The Japan Six

The Japan Six are six collaborative games by Capcom in conjunction with Square-Enix, Sega, and Bandai-Namco. Referring to six "secret" projects by Japan's top publishers, the name was inspired by the Capcom Five. At a time when Capcom was in dire financial straits, the company signed a multi-partnership deal with Square-Enix, Sega and Bandai-Namco to externally-develop six new AAA games together, operating as either the developer and/or publisher under each of them, with the apparent goal of boosting profits and 8th gen hardware sales and showing third party support in an attempt to rebuild the company's image.

Marketing
In contrast to the Capcom Five, however, each title would be announced sporadically at an unknown date. This was done to help them meet development deadlines and create the best games possible. The exact release date, title, number of games produced (as well as developer/publisher details) under each respective partner and order of reveal wasn't made public at the time of the announcement.

However, the first 4 titles to be announced under the Japan Six (the first in particular) are most famously known for the buzz surrounding the often-secretive, cliffhanging viral marketing campaign between Capcom and Square-Enix that began on May 8th, 2016. A teaser trailer was aired at a Capcom press event. However, an embargo kept the trailer from appearing online in order to spark interest. It was revealed three days later following the embargo lift, appearing to tease a new Dino Crisis when a blonde woman in a black shirt is seen heading down a research facility hallway after triggering the alarms, fading out to the Square-Enix logo. The trailer was noted for showing only the back of her head and shirt as the "mysterious" woman walks out to the S-E logo, the obvious implication being that it was none other than Parasite Eve 's Aya Brea or Final Fantasy XIII 's Lightning featured in the trailer's climax.

The campaign was a huge success and fueled widespread buzz and speculation on social media from gaming enthusiasts and journalists at IGN and GameSpot. A second trailer, also (initially) shrouded in mystery, was shown two months later at E3, giving fans glimpses of battling Capcom and Square-Enix characters-including Lara Croft & Jill Valentine and Dante & Cloud Strife as well as some "new" faces-before closing to the unexpected arrival of Marvel's Ultron. After officially revealing the title, Square-Enix vs. Capcom: When Worlds Collide, to a huge ovation, the fans were treated to one last clip of a mutant silhouette moving past Jill before fading out to the Sega logo in similar fashion to the first teaser.

Two weeks later, it was announced that Sega-teased at the end of the official Square-Enix vs. Capcom reveal trailer-would be holding a panel with them at San Diego Comic Con. During their panel, after announcing that Sega had also been developing the game, they showed a third trailer picking up where the second left off, revealing Alien and Predator as playable (DLC) characters as well as Shenmue 's Ryo Hazuki for Square-Enix and Virtua Fighter 's Akira Yuki for Capcom.

Following the enormously-receptive response, Capcom continued to keep the project hype train alive by announcing that representatives from Square-Enix would be attending their planned 15th anniversary event for Devil May Cry announced several months earlier. Together, they promised a "special" announcement. At the event, (shrewdly) taking place on August 23, 2016 (the exact date of the 15th anniversary of the first Devil May Cry), after announcing that they were developing Devil May Cry 5, they then revealed that the team famously behind the Devil May Cry series (Capcom Studio 4) are developing another game under publisher, Square-Enix, and they'd hired former Metal Gear Solid cutscene artist, Masaya Kobayashi, from Konami to work on the game. The project was officially revealed as Mechabre, a cyberpunk hack-and-slash game "from the creators of Deus Ex and Devil May Cry" (revealed as the game's official marketing slogan).

One month following the blockbuster announcement at the Devil May Cry 15th anniversary event, Capcom held another panel at the 2016 Tokyo Game Show. This time, Sega, following their monumental reveal for Square-Enix vs. Capcom at SDCC, would be attending their panel alongside Square-Enix. After announcing that Square-Enix vs. Capcom would feature cross-network play between PS4 and XB1 owners with Square-Enix, Sega CEO, Haruki Satomi announced that the game would also feature an unlockable demo of an open-world, GTA-styled anime game they'd been co-developing based on Black Lagoon. They then went on to reveal that Black Lagoon 's Revy would be a playable fighter in Square-Enix vs. Capcom and rival character to fellow foul-mouthed, gun-totting assassin, Deadpool, another Marvel guest character appearing as a homage to their defunct Marvel vs. Capcom series, in an expletive-filled battle clip. Furthermore, Hiroyuki Satamato, director of Sega's Yakuza series, would serve as director with Hideki Goto, executive producer from the anime, also serving as the game's executive producer.

Following this announcement, Sega then showed a clip, revealing Vampire Night 's Counte Auguste as an unlockable guest character for Square-Enix and House of the Dead 's Magician Type 0 for Capcom, respectively, playing their respective theme music (including the latter's famous theme music) during their individual reveal as the segment closed to a roaring response.

Coincidentally, SEvC would feature a replayable "hidden" trailer for Resident Evil X The House of the Dead (a crossover arcade game of the two titular zombie titles, co-developed and published by Sega) during Magician's character ending upon unlocking it as a special tie-in. The same trailer would later be revealed online, followed by a trailer for the updated release on home consoles, Resident Evil X The House of the Dead: Virtual Reloaded, on June 6th, 2018, with the marketing slogan "Experience twice the horror in VR: Halloween 2018" featured on promotional art.

At the Youmacon 2017 live concert event, Crush 40, the band responsible for many musical works for the Sonic franchise, promised a special closing song. Vocalist Johnny Gioeli teased the fans by saying "you'll be hearing this song again very soon" before the band performed their own cover of the Power Rangerstheme song. This once again raised a lot of ongoing hype and speculation with IGN and GameSpot journalists reminding viewers that Bandai-Namco was still slated to release a game (or more) as part of the Japan Six.

At E3 2017, it yet again proved to be an easter egg for the next game in the Japan Six as their rendition of the Power Rangers theme was featured in the teaser trailer for CyberOps: Megamix, a crossover mech fighter featuring cyborg characters from Square-Enix (including Transformers characters, who Square-Enix previously had publishing rights to in Japan), Capcom, Sega, and Bandai-Namco, who published the game. Their cover of the hit theme song played during a clip in which Ninja Megazord would perform his trademark Ultrazord Finisher Hyper Combo and later be featured in the Command Center stage upon the game's release.

Later in the year, Sega confirmed that mechs from Border Break would be featured in both the North American and Japan release of the game and be among the unlockable rogue galleries in the game's new Battle Suit Mode, marking the very first game in which they were localized for a Western audience. In an interview with Capcom producer Ryota Niitsuma, a strong cult following for a North American release of these Japan-exclusive titles was "among the top-cited reasons" for Capcom pitching the idea for the crossover cyborg fighter featuring all 4 Japan Six publishers. Coincidentally, Square-Enix's Transformers-themed mech arcade franchise, Chōsoku Henkei Gyrozetter, would also see its very first Western exposure in the game, having featured the titular Gyrozetter character.