I really do wonder if things would have been better had they not put so much effort into the story and just put out a base game with a massive roster.
They looked at NRS' success and thought it was the story mode they needed to take them over the edge, but they had to make sacrifices along the way due to budget, inexperience, or what have you. But I feel like this game would have also gotten shit for doing MvC3 all over again, and even if they did that we probably wouldn't have gotten X-Men base and that's probably the biggest complaint for the game. Not only that, but Marvel Games keeps reiterating that story story story is at the core of everything they do. That bit was inevitable.
We've all written lengthy lists of the causes of why the state of MvC:I is what it is pre-release because of things Marvel and Capcom won't budge on, but man, I'm not sure what they could have done if they only had an AA budget to work with. Things would be more or less preferable to people, and PR could have definitely avoided some terrible mistakes, but I don't know if this game could have ever been the game to bring Capcom back or reach the expectations of MvC3. That probably drove the decision not to make it MvC4 in the first place.
I guess I'm excited just to have it, and would rather have it than not have it. Where Marvel and Capcom are as companies at this moment is not conducive to a proper MvC4, so I can rationalize the existence of a relatively budget B title like this, and enjoy it for what it is. This is like, one of my favourite franchises of all time so I was basically in no matter what (but the game also looks super fun to me), but despite that personal investment, I get many of the gripes and frustrations here, especially for a fully priced title. I just hope if/when the game gets to a point where people are satisfied with it, they do jump in, and stay in. But I have my doubts about that. I don't have faith in any GaaS title recovering from a commercial launch failure. This game needs that community to begin with.