Development and Release
Mega Man Battle Network was developed by Capcom Production Studio 2 amidst the success of Nintendo's portable RPG franchise Pokémon. Rather than extend upon the traditional action-platform formula for the Mega Man series as they had done with the 3D Mega Man Legends, Capcom followed Nintendo's example on the latter's then-newest handheld console, the GBA. While creating Battle Network, director Masahiro Yasuma found difficulty in blending action attributes with "the kind of fun you get from a Pokémon game" in order to make it enjoyable, new, and fresh. Yasuma recalled that production was further challenged because no effective precursor of its type had been made before. Producer Keiji Inafune stated that the development team wanted to add a "real world" feel to the Mega Man series by placing the protagonist of Battle Network in a location where the internet is prevalent. With the release of the portable GBA, the team felt that they should target modern gamers, specifically children, as an audience for the new series. The developers thought such a theme would be both successful and relevant because these younger gamers grew up with and utilized such technology on a daily basis. To ensure the game's popularity, Capcom marketed Battle Network alongside an afternoon anime adaptation, emphasized head-to-head matches between players, and provided fans with exclusive content via special events.
Inafune credited himself for redesigning the protagonist Mega Man as MegaMan.EXE for the Battle Network series, though he recounted the character designers were reluctant to hand over the responsibility to him and even altered his illustrations afterwards. The character's initial concept art went through a large number of changes before it was finalized to a much simpler design, so that even very young fans could easily draw it. Yuji Ishihara acted as a primary character artist for the game. Each of the game's boss characters was designed so that their bodies would exude a certain motif; for example, StoneMan.EXE was meant to look like a huge castle made from stone masonry. Some bosses resembled their original Mega Man series counterparts while others were a large departure from these more humanoid appearances. Ishihara explained that the artists chose size and shape variety among the characters to "provide a little bit of surprise and excitement" to fans familiar with their classic forms. The musical score for Battle Network was composed by Akari Kaida, who would later work on the fifth installment of the series. All 22 musical tracks for Mega Man Battle Network were included on the Rockman EXE 1 ~ 3 Game Music Collection, released in Japan by Suleputer on December 18, 2002.
The Japanese version of Battle Network was first announced in August 2000 as one of four games set to be released for the recently unveiled GBA. A demo of the game was promoted at Nintendo Space World that month, where it was displayed on only two out of the 140 playable consoles. The game was displayed on five kiosks at the Tokyo Game Show the following month. According to series planners Masakazu Eguchi and Masahiro Yasuma, this beta build of the game involved the player fighting a malevolent WoodMan.EXE within the school's electronic blackboard. Battle Network was officially released in Japan as a GBA launch title on March 21, 2001. A television advertisement of the game featured the song "Neo Venus" by Japanese rock band Janne Da Arc. The English localization of Battle Network was announced on May 17, 2001, just prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The game was released in North America and Europe on October 31 and November 30 respectively. Ubisoft published Mega Man Battle Network in PAL regions as part of a seven-GBA game licensing agreement with Capcom.< Its first sequel, Mega Man Battle Network 2, was announced before the Japan World Hobby Fair in June 2001. Attendees to the fair were able to download chip data for the character Bass.EXE into their original Battle Network cartridges.
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