‘Things have changed since 2012’
Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada recently spoke to VGC about the status of Tekken X Street Fighter. Announced almost a decade ago alongside Street Fighter X Tekken, the status of the game has been shrouded in mystery for its entire duration. While an update last year claimed the team at Bandai Namco was around 30% finished with the title, we’ve still not seen any gameplay footage for the crossover fighter.
The official status is that the game is still in development. That doesn’t mean it is actively being worked on, but Bandai Namco has not canceled the project despite little progress being made. It would be easy to assume the team is no longer passionate about the game, but Harada put those fears to bed. “I am emotionally up for it. I still want to release the game. However, as much as I want to proceed with the project, things have changed a lot since 2012,” he said.
Referencing the work in Tekken 7, Harada added, “I was excited to see how well Bandai Namco could convert 2D characters like Akuma from Street Fighter, and Geese from The King of Fighters into 3D models and make them look really sexy, visually…I was excited about that and I have passion for it, but my logical and business thinking has me wondering if I really should do it.”
It seems the biggest hurdle comes from the existence of Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V. As Harada put it, he isn’t sure how to compete against those two titles. In his opinion, they are some of the best fighting games either company has made and he doesn’t want to split the communities between supporting those titles and Tekken X Street Fighter. Both are successful in their own right but have existed well beyond the traditional life cycle of fighting games.
“Traditionally, the life cycle of a fighting game is very short – maybe one or two years and then you make a sequel. But Tekken 7 is very successful as a service game with its DLC. That makes it much harder to justify releasing another game, while Tekken 7 is still doing so well,” Harada stated.
While I’m not sure I follow the logic, I can at least understand how the continued support of Tekken 7 and Soulcalibur VI may be spreading Bandai Namco thin. No one would want a Tekken X Street Fighter if it wasn’t the best possible game it could be, so it only makes sense to keep it delayed instead of rushing it out of the door. Seeing as how Street Fighter is kind of in a weird place, though, it may also be a good idea to hold off until Capcom regains fan trust in its brand.
Tekken X Street Fighter becoming ‘harder to justify’, says Harada [VGC]
