Let’s travel back in time to the year 2010. More specifically, let’s head to the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con. It was at that event that Namco and Capcom announced their collaboration for two fighting games: Street Fighter x Tekken and Tekken x Street Fighter. Capcom’s title released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, but Namco’s game has barely seen the light of day. So what’s going on with Tekken x Street Fighter, and will fans of the two fighting game series ever be able to play it?
After the announcement of Tekken x Street Fighter in July 2010, we haven’t seen much of the title. Tekken producer, Katsuhiro Harada, showed off early concept work of the Ryu (Street Fighter) character model at Gamescom 2010, shortly after the initial unveiling of the title. At the time the lighting was said to be incomplete and the model was wearing the same gi that Paul Phoenix (Tekken) dons.
Fast-forward nearly two years to March 2012 and Namco releases a poll on the official Tekken Facebook page. The poll asks a very simple question, “Which character would you like to see in Tekken x Street Fighter?” Fans were allowed to pick up to five selections from a list of 55 Tekken characters and 66 Street Fighter characters. However, the results of the poll were merely for research purposes and won’t necessarily determine which characters end up in the final product.
One month later Harada was once again vocal about Tekken x Street Fighter. He stated that the game was still in development, but was sitting at roughly 10 percent complete. He confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con later that year that Namco was waiting for the right conditions before moving forward with the game. This gave the assumption that the game was on hold for the time being, but that wasn’t exactly the case as development was still ongoing.
In June 2013 Namco released the free-to-play fighting game, Tekken Revolution. At first glance this was simply a way to get more people into the Tekken series. However, one of the characters that debuted in Tekken Revolution gave fans an early look at how Capcom characters might play in Tekken x Street Fighter. Eliza, the character in question, uses a projectile attack and has the ability to teleport. These are features that many Street Fighter characters have, but are rarely seen in the Tekken series.
Polygon recently featured an in-depth interview with Harada in which he confirmed that roughly 40 people were currently working on Tekken x Street Fighter. Some members of the team were splitting their time between Tekken 7 (due to hit Japanese arcades next month) and Tekken x Street Fighter, but others were working exclusively on the crossover title. However, Harada also stated that he could not confirm the game would release anytime over the next two years, and Tekken 7 would remain Namco’s primary focus for the immediate future.
To sum it up, Tekken x Street Fighter is still in active development, but Namco feels that the fighting game market is currently saturated. Looking ahead, Street Fighter 5 is rumored to debut in 2016, but at the moment that’s the only fighting game releasing that year. Pokken Tournament and Mortal Kombat X will both hit in 2015 (although Pokken Tournament may see a console release sometime in 2016), leaving very little competition in the fighting game genre after that time.
With Harada unable to commit to the game releasing sometime over the next two years, that could mean it won’t release until 2017 or beyond, or that he just isn’t sure what Namco has in store for the game. Either way, the game is still actively in development and will likely become much more of a focus for Namco once Tekken 7 and Pokken Fighter are available in arcades. Three years have passed since the game was stated to be 10 percent complete, so don’t be surprised if Namco is ready to show off something once the company is done promoting Tekken 7 and Pokken Tournament.
As always, you can keep up with Teken x Street Fighter here at Prima Games!
