@Goutetsu
"Still, Street Fighter IV was debatably the best first iteration in the entire 20 year series when it comes to this particular issue"

I'd agree that its debateably the best first iteration in the history of fighting games.

It sucks, but it isn't really significant to any of us that live in the USA. I haven't been to an arcade in years, let alone seen one. Unless I count the few mediocre ones I've seen at Beaches.

To me this shows they're kind of aiming for the western market a little harder.

@Magnalon

Yeah, agreed. But eight to ten new characters, 25 to rebalance, and no arcade version acting as a sounding board? I'm losing nails fast.

I guess I'm one of the few destructoid people in Japan and actually affected by this. I haven't touched the game in a while in my local arcade but something like this would have brought me back. I guess the least they could do is get rid of the stupid region coding on steam so won't be blocked when trying to purchase the game for my PC.

Well, that's slot of work to find every arcade and upgrade/replace them.

I don't know how "updating" cabinets work, but you know what I mean.

The closest arcades to me are an hour away, none of them get fighting games (except one that has Tekken Tag Tournament) so this doesn't really affect me. Still, it's another painful reminder that it's not 1990 anymore.

@looptron
so what your getting at is i need to start a chain of arcades in america to compete with the other world markets? aka japan?

mission accepted.

Providing they introduce a system where i have to spend microsoft points to gain credits, i am happy about this.

As someone who goes to an arcade every once in a while to play SF4, I don't think this is that big a deal as people in the comments are making it out to be. It's no surprise that arcades have been on the decline for a long time, but where there are arcades, they have a very dedicated group of people who go to them. Whenever I walk into Chinatown Fair on a weekend, it's always packed with people playing almost every game in there.

@looptron

I don't think this will hurt the competitive scene at all. Lets be honest, how many people own a 360/PS3 as compared to how many own a SF4 cab? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if arcade owners order custom cabinets (empty), then mount a console in there with a copy of the game, and just make it look like an arcade cab. I really think you're over reacting.

Not even mentioning PC? Seriously? Wtf?!

@Jack Yeah like I said, Tekken is and always has been #1 and it's not going anywhere. The only thing to compete with it in recent years has been random Gundam arcade games. And even though we have our Coast vs Coast battles, look at SBO. No one from America in ANY game advanced past first round. We can pick apart the game but not to the degree and level of these players around the world.

@Cataract It will hurt the competitive scene in that the high level play that we see coming from Japan will be removed, therefor greatly decreasing the potential for the highest level of play in a shorter amount of time. As it stands, US Street Fighter is years behind Japanese Street Fighter and we're copying them anyway. Without that knowledge and talent for us to chase and compete with, we'll (everyone else in the community) will progress at a much slower rate.

Just look at 2002 EVO Street Fighter III: We thought we were awesome, had it all figured out. Everyone thought Urien was shit and his Aegis was useless. Then Tokido comes over and does something that Japan is used to seeing but America has no idea and never saw before: The Aegis Reflector mix-ups. Justin Wong was turned into a combo video. To this day, America still does not know how to play 3rd Strike on the level of Japan and it's been 10 years.

Look at SBO: All foreign teams, US and otherwise, were knocked out first round. There was no chance of advancing to the 2nd round anywhere for anyone who didn't live there and play with that kind of level. There's maybe 4-5 people in America who can compete on Japan's level, and that's fighting their "scrubs"

Also, you're right, arcade owners may start ordering consoles and throwing some sanwa buttons in Hori sticks or getting custom made Viewlix consoles or whatever stick layout is required, but with how things are right now, I don't see that happening. The Japanese don't play HDRemix. They play vanilla ST on the original cabinets. If they wanted to I'm sure they'd do that too and HDR would be a completely different game right now but they aren't and won't.

There's a petition right now going around to get this an arcade release. I hope it works out because if not, then it's bye bye advancing anywhere in SF4.

YES!!! This is great news seeing that all the great arcades up here in MI are long extinct. Also give some of us time to be on par with EVO players, instead of playing catch up.

F-ing HORRIBLE news. Online, you generally have to contend with wading through a laggy ocean of scrubby players before finding a good game, it doesn't really help you get better once you start to plateau. I was banking on my close proximity to the Chinatown Fair in Manhattan (home to tons of top Eastcoast players) to help me step up my game...guess that ain't hapening. But it'll be funny how Japan will finally be in the same boat as the US with SSFIV, all their arcades mean dick now...

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SSFIVArcade/

That's the online petition from SRK that has been going around. Sign it if you want this to happen.

This thread is now about the last game you played on the Arcades.

Me, Soul Calibur 2.

@Looptron yo you were there? I was too! I think at that moment I was probably standing somehwere on the left of Ken I. What's your name on SRK man? I gotta say sup to you if I see you at Denjin haha.

@RAB,

That kind of stuff happens CONSISTENTLY at console tournaments. Basically every Major tourny (and a lot of smaller ones) sees reactions like that all the time. That's not to say I don't wish I had an arcade near me (our old arcade was one of my favorite places EVER), but to say that kind of excitement doesn't happen outside of arcades is flatout wrong.



As for this news...

It doesn't effect me much with ZERO arcades ANYWHERE near me, but this seems like a bad decision overall. The first arcade run for fighting games is actually pretty similar to a beta test for any other genre of games. Glitches get fixed, infinites taken out, and minor balancing decisions can be made before the console release.

Oh well, if they stick to minor changes to the original characters and don't go stupid/crazy with the new ones, we should still have a pretty balanced game.

don't worry. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo will be in the arcades in 2011.

Wow, Capcom gives up on arcades before SNK and ArcSys, way to innovate guys.

That's dumb.

PC? PC?! PC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, now I'm getting a little worried about this.

Dinnertime ninja

pics or it didn't happen.

dinnertime ninja
dude I was AT evo 09. hahaha. I live in So Cal man, and the arcade scene here is huge, at least at the arcades I frequent, Denjin Arcade and Arcade Infinity namely. Bro believe me I'm not just doubting you just to be a dick, I know alot of major tournaments here in the states take place on console, but there's really just something about the arcade environment that makes it different.
you just gotta be there, man.