I really have respect for Ono for directing great games and being a very good person with the fans.
With that being said, I believe that there are three factors contributing to the bad situations that Capcom is going through right now, yet Capcom is still alive.
1. The ever-changing video game industry, especially with changing tastes and the unpredicatable nature of the consumers as most pointed out in many ways in this thread. Consumers used to buy Mega Man games in the past. Now gamers usually buy something like Call of Duty, Resident Evil, or some really hyped violent game with a lot of action. You would think that some of these games would have died by now, but they are still active (I am looking at you Call of Duty). This factor contributed to Capcom's change in strategy, which brings me to problem number 2:
2. Capcom. Cancelling Mega Man Legends 3 while claiming to give it some opportunities to shine and develop through the Prototype earlier on really made me lose respect for them. In addition, most of their damage control skills suck. Only Ono and Seth do damage control and fan communication real well. Sven is fair at best. And as much as I like the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom games, Nitsuma just sucks at staying in touch with the fans. Period. However, Capcom is only part of the problem. My main concern in with number 3.
3. The snitches who actually still buy Capcom games, even after everything that Capcom has done for the past several years, especially with the things Mega Man related. Don't believe me, see the following link and be sure to look at page 14 at the PDF file:
http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/data/pdf/result/2011/full/result_2011_full_01.pdfI don't see how this company can still have a net income after all of the backlash against Capcom for pretty much anything, especially the negativity with Mega Man, for the past TWO fiscal years. With a positive and high net income in the financials and decent balances, something tells me that there are still people who actually buy Capcom games. The audience contributing to Capcom's profitability is probably one of the following:
1. Those who still play Resident Evil or Street Fighter casually, especially the latter with Online Play and the Evo Championships.
2. Those who still play Capcom fighters religiously for Evo (Marvel vs. Capcom players, I am looking at you.)
3. Those who use Ryu, Ken, and/or Akuma in pretty much every Street Fighter game. You think that after all of these years of Street Fighters out this trend would stop. Probably not.
4. The new audiences that Capcom caters to, especially the Call of Duty crowd.
It seems that Capcom will be around for a while. Remember that Capcom is not Atari or Midway. We'll just have to see what happens in the future.