Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite

• 1. Introduction

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  Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is a 2017 crossover fighting game built by Capcom. It sends heroes and villains from the Marvel Comics universe up against Capcom's own cast in tag team battles. Capcom expected the game to sell two million units in the fiscal year ending in March 2018. It sold roughly half that, about one million copies, by the end of December 2017. This was the sixth main entry in a series that had gone quiet since Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in 2011. Its return came packed with changes. Why did a beloved fighting game franchise strip out mechanics its fans had used for two decades? And what kept this crossover off the shelves for so many years before Capcom could even start building it?

• 2. Breaking The Formula

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  Two-on-two fights replaced the three-on-three format that every earlier Marvel vs. Capcom game had used. The traditional call-in assist attack, where players summoned a third character from off-screen, disappeared completely. Capcom replaced it with a system called Active Switch, letting players swap between their two characters at any moment, even mid-air or mid-attack. Active Switch drew on ideas from Marvel vs. Capcom 3's Team Aerial Combo and from Street Fighter X Tekken's Switch Cancel system.

  A Hyper Combo Gauge fills as characters deal or take damage, just as it did in earlier Marvel vs. Capcom games. Spending that meter unleashes a Hyper Combo, a cinematic attack that deals heavy damage to the opponent. Infinite also introduced Counter Switch, letting players spend meter to tag in their partner while being attacked, turning defense into a counterattack. The gauge itself held only four bars in Infinite, one fewer than the five-bar maximum from Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and 3.

  The control scheme went back to Marvel vs. Capcom 2's four-button layout: two punches and two kicks, light and heavy. Two more buttons handled character swaps and Infinity Stone powers. An auto-combo system let players repeatedly tap light punch to string together ground and air combos without memorizing inputs. Certain Hyper Combos could now be triggered just by pressing both heavy attack buttons together, instead of the precise joystick motions earlier games required.

  That combination of automatic combos and simplified inputs was built around one audience: people who had never touched a Marvel vs. Capcom game before.

• 3. Comeback By Design

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  Six Infinity Stones sit at the center of Infinite's design, each chosen before a match begins and each granting its own power. The mechanic followed a precedent Capcom had already set in Marvel Super Heroes, where individual stones granted unique abilities. Selecting the Power Stone gives a player Infinity Surge, a knockback effect activated at any time; selecting the Space Stone instead pulls the opponent in closer.

  Filling the Infinity meter halfway unlocks a second, stronger ability called Infinity Storm, functioning much like the X-Factor system from Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Under the Power Stone, Infinity Storm boosts damage output and combo ability. Under the Space Stone, it traps the opponent in a confined space that chokes off their movement.

  Story Mode offered a two-hour cinematic campaign, the series' first attempt at a fully told story. Arcade Mode sent players through a run of AI opponents before facing the final bosses, Ultron Sigma and Ultron Omega. Mission Mode delivered tutorial missions and character-specific challenges, while Training Mode let players adjust the practice field's own parameters. Players could also fight locally against a second person or against an AI opponent. Collection Mode stored everything unlocked along the way, including cutscenes, character and stage information, concept art, and audio tracks.

  Online multiplayer added ranked and casual matches, global leaderboards, replays, and eight-player lobbies with spectating. A separate Beginners League gave lower-ranked players their own space to compete for graduation into higher ranks.

  None of these systems arrived by accident. Every one of them traced back to a fight Capcom had to win before it could even start building the game.

• 4. A License Regained

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  In 2012, after Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 reached the PlayStation Vita, The Walt Disney Company chose not to renew its licensing deal with Capcom. Disney, which had owned Marvel since 2009, wanted to push its own self-published titles instead, including Disney Infinity. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom Origins were all pulled from Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in 2013.

  In May 2016, Disney reversed direction and announced it would abandon self-publishing for a licensing-only model. That decision reopened the door for outside developers, Capcom included, to negotiate for the Marvel license again. On the 3rd of December that year, Sony's PlayStation Experience event served as the stage for Infinite's official unveiling. Its first gameplay footage arrived the same day, right after Capcom Cup 2016 wrapped up.

  Norio Hirose took over as Infinite's director. His earlier credits included X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. Development spanned three teams: Capcom Japan, Capcom USA, and Marvel Games. Marvel Games Executive Producer Mike Jones called the goal a game that was 'more elegant and simplified' yet still 'complex and hardcore.' The team kept core elements like air combos intact while still pushing away from past entries' traditional formula. Producer Mike Evans said settling on two-on-two fights, instead of the old three-on-three format, took a long time to decide. He hoped a more manageable two-character system would let casual fans play without feeling overwhelmed.

  Developers compared the new Infinity Stones to the 'Groove System' from Capcom vs. SNK 2, a system meant to let every team stay competitive. Their stated goal was a comeback mechanic, something that could level the playing field and offset a character's weaker points. That same theme of 'infinite gameplay possibilities' is reportedly why the team named the game Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite rather than Marvel vs. Capcom 4. To set the game apart visually, the team built it in Unreal Engine 4, chasing a more cinematic look than Marvel vs. Capcom 3's stylized art.

  Infinite's budget reportedly ran to little more than half of what Capcom spent on downloadable content alone for Street Fighter V. To stretch that budget, developers reused assets from older games, including Marvel vs. Capcom 3, to save both time and money.

  Producer Evans and Associate Producer Peter Rosas reviewed every returning character's strengths and weaknesses, adding new moves to make each one viable. Roster choices balanced story potential against gameplay style, pairing small, nimble fighters like Strider Hiryu against large brawlers like the Hulk. Capcom's research and development team in Japan proposed the Marvel characters' designs, drawing from their comic book and film appearances. Marvel staff worked closely with the team to keep each character's portrayal authentic. At E3 2017, Evans said the roster reflected characters Marvel was currently pushing, or planning to push, in its other media.

  Marvel Games Creative Director Bill Rosemann tied the greater emphasis on story to Marvel's approach elsewhere. He pointed to Insomniac's Spider-Man game and Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy as recent examples of that character-driven strategy. At the 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit, Rosemann said Marvel Games would not force partners to tie their games into existing storylines. That policy gave Capcom's writers freedom to build an original story rather than adapt one already told in the comics. Writer Paul Gardner penned the story mode script, joining the project in 2015 and finishing his draft in 2016 under Rosemann's oversight. Frank Tieri, the lead writer on Marvel vs. Capcom 3, also confirmed he was involved with Infinite.

  Street Fighter V's rocky launch shaped several choices behind the scenes. Heavy criticism of that game's thin content at release pushed Capcom to promise a wider range of single-player and multiplayer modes for Infinite. Street Fighter V's online server problems also pushed developers to rely on dedicated servers from Sony and Microsoft instead of building their own. Evans pointed to Capcom's trouble building Street Fighter V's cross-platform network as the reason Infinite skipped cross-platform play altogether. Infinite also left out any in-game currency system resembling Street Fighter V's 'Fight Money.'

  That story work introduced a villain neither universe had faced on its own: Ultron Sigma.

• 5. Worlds Collide

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  Jedah Dohma visits Death and proposes an alliance to bring balance between life and death across both universes. Their plan needs all six Infinity Stones. Death tricks Thanos and Ultron into helping her, handing Thanos the Space Stone and sending Ultron after the Reality Stone in Abel City. Sigma intercepts Ultron there, and the two forge their own alliance, betraying Death to merge their two dimensions with the Space and Reality Stones. Fused into a single being called Ultron Sigma, they unleash an evolved Sigma Virus that turns living creatures into synthetic beings under their control.

  An alliance of heroes from both worlds holds Ultron Sigma to a stalemate and rescues Thanos from his prison, containing him at Avengers Tower. To earn their trust, Thanos reveals where the remaining four Infinity Stones are hidden, and teams of heroes set out to retrieve them. In Valkanda, Black Panther refuses to hand over the Time Stone until Ryu and Hulk defeat a Dah'ren Mohran infected by Ultron Sigma's virus. In the Dark Kingdom, Jedah is already using the Soul Stone to feed souls to a Symbiote creature, and he escapes with the Stone during the fight. At an A.I.M.brella facility, Spider-Man and Chris Redfield defeat MODOK's enforcer, Nemesis, to retrieve the Mind Stone. On the station Knowmoon, a team including Captain Marvel and Rocket Raccoon defeats Ultron Sigma's ally Grandmaster Meio and claims the Power Stone.

  Iron Man, Nathan Spencer, Hawkeye, and Doctor Light begin building a weapon meant to harness the Infinity Stones, only for Ultron Sigma to attack Avengers Tower. A freed Thanos attacks Ultron Sigma in the chaos, cracking the Reality Stone and forcing their retreat. Learning that Death partnered with Jedah behind his back, Thanos turns on the heroes and builds a gauntlet that absorbs Ryu's Satsui no Hadō. Dante reclaims the Soul Stone from Jedah and pretends to surrender it to Ultron Sigma inside their lab on Xgard. Since the Stone finds no souls to take, Ultron Sigma is overwhelmed and transforms into Ultron Omega, whom X destroys using the finished Infinity Buster.

  With the virus neutralized, the heroes discover the cracked Reality Stone means the two universes can never be separated again. They agree to protect the newly merged world and split the six Infinity Stones between them for safekeeping. In a post-credits scene, Jedah tells Death he still has another plan, right before Thanos arrives seeking revenge against them both. Believing the Satsui no Hadō can kill immortals, Thanos prepares to strike Death and Jedah with a Gohadouken.

  That story played out for critics first as a preview demo, arriving months before the finished game reached stores.

• 6. A Mixed Verdict

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  Game Informer's Suriel Vazquez and Eurogamer's Wesley Yin-Poole both warned the changes could divide a hardcore audience. Those two mechanics, they noted, had defined the series for nearly two decades. IGN's Daniel Krupa said the shift risked making longtime fans feel their game was being 'diluted' for newcomers. Vazquez and Krupa both welcomed the changes anyway, with Vazquez saying he preferred the series 'go for broke' rather than play it safe. GamesRadar's David Houghton and Kotaku's Ian Walker praised an early preview build for balancing accessibility with respect for the competitive community.

  VG247's Alex Donaldson wrote that the art style felt unfinished, calling it 'a mistake when compared to Marvel vs. Capcom 3.' Gamereactor's Sergio Figueroa and Destructoid's Nick Valdez shared that disappointment, criticizing the in-game character models and heads-up display. Figueroa wrote that the simplistic character designs, in his words, 'diminished the fighters' personalities.' Critics also panned the story mode demo itself: Polygon's David Cabrera called it a 'squandered opportunity' that hid the game's strengths while spotlighting its flaws. Game Informer's Ben Reeves added that the demo lacked entertaining moments and never showcased the 'dream matchups' fans wanted to see. Capcom responded by promising a day-one patch focused on improving the character models players had criticized.

  Metacritic ultimately logged average to positive scores of 77 for the Xbox One version, 72 for PlayStation 4, and 69 for Windows. GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain praised the simplified tag system for keeping its depth intact, likening the game to 'a blank canvas.' Polygon's Chelsea Stark and Jeff Ramos agreed, saying the new tag system opened up more room for creative combos. IGN's Darry Huskey called the switch from three characters to two the 'crown jewel' of Infinite's design. He added that the change made three-character teams feel like 'old news' by comparison. Game Informer's Ben Reeves said the streamlined system, along with automatic combos, let newcomers 'feel right at home.'

  That same panel of reviewers turned sharply on Infinite's presentation. Huskey called the character designs 'distractingly bad and stiff' and dismissed the orchestral soundtrack as 'forgettable.' Stark and Ramos called the visuals 'the stalest the franchise has ever seen' and compared the interface to unfinished placeholder graphics. Destructoid's Chris Carter went further, describing the art style as 'a crime against humanity.' GamesRadar's Sam Prell said the presentation fell short next to Marvel vs. Capcom 3's cel-shaded style and Marvel vs. Capcom 2's detailed sprite work. Eurogamer's Yin-Poole called the look 'an abomination,' arguing it failed to satisfy fans of either the comics or the films.

  VentureBeat's Mike Minotti criticized the smaller roster compared to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, along with how few new characters it added. Yin-Poole flagged the lack of playable women, while several critics questioned the total absence of X-Men and Fantastic Four characters. Reviewers linked that absence to the ongoing film rights dispute between Disney, Marvel Studios, and 20th Century Fox. Yin-Poole, noting that X-Men vs. Street Fighter had founded the series, called their exclusion a wound fans could never recover from. At the Game Critics Awards, Infinite lost 'Best Fighting Game of E3 2017' to Dragon Ball FighterZ. It also lost 'Best Fighting Game of 2017' honors from IGN, The Game Awards, and the 21st D.I.C.E. Awards, all to Injustice 2. At the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards, it lost two more categories, to Cuphead and to Tekken 7.

  None of that critical back-and-forth touched the number Capcom actually cared about most: units sold.

• 7. Missing The Mark

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  Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite launched on the 19th of September 2017 in North America and Europe. Japan followed two days later, with the game arriving on PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. Capcom sold it in three editions: a standard version, a Deluxe Edition, and a Collector's Edition. The Collector's Edition included four character dioramas, of Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Mega Man X, and Chun-Li, built by TriForce. It also came with a case holding six LED-powered Infinity Stone replicas. A separate alternate costume for Major Carol Danvers was sold exclusively with the PlayStation 4 version. A story mode demo had already gone out on the 12th of June 2017, right after Sony's E3 press conference.

  Capcom marked the launch with its first global tournament series for the game, called Battle for the Stones. Seven Marvel vs. Capcom 3 champions from the Evolution Championship Series received special invitations, joining winners from six community events billed as 'Infinity Stone Tournaments.' Each event winner received an Infinity Stone that granted a real competitive edge. The Space Stone let its holder swap bracket position, while the Mind Stone let its holder pick an opponent's team. Other competitors could steal those stones simply by beating their current owners. The finals took place in Anaheim, California, on the 9th and the 10th of December 2017, with a prize pool on the line. Jonathan 'Cloud805' Morales won the tournament and took home an Infinity Gauntlet trophy.

  In the United Kingdom, the game debuted at only #12 on the all-formats sales chart in its first week. The PlayStation 4 version peaked at #16 on the individual formats chart, while the Xbox One version never even reached the Top 40. In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version reached #8 on the Media Create chart in its debut week, selling 8,273 copies. The Xbox One version there missed the Top 20 entirely. That total marked a steep drop from the 80,966 units Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds had sold in a comparable stretch. Elsewhere, the game reached #6 in Australia, #7 in New Zealand, and #6 on the United States' chart of September's top-selling titles.

  Capcom's own first-half financial report showed more than 900,000 units shipped by the 30th of September 2017. Capcom's 2018 integrated report summarized the outcome in blunt terms. The company said sales were driven mainly by 'deep-rooted popularity' overseas, but that the game 'underperformed overall.' By March of 2025, cumulative sales had climbed to 2.4 million copies.

  Almost none of that long climb had anything to do with what Capcom itself did after 2017.

• 8. A Second Life

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  In May 2024, fighting game community figure Maximilian Dood teamed up with modder Ryn, also known as WistfulHopes, to rebuild the game's graphics from scratch. Their mod, titled Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond, introduced a cel-shaded art style closer to Marvel vs. Capcom 3's look. What began as a simple visual update grew into something bigger, adding new art, new music, new modes, and balance changes along the way.

  More than forty people contributed to Beyond over its eight months of development. Maximilian said he personally covered a meaningful share of the costs needed to pay everyone who worked on it. Beyond was released online for free in December 2024.

  It took more than forty contributors eight months to finish Beyond, and Capcom itself had no hand in any of it.