It is often said that Mega Man was once used as Capcom's mascot in the 1980s, in a similar way to how Nintendo and Sega use Mario and Sonic respectively. Like many other statements of platforming characters being used as corporate mascots, this is untrue, as Mega Man has never been used to promote the wider Capcom brand of software outside of his own games or crossovers in which he appears. However, Capcom did have a mascot in the 1980s: the titular hero of Captain Commando - many earlier NES Capcom games were branded as part of the "Captain Commando Challenge Series", including licensed titles such as DuckTales, with game manuals having signed messages "written" by Captain Commando. Despite this, Captain Commando was never released on the NES.

Capcom's former community manager Seth Killian addressed Capcom's current lack of a mascot and Mega Man's use as an unofficial mascot on the Capcom-Unity forums in 2009: