During PSX last December, Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 was dropped onto the PlayStation network as a digital download and for those who owned PlayStation 4’s, it gave them bragging rights over those who played on Xbox One or PC. However today’s announcement takes away the goodwill of getting to play UMVC3 early, that is if you’re a fan of physical media like myself at least.

Those who don’t own a PlayStation will finally be able to get their hands on the game digitally on both the Xbox One and PC starting March 7th. The news of the digital release on other platforms also came with an accompanying reveal that Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 will also get a limited edition physical release on the current generation of platforms, complete with new cover art as well as a comic from the creative team of Sean Chen and Gerardo Sandoval.

This is great news for those who don’t own a PS4, as they’re given a choice as to whether they want to get UMVC3 either on a disc or digitally, but as someone who only owns a PlayStation, this is pretty maddening news. During PSX, there was no word whatsoever that Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 would be coming to retail, thus players could assume that downloading it would be the only way to play the game. Now, a month after the event and after many I’m sure like myself bought this game on PSN riding the high of the PSX reveal of Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite they put out a blog post touting the “limited edition” nature of Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and ending it by giving links to pre-order.

As far as I’m concerned, anyone who bought this on PSN should be sent a physical disc if they wish because this is just really bad business and a poor way to rebuild a new community around this game. Do you expect that after getting people’s money who bought this for them to turn around and buy this again? It’s great if you don’t own a PS4 and were given months to think about which version you want to get, but I guess that’s the price you pay for getting the game early.

It seems that Marvel and their partners set out to do a really good deed by bringing back older, beloved games for current generation consoles, and then find a way to make that a bad thing. First with the broken and over priced ports of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series and now by punishing everyone who already spent money downloading Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 who would maybe have rather got the game on a disc.

Hey Capcom, this is coming from a site that’s dedicated to covering all things comic book video game related: you’re making me question whether I should bother to purchase Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite or not.

VIA CAPCOM UNITY BLOG