New Dante inspired by James Bond reboot

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 22 September, 2010

DmC to "increase sales and audience".

Capcom's controversial reboot of action series Devil May Cry was inspired by actor Daniel Craig's "rougher" James Bond, the producer of the game has revealed.

The Dante in DmC, in the works at UK studio Ninja Theory, is young, angsty, slightly ungainly and has black hair worn in a lanky emover – a stark change from the white-haired protagonist devised by the series' original creator Hideki Kamiya.

The game's Tokyo Game Show reveal sparked an outpouring of anger from series veterans. Even Kamiya himself weighed in on Twitter.

Capcom and Ninja Theory explained the "rebirth" of the series, as it's called, Dante's redesign and the passing of development duties to a studio outside of Japan to Eurogamer in an interview published today.

"If you think of Rocky 3 versus Raging Bull, it's that kind of difference," Ninja Theory boss Tameem Antoniades said.

"He's younger, he's rawer, he's cool in his own way. But it's different."

Capcom America's Alex Jones, who is collaborating on the project, backed the move.

"When you see the Casino Royale remake, you see Bond before he's actually killed anyone, and it's a really traumatic event. He's rough-hewn, he's not polished or debonair, but you can see the essence of what that character will become. That's what we want to do with Dante. The core of him is there, it's just a rougher version. It's a becoming. He's not fully actualised."

Both Antoniades and Capcom acknowledged fan concern over the reboot, but urged patience and understanding.

"It's a new developer doing it, isn't it?," Antoniades replied when asked for his explanation for the reaction.

"Of course long-time fans are worried about us handing over such a big title to another company, another development team," Capcom's Hideaki Itsuna, who's worked on all four Devil May Cry games, added.

"But what myself and Eshiro-san [Motohide, producer] want to convey is that people shouldn't be worried or concerned, it's nothing like that.

"We've worked with Ninja Theory for a long time in pre-development, and we've seen that they're really talented and they have a lot of know-how, and we know that they're very serious about making this game good."

Eshiro said the decision to reboot the series was in part due to a desire to increase sales.

"Taking Devil May Cry 4 as an example, including the PC versions we sold 2.7 million of that particular game, but we looked at the market and saw that there were other action games selling four million, five million, all these copies," he explained.

"One of our goals for this game is to create something new and fresh that keeps the old fans but also catches new people, so that we can increase our overall appeal, our sales and our audience."

DmC is yet to be dated. Check out Dante's new look for yourself in the reveal trailer below.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (47) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • schnide #1 1 year ago

    Industry figures: "Japanese developers are no good!"

    (After moments of soul searching)

    Industry: "Quick - give our franchises to the West!!"

  • metallicorphan #2 1 year ago

    'New Dante inspired by James Bond reboot '


    but hopefully wont have the impact of The Karate Kid reboot ;)

  • Rajin #3 1 year ago

    ''is young, angsty, slightly ungainly and has black hair worn in a lanky emover''

    THIS is more or less the issue i have with the reboot. I don't want to play a angsty and young boy i don't!(god why does every character i like either die or turn emo?(Snake/Danté etc)
    Edited by 2 at 22/09/10 @ 11:14

  • Apaar #4 1 year ago

    I feel DMC is all about being the over the top and Japanese. Maybe you can't reach a 5 million audience that way, but instead of removing the soul and core from an existing franchise, I feel a better idea would have been to build a wholly new franchise which from the start had that grander mass appeal they are so desperately looking for. Reminds me of the XCOM situation among many others.

  • darkmorgado #5 1 year ago

    The last time I checked, James Bond wasn't a stroppy, eyeliner-wearing emo.

  • darkmorgado #6 1 year ago

    On another note, I think Kamiya needs to lay off the Twitter. Seriously, check the link! In the last hour alone he has posted like 30-40 times!

  • Shinetop #7 1 year ago

    What exactly is the problem here? The original Dante looked like an androgynous douchebag wearing too many belts, and here he looks like an effeminate douchebag wearing too much eyeliner.

  • Sonic_D #8 1 year ago

    Erm... isn't the next James Bond movie in limbo at the mo? Is that the template you want to follow?

  • Oh-Bollox #9 1 year ago

    Of all the Western developers to pick...

    What criteria did they use? "Hmm, lets see...who's done some really average games?"

  • DAN.E.B #10 1 year ago

    When theres a new game on the horizon you are interested in the words......
    "increase sales and audience". are the last thing you want to hear.

  • geeza2020 #11 1 year ago

    DMC is dead.

  • Climhazzard #12 1 year ago

    Just ruin the main character why don't ya!

  • SClaw #13 1 year ago

    Casino Royale was shit. Great model to copy.

  • darkmorgado #14 1 year ago

    @SClaw

    Casino Royale was bloody brilliant. The only people I've spoken to who think it is shit were discussing it in context of their expectations as to what a Bond Film historically is, which completely and utterly missed the point.

  • Razorus #15 1 year ago

    My only issue is the character design. It's really quite unimaginative and though he looks suitably dark and brooding, I just don't think I can play as someone who reminds me of Toby Maguire in Spider-Man 3. *shudders*

  • MavSkipper #16 1 year ago

    Game should be called "Emo's Will Cry"

  • drxym #17 1 year ago

    I'm not surprised they did a reboot. A game whose protagonist is a swishy lady boy is bound to have less appeal to a western audience raised on the likes of Kratos, Master Chief etc. If you want more sales, you make the hero more appealing to the target audience.

  • Freek #18 1 year ago

    What Casino Royal and Batman Begins did was go back to the characters roots: who is Batman? who is James Bond? Batman is a vigalante so they made it darker. Bond is a spy so they made him edgier.

    Dante is neither of those things, they aren't going to back to what DMC is, they are departing from it. They're making Batman and Robin not Batman Begins.

  • Zebula77 #19 1 year ago

    An emo makeover. F**kin' great!

  • Markitron #20 1 year ago

    Update Dante? Last I checked emo hasnt been 'cool' since 2004. And even then it was only cool for fucking morons. The only positive from this is Ninja theorys involvement, Heavenly Sword was a seriously underrated game and the enslaved demo completely sold me (seriously go and download it)

  • darkmorgado #21 1 year ago

    A game whose protagonist is a swishy lady boy is bound to have less appeal to a western audience

    You haven't seen the legions of teenagers hanging around the top of Northampton high street.

  • darkmorgado #22 1 year ago

    @Freek

    +1. You hit the nail on the head there.

  • Restart #23 1 year ago

    So we can expect to see Dante coming out of the sea wearing nothing but a pair of swimming trunks?

  • ouchio #24 1 year ago

    I despise the new Dante, but Tameem Antonedes knows best, not for him the grace and humility of SuckerPunch following the internet outcry about the infamous2 Cole redisign.
    The grace and humility to actually listen to a fan base and acknowledge a mistake rather than dismiss the fans as if their views count for nothing.

  • Kaminari #25 1 year ago

    "Taking Devil May Cry 4 as an example, we sold 2.7 million of that particular game, but we looked at the market and saw that there were other action games selling four million, five million."

    I think I get the real idea behind the new hair cut...

  • Sunyavadin #26 1 year ago

    Wow, the Bayonetta intro sequence was amazingly prophetic...

    http://ww w.youtube.com/watch?v=aWIzPh84G...

  • kangarootoo #27 1 year ago

    "decision to reboot the series was in part due to a desire to increase sales"

    Well no shit.

    I'm puzzled as to what the other parts were though. Shits and giggles? 'Cos you ran out of white hair dye?

  • airjoca #28 1 year ago

    Will Dante glow under sunshine?

  • Paulie_P #29 1 year ago

    "Taking Devil May Cry 4 as an example, we sold 2.7 million of that particular game, but we looked at the market and saw that there were other action games selling four million, five million."

    To be fair Devil May Cry simply didn't stand up well to other action games, you fought the same bosses multiple times and back-tracked through entire levels. It also pulled a MGS2 by giving us Nero (although you did get to play as Dante later, it was too little too late) thus alienating fans of the series.

    Also wasn't Devil May Cry 3 a prequel too? How many prequels do we need? - It wouldn't be so bad if the reboot was a seperate canon, you could justify the new Dante look.
    Edited by 1 at 22/09/10 @ 13:16

  • Nithron #30 1 year ago

    Who're they actually trying to appeal to here? I can't see much overlap between the core gamers that play DMC and the fourteen year old girls that enjoy Twilight movies. I suppose, if young Dante finds out he's a demon and goes all angsty because of it, and it's played for laughs, that'd be kinda funny.

    But it wont be.

    It's just going to be horrendously cringe worthy.

  • arcam #31 1 year ago

    I'm puzzled as to what the other parts were though. Shits and giggles? 'Cos you ran out of white hair dye?

    Make a better game?

    Or is that the sort of reason we would dismiss as unrealistic now?
    Edited by 1 at 22/09/10 @ 13:20

  • lambtron #32 1 year ago

    Just make a DMC that is like Bayonetta (which was awesome in every conceivable way).

    That is all.

  • Paulie_P #33 1 year ago

    @ArgentLupine

    First question in the interview:
    Eurogamer: Let's be absolutely clear – is this a different Dante, or the same one we know and love?

    Alex Jones: We're not going to be definitive about a lot tonight, but one thing that we can be definitive about is that this is the same Dante - just younger. We're looking at a retelling of his origin story.

    Seems like the fact that it is the same Dante is one of the only things they have confirmed so far.

  • xenoss #34 1 year ago

    I'm ok with changes. I'm ok with reboots. I'm even willing to accept angst. So conceptually, you're fine.

    But your execution is VERY weak. That's the problem.

    It isn't the change. It is your shitty art direction. Example: that "Dante" is severely uncool looking. If things looked better, people wouldn't have been puking so hard. They might question whether or not it'll be a good reboot... but they wouldn't have been puking their guts out.

    DmC is the joke it is right now because it looks and sounds like crap both conceptually and audiovisually. The execution, again, is the problem.

    In conclusion: Ninja Theory, you sucked.

  • kangarootoo #35 1 year ago

    @arcam

    "Make a better game?
    Or is that the sort of reason we would dismiss as unrealistic now?"

    Wel, yeah we would, sort of. Publishers want to make better games because better games sell more copies. They wouldn't spend money rebooting a series purely in the name of making a better game if they didn't think increased sales would result.

  • Bluetooth #36 1 year ago

    Very James Bond, you can see how he sneaked up on that manikin thingy and stubbed his cigarette on it, then proceeding to se his extremely loud guns akimbo to blast the rest. 007 is weeping for his stealth training

  • M_of_the_sys #37 1 year ago

    "One of our goals for this game is to create something new and fresh that keeps the old fans but also catches new people, so that we can increase our overall appeal, our sales and our audience."

    Make Dante a female with lots of curves who's clothes come off when she fights. Sorted. Oh wait...

  • taurus82 #38 1 year ago

    Ninja Theory are incapable of making a PS3 (exclusive or lead-platform developed) game without it becoming a screen-tear mess.

    So I fear for this 'reboot'.
    Edited by 1 at 23/09/10 @ 12:21

  • Oh-Bollox #39 1 year ago

    "Taking Devil May Cry 4 as an example, we sold 2.7 million of that particular game, but we looked at the market and saw that there were other action games selling four million, five million."

    Perhaps, just perhaps, you should stop flogging the horse and come up with some new ideas. Dangerous talk, liable to be labelled mutinous, I know, but still. Consider it. You've had a good run (DMC 1-4 were pretty good games, overall), you haven't shat it all away yet, you can still change your mind, take what you've learned and earned and move on.

    Or, alternatively, pay a bunch of divs to make a shit game.

  • Phishfood #40 1 year ago

    "He's younger, he's rawer, he's cool in his own way. But it's different."

    You're only cool if other people think you are.

  • dirtysteve #41 1 year ago

    Kung Fu Chaos and Heavenly Sword.
    Why did Ninja Theory get this licence again? Seriously, if there is a need to bring in a Western perspective, why these guys?

  • brider #42 1 year ago


    Why does dante look like a london rent boy?

    I was half expecting fat sweaty men to approach him and offer him money for his services in the trailer.
    the game looks a fat load of turd.

  • jackdoe #43 1 year ago

    Only the James Bond reboot came after a string of goofy movies. Devil May Cry 4 wasn't that goofy and took itself a bit too seriously at times.

  • Seth. #44 1 year ago

    Games are supposed to be art... and then some guy at Capcom claims selling 2 million copies of a game is a failure and in a rather pathetic and shameless effort, proceeds to change it in any way that could make it more appealing to the western mass market.

    I believe the decision to green light this "dmc reboot" came at some brain storming meeting where capcom's executives kept banging their heads against the wall trying to figure out why halo is selling 5 million copies. Which right now seems to be their main concern. Turns out they got the wrong idea and instead of improving the AI or the linear deisgn, or just plain not making another hack and slash, they decided to turn dante emo and pretend it's more gritty, realistic, dark, and more serious business this time around.

  • fm5858 #45 1 year ago

    We at the network want a dante with attitude. He's edgy, he's "in your face."

    You've heard the expression "let's get busy"?

    Well, this is a dante who gets "biz-zay!" Consistently and thoroughly.

  • alejandro210 #46 1 year ago

    the big deal about all this stupidity is that they took a great character and totally trashed/alienated him wtf is wrong with these people.
    always ends up being all about the money. while this game looks fuckin stupid ill probably still atleast play the demo jus to see how the game is but over all dmc is just getting worse they had two great games one okay one and one suckish one and now they decide to change everything and fuq it up.
    people are still mad that dante wasnt the main character of dmc4 (fuqin nero) and they decide to make it worse.
    i dnt knoe where im goin with this but dmc is officiaally dead .....

  • iamdude #47 1 year ago

    So one shitty reboot inspires another, great, just great