A developer for the forthcoming fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite explains why the title's teams consist of only of two characters within battles.

Without a doubt, fighting game fans were elated to receive confirmation at PlayStation Experience 2016 that Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is currently in production and is currently scheduled to come out later this year. However, one aspect of the game's reveal that gave some fans pause came from the developer's decision to scale back the amount of characters available in match-ups from the long standard feature of having teams of three duke it out against one another to there now being 2v2 battles.

With this being the case, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite's co-producer Peter Rosas recently explained why the studio cut down the number of team members from three to two. While speaking during an interview with the fine folks over at the outlet EDGE (via SegmentNext), Rosas revealed that the decision behind cutting down on larger teams within the game was due to Capcom wanting the title to be accessible to beginners.

As Rosas puts it, in previous entries in the franchise, such as the second installment New Age of Heroes and the third entry Fate of Two Worlds, Marvel vs. Capcom players were encumbered with too many decisions before a brawl even began due to the team sizes being rather unwieldy, as the first and second character picks often were more important than the third, which is typically a tacked on selection.

"Players had to make roughly six decisions before they could fight. The people were looking for two characters, which corresponded to their preference. But the third fighter was chosen solely because of his function – perhaps he had a particularly strong anti-air move or something like that . . . This selection felt totally superfluous."

According to the co-producer, Capcom whittled down the team sizes for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite so as to assist novice players in making the game more accessible and to present a sense of camaraderie among the characters fans select to do battle. Rosas went on to say, "With this, we want to emphasize the feeling for a partnership and loyalty among the fighters."

While some fans might not be too keen on only having two character slots open for their teams in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, they at least have plenty more news about the game to look forward to in the future. As it happens, Rosas also declared that Capcom is set to share even more details later on down the line before possibly hitting its targeted release date in late 2017.

As it stands, Capcom has definitely doubled down on the concept of two character teams within Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, for the reveals of the fighting game's characters have been in pairs so far, with Ryu and Mega Man X standing side-by-side, Iron Man and Captain Marvel forging an alliance, and Captain America and Morrigan partnering for the fight. Of course, it remains to be seen whether or not shrinking the forthcoming title's team sizes from three to two will be an enhancement or hindrance – at the very least, the matches could be faster and more fluid due to there being one less fighter in the fray – but should the developer include any of the new characters we believe should join the roster, then we will more than likely be content when the game launches.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is currently scheduled for a release sometime in late 2017 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.