Ok, now that Bionic Commando is shipping out around the world, teaching everyone how cool it is to swing, I thought it would be a good time to call out a few special things for the fans.

First up, the Bionic Commando Capcom-Unity Pre-paid Visa Card. Say that five times fast, I dare you. Our bank card has a number of different designs but we have two made just for Bionic Commando fans. So when someone asks you sarcastically “What’s in your wallet?” You can respond: “Nathan Spencer, #$!!%&*!”. Or “Your mom”. That never gets old.

Also, as with all Capcom-Unity Cards, you earn 5,000 Capcom-Unity points for activating the card and 5 Unity points for every dollar you spend, 0.5% cash back on all signature purchases, big discounts/rewards at our Capcom Rewards Mall, 15% off all purchases in the Capcom E-Store, access to future Capcom open beta programs  and special treatment and perks at events like E3 and Comic-Con (details to be shared soon).

And a reminder, Unity Points get used for awesome auctions like these.

The other shout-out is for the critically acclaimed and best selling Bionic Commando Rearmed which we launched last year.

It’s available at the Capcom store and a host of other PC e-distribution partners if you want it on PC. For our console fans, it’s available on PlayStation Network and Xbox 360 as well. There’s no better time to reacquaint yourself with the franchise than now.

Have a look.

I just happened to notice that our fine MotoGP developers at Monumental have started their own Twitter feed and have started to engage the community directly. Stay tuned to Steve's Unity blog and to their new Twitter feed. All motorcycle fans or even just fans of good racing games should start following now.

While we haven't shown anything on the new game yet, I can say based upon the builds I've seen so far, we will be significantly raising the bar on all MotoGP titles to date with our next outting. Stay tuned to their Twitter feed and Unity blogs for more details. As always, you can participate in the MotoGP forum as well to provide feedback on the game's direction. Steve has fostered some lively discusson about how to curtail cheating and on bike selection. Go have your say.

There's several options when it comes to getting your fight on on PC with Street Fighter IV. Here's what you need to know.

Let's start at the top.

Obviously, Street Fighter IV PC will be available at retail on a normal Games for Windows DVD at retail for $39.99 (shipping in the US on July 7^th). Naturally, it will also be available for purchase in the Capcom estore.   Best Buy customers will have a little special gift in the form of an Eagle One animated comic DVD bundled with the game.

We’ve mentioned before Street Fighter IV PC will be available for digital sales at a variety of places (same price $39.99/€39.99). You’ll pretty much be able to take your pick of vendors if you want it digitally: Capcom.com’s estore, Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive, Metaboli, Gametap, Nvidia.com,   GamersGate and others to be named later.

Lastly, while I’ve hinted at it before, given that the mouse and keyboard really isn’t an ideal way to play Street Fighter IV, we felt we needed to take the opportunity to provide a turn-key solution by creating a controller/game bundle SKU in the US.

And so the bundle looks like this (tada!):

For $59.99, inside that big cool box, you will get Street Fighter IV PC in its own Games for Windows DVD packaging and the rare Street Fighter IV Fight Pad. Given that the game and pad normally sell for $40, each (good luck finding the pads though as they’re still in short supply, ebay prices on the Fight Pads,  often run over $60 by themselves), you’re effectively buying one and getting the other 50% off. (Or, if you look at it in the inflated ebay value way, buy the pad, get the game for free!)

The Fight Pad is the exact same as the Xbox 360 fight pad that is sold separately (Ryu design only), so if you have a PC AND an Xbox 360, it’ll work on both for future titles. For the PC on Vista (and presumably Windows 7, though I haven’t tested the new RC yet) the pad just plugs in and works “out of the box” with Street Fighter IV. It’s the same pad we were demoing on at Captivate a couple weeks ago. A painless and perfect SFIV experience.

We took the bundle out to retail buyers and we’ve built pretty much exactly the quantity we’ve got orders for. So when they’re gone, they’re gone. If you’re interested, do not wait to place an order as you will likely miss them.

The bundle is going to largely be available at two places: Capcom.com’s eStore and Amazon.com (I’d expect them to post the SKU up soon). Some of our subdistributors are taking a bit of volume so I wouldn’t be surprised to see places like Fry’s and Microcenter also carrying them too. If you see em out in the wild in July, get em while the gettin’s good

And sorry Europe/ANZ folks, unfortunately retail placed no orders in your territory so the only way you’re likely to be able to get your hands on it is via the Capcom eStore which now offers international shipping (we know, it’s expensive but these are our costs).

So we’ve had our Visa Card program launched and in the wild now for a couple months, I thought it might be a good time to update folks on how that launch went, what feedback we’ve received and what changes and improvements we, Visa and our banking partner have made.

First off, some apologies.

Some of the linkages between the card and the bank data and the award of Unity points “broke” (that’s a technical term) shortly after we launched and some people were concerned that they had been taken for a ride (we would never do that). It took us a little while to get them working properly again, but they do work and work well I might add. So all of your transactions will now be properly tracked.

 Secondly, it wasn’t clear to people when they would receive their points if they synced to Unity within the banking portal. In some cases, people needed to make a purchase on the card first, in other cases it worked as soon as the cards were loaded/had deposit put to them. It wasn’t consistent or clear. Similarly, people aren’t clear when transactions are getting posted to generate Unity points on an on-going basis.

Some Fixes

To rectify this we have implemented a few things. First, within a week of you syncing your Unity ID within the banking portal, you should be awarded points.To make something clear, transactions are not retroactive in the award of Unity points, so please link your Unity account within the bank portal when you activate your card. For example, if you spent $1,000 on the card, and then sync your account, and then spend $5 afterwards, as far as Unity knows, you've earned 25 Unity points (not the 5,025 you would have earned, had you linked at the outset). So don't miss out. Make sure you've synced as soon as you activate.

Second, we’ve created a nifty point tracker that will make it crystal clear when you’re on Unity, how many points the Capcom-Unity Visa card has put into your Unity account and whether or not you are actually synced (if you don't see a tracker following you on every Unity page, you aren't synced). It also provides handy buttons to bring you to the Rewards Mall and the Banking Portal. That way there won’t be any question of how or if points got to where they needed to be. It shows up on every page provided you’re logged in and looks like this:

Again, those points are updated weekly to reflect your purchases made with the card and direct deposits to the card.

Lastly, you might have seen we’ve taken a bit of a knock when it came to fees associated with the card. That’s not because the fees are exorbitant, but as originally posted, with no context, it appeared like you were getting charged for every little thing you did. We’ve subsequently provided a bit more explanation as to under what conditions fees actually occur.

For example, it previously said “customer service via phone: $1.50”. That raised the question, is that $1.50 a minute? Is that per call? The reality is, you have 7 free calls before there’s a charge and thereafter, it’s $1.50 per call, regardless of duration. The closure fee just said “$10”. Wait, I need to spend $10 to shut this thing off? Well, not exactly, if there’s a balance on the card and you’d like a check cut and mailed to you,  that costs the bank money… pretty close to what they’re charging for that service. If you just spend the money on the card, and just let it run down, obviously, there’s no charge for that.

Do Your Research And Compare

I would invite you to compare our fees to those of Bank of America ($6.50 -$20 a month for checking accounts, $39 per overdraft, $2 per non-BOA ATM fee - $5 for international ATM fees), Chase (Free - $20 monthly fees for checking – free version has no online services or bill pay, $2 per non-WaMU/Chase ATM, $27-$33 for overdraft or NSF fees)  or Wells Fargo ($5 - $25 a month for checking accounts (checking section), page 46 onward for other fees -  $2.50 per non Wells ATM transaction fee – balance inquiry is another $1.50 - $5 for international ATM fees – the higher end monthly accounts allow for a couple free ATM hits a month, first overdraft $25, subsequent overdrafts in a year - $35).

Compare a $0.50 decline on our card versus a $25 - $40 overdraft/NSF fee on any checking/debit account here. And checking accounts don’t have cash back and rarely have rewards.

Compare interest payments or a single late fee on a credit card versus no interest payments and no late fees on our card (even on those that do have cash back). Credit cards that do have rewards, have monthly or annual fees almost identical or higher than ours. Seriously, check your current bank as what you think is “Free” most likely isn’t or has strings attached/limitations.

The reality is, most charges at any bank are avoidable. The vast majority of everything you would need to do (track transactions, balance checks, pay bills, etc.) can be accomplished on the card portal for free... no need for ATM use or calls to customer service. Another example, one tip to avoid an ATM fee (and by the way, your existing bank certainly charges you every time you use an ATM that isn’t one of theirs, so this tip will work for you even if you aren’t a Capcom-Unity Visa card holder) is to do cash back at a grocery store teller, buy a pack of gum, or mints, or a cup of coffee and hit debit and get cash back. You’ll avoid the $1.50 ATM fee, and only have a $0.25 pin transaction fee.

For regular buying, hit “Credit” instead of “Debit” and use it like a normal Visa card and there’s no fees at all for signature transactions. Online purchases are treated like signature purchases. There’s never any fees and you always get rewards (cash back AND Unity points).

Tips from Current Card Users

A few of our users have provided some other tips, for example, Tom posted on the Ask Capcom boards:

I love the alerts.  I was at WonderCon a couple months ago and used it at a store two blocks away from the Moscone Center.  Literally as the clerk ran my card and handed it back to me, my cell phone (on vibrate), buzzed.  I looked at the screen and it had the actual transaction amount authorization on the screen, the time, the date, the merchant location, and what my remaining available balance was.  That was one of the first times I used it, and now I use it for all my everyday spending...because these alerts tell me exactly what's left, every time.  I also signed up for email alerts, so I get notified for everything.  Awesome security feature if I lose my card and somebody tries to use it.

Speaking of alerts and knowing your balance, there's no way you should ever get a decline charge or a negative balance fee.  It's pretty simple...if it says you have $35 in your account, you're going to get declined if you try to spend $50.  It's a way different than a traditional debit card tied to a checking account, because those tend to be batch posted, and these Capcom cards are posted in real time.  Bottom line:  no "oops" fees. That’s a big deal now that Bank of America has upped its overdraft fees to $39.

I tried redeeming my cash back a couple weeks ago.  There are two buckets...one is a "pending" rewards bucket that includes all my cash back from the online Capcom Rewards Mall plus all my everyday cash back, and the other is my "available" cash back.  It goes from the "Pending" bucket to the "Available" bucket after 45 days.  So I had a couple bucks in my "Available" bucket.  I just clicked on my "redeem points" link, told it how much I wanted to redeem, and hit submit.  It was immediate.  My available balance for redeemed points dropped to zero, my cell phone vibrated and I got a text message that I had loaded my card and it showed the new balance, and I went back to check my online account management site, and everything was reflected.

I am starting to substitute this Capcom Visa card for my regular checking account debit card, and have told my wife (I got her one, too), to put all of her spending on hers...because at tax time, I hate rebuilding an entire years' worth of spending.  This not only tracks every transaction online, but it also separates them all by tax code, so I know what's deductable or not.  It downloads into Quicken, MS Money and Excel.  I wasn't expecting that.  Showed it to a friend who's a realtor in Lake Arrowhead, CA and he showed us what he had just paid his assistant for 10 hours to do; same dang thing. He wanted one.

Tom has come up with some good ideas and feedback for how to use the card, and we think there are others that will have interesting experiences to share, tips for savings or ways to maximize rewards. To that end, we’ve formed a Capcom-Unity Visa Card group here on Unity, with its own forum, blogs and Wiki to help be a place with others can learn and share.

More To Come

On the positive side, we’ve been rolling out new rewards constantly and some of have been really amazing (from limited edition and Japan-only swag – often signed by producers, to Shawn’s smelly dry erase marker). As our rewards program continues to evolve, expect to see even more rare, more collectable, more valuable stuff hitting the auctions and raffles pages. The Capcom-Unity Visa card is a great way to earn points just from buying things the way you normally already would.

That and I’ve seen some of the new card designs we have in the works… I think at least a few Megaman fans will be pleased with the approach on one new future card design. Stay tuned.

If you've read this far and are not a card holder, but would like more information or would like to become a card holder, head on over to the Capcom-Unity Visa card portal.

In what will inevitably go down as the worst kept industry secret in recent years, I’m very happy to finally be able to confirm that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this summer.

The deal took a good while but it’s probably our most requested title to bring back, so Marvel and I and a few other people here at Capcom rolled up our sleeves and got it done.  I can’t stress enough, if you ask for something loudly enough and long enough, we’ll work very hard to make it happen.

So while you may have been able to surmise that something was going on with MvC2, we do still have a few surprises up our sleeves. Let me tell you a little more about how and why this version of MvC2 will be the definitive version.

1.       It’s based on the Dreamcast code base – While the PS2 and Xbox versions of MvC2 were great, there are a few niggling issues in them that have caused the competitive community to continue using the Dreamcast version of the game. We wanted to bring you the very best version of the game, so we listened to the community and started with the Dreamcast.

2.       There is online – With the game being developed by Backbone, we are using largely the same, critically acclaimed net code that we used in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix and with that will come our player match quarter mode/lobby system that has proven so popular. Naturally leaderboards and some form of stats tracking (details to be provided at a later date) will also be in the mix. So on the net code side, you’re pretty much assured the best fighting game net code ever created for consoles.

3.       HD upscaling options – Given that most people play Xbox 360s and PS3s on HD TVs, it’s important to help make the game look better. We’ve refined our real-time sprite filtering to use even more advanced techniques and we’re providing two upscaling options for the sprites… one we’ve termed “Crisp” the other we’ve termed “Smooth”. It’s a matter of personal preference for which one you’ll enjoy more. For purists, if you’d like you can use the “Classic” setting, which leaves the sprites completely unfiltered. Because the filtering is applied in real-time, you can change these settings on the fly, mid-match if you choose. Our producer will be showing you some comparison screenshots in the coming days to better clarify the differences. The backgrounds in MvC2 are all 3D, and when rendered at higher resolutions look fantastic. The original textures and assets from the Dreamcast were actually much higher quality than the Dreamcast could really display at the time and when shown in HD, the impact is really quite amazing.

4.       Widescreen – Again, with most people playing on HD displays, we wanted to figure out how to implement widescreen support. To do so, the camera field of view was widened (which we’re able to do because of the 3D backgrounds effectively running off the “edges” of the 4:3 scenario) and there are a few camera tricks that minimize any impact on the gameplay. Play area is unchanged, and this is not a zoom and crop like HD Remix was.  To put it simply, the gameplay area will be in a 4:3 field, while the viewing area will be widescreen.  At the same time, for purists and competitive play, a 4:3 option (with vertical bars on the left and right) still exists.

5.       No unlocking – While we love giving people unlockables in games, for this outing, there’s not a lot of surprises in terms of what characters are in the game. All 56 characters will be unlocked at the start for immediate play, again great for tournament play where players won’t need to mess with save game data or hacked versions (/shame).

6.       Music Options – We love MvC2 but the original “jazzy” music has long been criticized even by ardent fans. Independent music volume controls and support of custom soundtracks on PS3 and 360 we deemed an important feature. Purists will still have what they love and fans of customization are also served.

And as an added bonus, some of you will get to play it sooner than you think. The US PlayStation network will have the demo available for download this week (Europe’s PSN should follow not far after). Surprise. :)

Now that it's announced, if you'd like to see the trailer in HD or a few other nifty little things, head over to www.tu4ar.com after 6PM PST tonight. Lastly, we'd love to hear your thoughts in the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Forums, so please do come and participate. I hope you're all looking forward to it as much as we are.

F the Knicks...

-Sven