Viewtiful Joe 3 domain reg sparks rumours

Reports indicate that Capcom has registered the domain Viewtifuljoe3.com, sparking rumours that the Japanese games co. is considering a third game in the 2D fighting series.

Capcom had no comment to make on the prospect of a third Viewtiful Joe title today, pointing out that the original game hasn't even come out on the PS2 yet (we understand it's on track for October 22nd), and that VJ2 won't be out on PS2 and GameCube for some time yet either - spring 2005 in Europe, in fact.

The registration was picked up on by a few sites overnight, although a closer look seems to back up Capcom's position - the listing was actually filed in July of 2003, even before the PS2 port and its PS2/Cube successor had been announced.

The most likely scenario, then, is not that Viewtiful Joe 3 is in development - although we'd expect Capcom to keep its options open on that one - but rather that the company simply wants to avoid having the domain poached in the meantime.

Atari recently employed a similar tactic with its Unreal series, registering Unrealtournament200x.com domains and derivatives in order to safeguard the brand's web presence in the future.

Of course, if we do hear anything more substantive on the subject of future Viewtiful Joe titles, we'll be sure to let you know.