I don’t know where you live, but certainly in Europe fighting games are in very short supply. I attend arcade trade shows each year for this website, and the fighting genre is not heavily represented at all. I can’t think of a single game shown at EAG 2010, and at ATEI last year I only saw Street Fighter IV and Tekken 6 (both of which attracted the biggest crowds of the show – I was very lucky to even get a picture of SFIV).

As for whether people will pay to play fighting games, I’ll have to respectfully disagree. They do have a limited appeal in general. That’s because they are usually available on console, can be relatively underwhelming to look at as well and are often geared towards the hardcore. But if that hardcore is in your area, then you’d be doing yourself a disservice not to run a fighting game or two as the hardcore fighting fans are typically consistent, repeat customers.

I’ve been saying it for years, games like Dance, Dance revolution and Silent Scope proved that people will still pay to play arcade games– there just has to be something there that people can’t get at home.

The old beat-’em-up fighter games have ran their course. It’s time for something new– that can’t be had on a console… Like a version of SF with boxing gloves and nose bleed-inducing electric shocks. Now were talking.

The whole Battle of Destiny SFIV appearance, or the new Anime Expo Blu appearance all show the ‘Player-Power’ issue. The problem is that the satellite operation has to depend on fan support to keep momentum going on the immanent home console release of these games. Critical web forum coverage putting great pressure on marketing men.

But there is another problem in showing the arcade version in these territories, leaving themselves open to the danger that the home version will be compared to the arcade version and the cracks in th PS3 and XB360 ability to render arcade quality brawlers will be revealed. I have already heard of complaints about the difference between the arcade and home version of T6!