It’s only 27 more days until Devil May Cry 5 comes out and prove that it can go toe-to-toe with the Bayonetta series. I’m not going to hold my breath in regards to this, but at the very least we’ll get a solid action game if the recent demo is of any indication.

But did you know that the game’s director Hideaki Itsuno was close to choosing Dragon’s Dogma 2 over Devil May Cry 5? It’s true, according to a VG24/7 interview. He was approached by Capcom founder Kenzo Tsujimoto. Here’s how the decision went down:

“Look, I want to make either Devil May Cry 5 or Dragon’s Dogma 2 next. [Tsujimoto] said ‘okay, do whatever you want. Do whichever one you want.’ So I thought, alright, y’know what… let’s do DMC5. So we did that.”

Why DMC5 over Dragon’s Dogma 2? The answer is simple: the last Japanese-made Devil May Cry game was back in 2008 while Dragon’s Dogma was made in 2012.

The Dragon’s Future

Dragon’s Dogma fans might be dismayed to hear this news, but Itsuno said that he and his team has a new project in line after DMC5’s release.

Here we are – we’re now finishing up DMC5. But I had ideas for Dragon’s Dogma 2 at the time as well. So here we are, it’s the end of this project.

I’ve always got maybe around four different titles in mind, maybe about four different ideas that I’d love to make. But there’s a difference between the titles that I’d love to make and the titles that I think I should make next. But here we are, we’re here, and… I’m already gearing up for my next project. We can’t say what it is, but we’re looking forward to getting to work on it.

So what could this next project be? There could be a chance that it’s the next Dragon’s Dogma title, be it a sequel or spiritual successor. Or it could be an entirely brand-new game. We won’t know until the next few years, so in the meantime here’s a pic of the new and old Devil May Cry directors (Itsuno and Hideki Kamiya respectively) side-by-side.