If you haven’t heard of it before, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond is a currently in development mod that expands on Capcom’s 2017 crossover fighting game. The overhaul is putting a major focus on the game’s visuals, which were among the main complaints fans had about the game, as well as adding balance changes and new features to breathe new life into what has become the black sheep of the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
Massive MvC fan and prominent content creator, Maximilian, has enlisted the assistance of many talented individuals to work on this mod, and the recent gameplay breakdown live stream they held showed just how elaborate this mod truly is. Naturally, a project of this scope and size being made has raised some concern from fans who are worried it might ultimately get shut down by Capcom and/or Marvel, and Max has addressed these concerns in one of his latest videos.
Max starts out by discussing a mod that was made for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered called “H2M” that aimed to expand on the title with a lot of new additions. From new guns to movement options, this mod effectively transformed the game into Modern Warfare 2 remastered.
This fan-made expansion upgraded the game in a multitude of different ways as a means of making the experience all the better for fans. As Max notes, though, right before the mod was released the creators of it were served a cease and desist from Activision that shut the whole thing down.
Max brings this COD mod up because a lot of fans were quick to notice the parallels between what it was doing for Modern Warfare Remastered and what Beyond is doing for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. If the Call of Duty mod got shut down, doesn’t that mean the same thing is going to happen to Max’s big project?
Well, it’s worth noting that any rights holders of any IP can choose to shut down nearly anything that uses their products in a variety of different ways. For example, though it is extremely unlikely Capcom could technically serve someone a cease and desist for simply streaming one of their games or uploading gameplay to YouTube, though there are a number of reasons why that isn’t the most realistic scenario.
However, when it comes to adding things to an existing game and then releasing it for fans to download, things get a lot more dicey very quickly. Generally speaking, video game companies (and rights holders in any media) tend to crack down on people when these mods and projects involve charging real money for them.
Some modders will develop mods and then put them behind a paywall, like Patreon, which is much more likely to get you shut down than simply streaming the game on Twitch. Max explains up front that one big key to all of this is that the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite & Beyond mod is set to be available to everyone free of charge.
He then goes on to further lay out some of the major differences between MvCI&B and H2M. One important aspect of how things are being conducted is that the Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite mod project isn’t financially impacting Capcom in any way.
There currently aren’t any modern Marvel vs. Capcom or Versus series games that Capcom has released and is actively trying to drive sales to, and going even a step further, the Beyond mod is actually encouraging people to drive Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s sales up even more at a time where they would be mostly stagnant.
If you’re wondering what other precautions Max and his team are taking to keep the project alive without issue, be sure to watch his full video below for all of the details.