Friday, December 13th, 2019  

Katsuhiro Harada Wants to Know if Fans Still Want TEKKEN X Street Fighter

  

Last night on Twitter, TEKKEN series producer Katsuhiro Harada posted a (light-hearted) poll asking if fans are still excited for the mysteriously delayed title, TEKKEN X Street Fighter. It's definitely a fair question to ask at this point, with TEKKEN 7 still dominating the competitive scene and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition announced for release in early 2020. (No, seriously... TEKKEN 7 continues to grow in active player numbers and tournament participants with each consecutive year since 2015 - which is the opposite of what happens with most fighting games.) With TEKKEN 7 continuing to break records, over-saturating the market with another TEKKEN game anytime soon would be a risky and potentially unwise logistical business decision. The TEKKEN World Tour 2020 was just announced at last weekend's TWT '19 finals, so we know we're getting at least another full year of support for TEKKEN 7 by Bandai Namco. Vote in Harada's Twitter poll, below!
 


      Here are December 2019 Twitch stats showing viewer numbers last week.
 

Yeah, a lot of people are streaming, playing, and watching TEKKEN 7... DOA6 not so much. lol.
Source: Twitch stats December 2019 during TWT 2019.


     Another look at early official TEKKEN X Street Fighter concept artwork, below.
 

Early TEKKEN X Street Fighter concept artwork of Chun-Li and Ryu.

   
Back in May 2019, Harada made it clear that he is still "emotionally up for it" in regards to developing and completing the TEKKEN X Street Fighter project - which was put on hold at somewhere around 30% complete of its development (the last we heard).
 

“Yes, I am emotionally up for it,” he said. “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. So I need to get approval and I need to speak to Capcom again as well — they may say ‘no’ now.”
 

 
“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,” he said, referencing guest characters featured in T7.
 

 
“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.”

 
In 2010-2011, the original announced plan was for Capcom to first release their "2D version" of the crossover (Street Fighter X TEKKEN) in 2012... which they did. The title, led by Capcom's Yoshinori Ono, got mixed reviews and quite a bit of negative press - partly due to SFxT's on-disc DLC debacle. Even though Bandai Namco never actually announced a release date for TxSF, Namco's 3D version of the crossover was supposed to follow in SFxT's footsteps. It's speculated by some that Namco delayed their project in part due to the negative backlash caused by SFxT.

In regards to early development of TEKKEN X Street Fighter, here's what Harada told VGC:
 

“We started the project back in 2012 and the real interesting question then was, what is going to happen when the Tekken team designs characters for Street Fighter? We started creating 3D models and I really liked them – they looked super cool – and the project progressed to about 30% completion."
 

 

 “So then I started to wonder, do I really want to attempt to compete with these huge titles? It could end up splitting the community. That was a serious consideration from the marketing perspective. So I decided to hold off releasing the game for one or two years. Following that, Tekken 7 is now doing very well as a service game.
 

 
  You can read more in VGC's full article.

 
    Stay right here on Fighters Generation for TEKKEN 7 x Street Fighter news.
 

Source:  Katsuhiro Harada (Twitter)
  Related News:  (5-8-2019): TEKKEN X SF Becoming "Harder to Justify" with T7's Success,
  (12-9-2019): TEKKEN 7 December 2019 Update 3.10 Full Patch Notes,
  (12-8-2019): TEKKEN 7 Leroy Smith, Ganryu & Fahkumram Reveal Trailers,
  (12-7-2019): TWT 2019 Finals Trophy, Devil Jin Pure Arts Statue,
  (12-2-2019): TWT 2019 Finals Has $250k Prize Pool, Dec. Balance Update,
  (12-2-1019): KOF x TEKKEN Crossover Now Live in KOF: All Star,
  (11-15-2019): KOF: All Star x TEKKEN 7 Character Gameplay Trailers
  Related TFG Links:  TEKKEN 7SFV: Champion EditionStreet Fighter X TEKKEN
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