up to eleven when FighterZ's closed beta was released on September 16, 2017, a few days before the official release date of Infinite.
On July 16, 2017, Arc Systems Works doubled down with BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, an actual crossover tag team fighting game that not only includes BlazBlue and Under Night In-Birth, but goes above and beyond by accompanying it with Persona 4: Arena and, of all things, RWBY, with other Universes being added as well.
The character roster in the base game features no X-Men or Fantastic Four characters, while the Marvel side is made up almost entirely of those present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.note Of the base roster, the only non-MCU character is Nova and even then, the Nova Corps is at least present in the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Some speculate this was a mandate on Marvel's part due to an Executive Veto from Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter.note Who has been phasing the characters out of adaptations and media as to avoid promoting 20th Century Fox's X-Men Film Series, as Perlmutter and then-Fox CEO Tom Rothman (who is currently the Chairman of Sony Pictures) were known for having a notoriously toxic relationship. This was also meant to decrease the market value of the X-Men so that Disney was able acquire Fox for less money in March 2019.
The themes for returning Marvel characters such as Captain America and Spider-Man were changed at the insistence of Marvel, who wanted their own composers to write theme music for their characters that sounded more similar in tone to the scores of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. This included writing the new themes to represent the characters' "personality and journey". As a sort of compromise, those same composers rearranged Cap and Spidey's older themes as the credits music.
According to the recording studio used for the game, Capcom and Marvel mandated that the voice cast couldn't voice characters from both the Capcom and Marvel sides of the roster. This is the reason why some of the returning voice actors only reprised certain roles.note Such as Laura Bailey not reprising her role as Chun-Li, as she was recruited to voice Black Widow; this is also likely the reason why Roger Craig Smith doesn't reprise his role as Captain America.
According to Jonathan Parkes, a competitive player who helped to create the game's character trailers, Marvel didn't allow them to show Capcom characters beating up Marvel characters in combo videos.
Exiled from Continuity: Like in many other Marvel properties in the '10s, X-Men and Fantastic Four characters were no-shows due to their film rights being tied to 20th Century Fox and Marvel's attempts to undermine them at that point in time. This angered fans to say the least. However, Storm is referenced by Black Panther in one of his quotes, though not by name.
Franchise Killer: The game's mixed reception and poor sales caused many fans to abandon it. As a result, there are currently no plans to make another Marvel vs. Capcom game for the foreseeable future because Marvel and Capcom are focused on other projects. As such, only time will tell if they'll ever even consider negotiating on bringing the series back (be it another main game in the series, or, far more likely, another Updated Re Release of an earlier title).
Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: The Collector's Edition of the game includes an in-game character pass that adds six DLC characters, LED Infinity Stones in a decorated box, and interlocking diorama figures of Chun-Li, Mega Man X, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel. The bonus items are infamous for their poor build quality, with the Infinity Stones often being compared to cheap plastic Easter Eggs.
No Budget: Reportedly, the game was made on a very low budget, with estimates being at least half of the budget for Street Fighter V's DLC. As a result, many of the character models were pulled from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and other older titles, with only slight changes to make them work in the new art style.
No Dub for You: In an inversion, the game does not have a Japanese voice option (this is justified, considering the time and budgeting constraints of the game).
Brian Bloom reprises his role as Captain America, possibly due to his current voice actor, the aforementioned Roger Craig Smith, already voicing Chris.
Eric Loomis reprises his role as Iron Man, despite the character having since been played by Adrian Pasdar and Mick Wingert in more recent appearances.
Chris Cox reprises his role as Hawkeye, despite the character having since been played by Troy Baker in more recent appearances.
T.J. Storm reprises his role as Strider Hiryu from Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 after being replaced by Marc Biagi and Mike Willette, who provided Hiryu's speaking lines and voice grunts in Strider (2014), respectively.
Chun-Li is voiced by Ashly Burch rather than her usual voice actress Laura Bailey, who instead reprises her role as Black Widow from her Disney cartoon appearances.
X's voice is provided by Ted Sroka, who takes over for the retired Mark Gatha.
Preview Piggybacking: Inverted. On the day of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's theatrical release, the official Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Twitter account released a teaser showing off one of Rocket Raccoon's Hypers as cross promotion. The tweet itself even lampshades this, being accompanied by the hashtags "#ShamelessPlug" and "#MovieTieIn".
Refitted for Sequel: As detailed in the previous game's Trivia page, Black Panther, Black Widow, Monster Hunter, X, Venom and Captain Marvel (then under her previous Ms. Marvel moniker) were considered to join the roster of MVC3 but were cut for varying reasons before making their proper Vs. series debut here.
From the Dead Rising series: T.J. Rotolo as Frank West.
From Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in addition to Ryu, Dante, Chris, and Frank: T.J. Storm as Strider Hiryu, Dameon Clarke as Nathan Spencer, Johnny Yong Bosch as Zero, Dan Woren as Arthur, Matt Riedy as Mike Haggar, and Siobhan Flynn as Morrigan.
Sequel Gap: The game was released in 2017, 6 years after Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and its Ultimate update.
Spoiled by the Merchandise: The DLC costumes for Chun-Li, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Mega Man X and Black Panther were first seen in Funko's line of bobbleheads for the game.
Trend Killer: This game was the nail in the coffin for cinematic story modes in Japanese Fighting Games. This was a trend that caught on thanks to NetherRealm Studios' Mortal Kombat (2011), which featured a robust story campaign. Injustice: Gods Among Us, Mortal Kombat X, and theirsequels also featured similar campaigns, and were thus seen as a new industry standard. However, when the trend hopped across the Pacific and Japanese game developers tried to emulate this success with games like Soul Calibur V, Street Fighter V, and Tekken 7, the results were considered lackluster at best and detrimental to the games at worst. Then, when Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was released with a cinematic mode that was widely panned and reputedly had a negative effect on the game's sales, that feature was quietly downplayed or absent altogether from subsequent Japanese fighters such as Samurai Shodown (2019), Soul Calibur VI and Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, while Street Fighter 6 completely retooled the singleplayer campaign into a Wide-Open Sandbox with a fully customizable avatar. Tekken 8, however, added a cinematic story mode of its own, and said mode has received a good amount of praise, though time will tell if this would restart the trend once more.
Early leaked gameplay footage hinted at the fights being round-based at one point, as the HUD was accompanied by round indicators in said footage.
Leaks suggested that the game was planned to get a second round of DLC, which would have included Asura, Gill, Vergil, Lady, Apollo Justice, Star-Lord, Ant-Man, and Kamala Khan, among others. However, the game's poor performance lead to Capcom ending support early, leaving those characters in limbo.
The Capcom UK team pushed for the inclusion of Akira Kazama from Rival Schools, but she didn't make the cut. Akira would have to wait until the final season of Street Fighter V to make her return in a mainstream Capcom fighting game.
According to former professional player Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez, who at the time promoted the game heavily and was in good graces with Capcom, the original plan for the end of its lifespan was to have more than double the amount of characters and stages. Had development not been canceled due to its financial and critical failure, there would have been 61 total characters on the roster, surpassing 2 as the biggest roster in the entire series.
Unfinished shaders found in the files that had ended up Dummied Out imply that the game was flirting the idea of a Cel Shading look like the previous game, but was left on the cutting room floor in favor of the more "realistic" (and much-maligned) shading style of the final product.
This was the first fighting game that Capcom had developed in-house in over a decade, as previous installments and Capcom's other fighting games had been outsourced to and co-developed with other game development companies over the years.note i.e. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 were outsourced to 8ing/Raizing, while Street Fighter IV and V were outsourced to Dimps.
On the Marvel side of things, the story's general premise seems to be a combination of Annihilation Conquest, where Ultron merges with a sentient technological virus to achieve a stronger form and threaten the entire universe, and Ultron Forever, where Ultron achieves godlike power (the Odinforce in that case rather than the Infinity Stones) and uses it to enslave/exterminate humanity. The first story trailer even shows him making Asgard his throne much like in Ultron Forever.
From Capcom's end, the plot closely resembles the ArchieMega Man/Sonic The Hedgehog crossover comic event Worlds Unite, in which Sigma forms an alliance with a being from an alternate universe, merges his and their universes together, achieves near-godlike power, and attempts to conquer the merged world. Though unlike Worlds Unite, he regards his partner Ultron here as close to an equal rather than a servant with a Restraining Bolt as he did with his captives Doctors Eggman and Wily there.
This is the first Marvel fighting game by Capcom, and the first Marvel game by Capcom since the beginning of their long-running partnership in The Punisher, not to feature any playable character associated with the X-Men, be they hero or villain.
, Capcom and Marvel mandated that the voice cast couldn't voice characters from both the Capcom and Marvel sides of the roster. This is the reason why some of the returning voice actors only reprised certain roles.note 