Going into the 21st century, the state of the Mega Man franchise was becoming hazy. Classic Mega Man had run its course for the time being, and the X games were intended to end at X5 in 2000, and then X6 in 2001. Another Mega Man Legends sequel was not in the cards, so the Mega Man series suddenly had a huge opening for new projects. The Mega Man Zero series would not be announced until 2002, so while the X games continued to plug along on PlayStation consoles, there looked to be a sizable Mega Man drought for Nintendo consoles.