It was all the way back in 2010 when the ambitious Street Fighter and Tekken crossover titles were announced. On paper, it seemed like a brilliant idea. Capcom would do a crossover with characters from the two franchises in their Street Fighter influenced style, then Bandai Namco would do one in their Tekken-inspired style. In execution, however, something went wrong.
Only the first part of that idea ever came out with Street Fight x Tekken, and it released in 2012 to mixed reviews (due to not being what people expected and the in-game gem system that many found confusing and an unneeded bog on gameplay) and disappointing sales. Since then, the Bandai Namco part of the crossover has faded into memory, with many assuming it’ll never happen. But Tekken lead designer Katsuhiro Harada still has it on his mind.
In an interview with VGC, Harada mulled on his thoughts of the game. In 2016, the game was said to be “on hold”, with no updates since then. He said the project actually did reach about 30% completion, but the success of Tekken 7, coupled with the drastically changed gaming landscape of today – particularly with the games as a service model – makes him cautious of going into it again.
“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.
“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.”
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Tekken X Street Fighter, but you never know. A lot of once-thought-dead or unlikely projects have ended up coming to fruition in the past. Think of Duke Nukem Forever, The Last Guardian, or the sequel to Beyond Good and Evil. Who knows- in the end, Harada might get to play with the Street Fighter cast after all.
