>>7292061Rockman EXE / Mega Man Battle Network was a huge push by Capcom on the dying Rockman franchise after bad sales of Mega Man 8 (and it's super under the radar spin offs), Slumping Rockman X sales and Rockman Dash (Legends) just not doing as well as they hoped with all the effort put into it.
Pokemon was printing money. So they went Pokemon.
Game launched with a manga already into Chapter 4, the anime followed a few weeks after, toy line, gashapons in the super markets, Super Cardass machines. It was a complete roll out for a Rockman franchise not since the 80s.
And it kinda worked.......
They pulled a Capcom Street Fighter 2 and to keep costs low but keep profits up and steady, reskinned the game for each new release for 6 sequels.
In the end. If Capcom really had to measure all the time, energy and effort put into EXE / Battle Network, it was a solid 7 out of 10 on the success scale.
Original / X series did less to get more money but it was also a different time