The new official US website for Street Fighter IV is up with plenty of information about the but unfortunately as well as was slightly expected since it was not mentioned in the official press release either,
they make no mention whatsoever of the existence of an arcade version of the game. So we can assume that Capcom USA has dropped the ball on the arcade version in the US for now, leaving it up to people to import the game, much like Namco is making arcades do with Tekken 6.
Our source from the Stinger Report has made a comment in our recent poll about SFIV regarding the situation and sadly it is quite apparent that Capcom USA has a bias towards the arcade version of the game and would prefer to behave as though it doesn’t exist, focusing their efforts solely on the console versions. As you will read after the break, it was reported that they arrogantly declared the arcade market dead and basically made it seem that it wasn’t worth their time. Funny, if the industry is dead then it is strange that there are still a handful of companies releasing new arcade games and of course if it is dead as they believe it is, their asking price of $14,000 doesn’t help improve the situation one bit but they obviously aren’t worried about that. I would also like to mention that Arcade Renaissance has made a post regarding concerns about the release of the game in the US and so far it is looking bleak. This won’t stop some arcades from importing the game either way but to me as an operator, I see Capcom USA burning any bridge they may have for the future.
Hit the break for the quotes from the Stinger Report regarding the situation
From the “Would you rather play SFIV in arcades or on a console” thread:
The reason I asked AH to run this poll was based on the ’spin’ that is being built-up by the consumer game division at Capcom US to try and take the media away from comparing the arcade version as they do not want to promote it. This spin seeing Capcom try and leak the possibility of a PS3 / XB360 launch in winter for SFIV – only for this to be proven to be a rumor.
There is also a hidden agenda – the arcade version will be BETTER than the console version, as with Tekken6, Vitura Fighter5 and other conversations, the console has less performance on refresh-rate and performance than the arcade version.
This situation took a uncomfortable jump when claims by Namco that T6 was arcade perfect on the XB360 and PS3, only to drop the subject when it was revealed that the international release of T6 will not have online support half as good as the arcade, will run only at 30hz, compared against the arcade 60htz and the hi-level customizable players character and tournament linked battle will not be available!!!!
He continues:
Seems the rumor started at the Capcom UK press briefing over the weekend, Capcom Japan has gone nuts over this – especially the bad mouthing of arcade and have made demands.
This is not the first time that the consumer division of Capcom have rebelled against the arcade version, and attempted to bad-brief the consumer trade against the arcade version.
And finally…
…the Capacom US guys claimed, to their Japanese bosses, they had done due diligence on the location of a US and UK distributor. I have actually checked out what happened and it dose not cast them in any glory. They only talked about $14,000 cabs, no kits. They also made the decision to remove the NESE network from being considered (without consulting with Capcom). Their attitude with some of the distributors approached was less friendly, more arrogant. One actually made the comment in a meeting “… this is just an after thought as the market is dead!”
The CoinOpExpress site has been inundated with orders from the US for the SFIV kit, and this forced Capcom Japan to rethink their strategy about getting the arcade machine into the market. This side stepping of the original Capcom US guys caused them to get angry, and they have been bad mouthing the amusement scene ever since.
With the current profit situation of Capcom US we may see a change in management that could see SFIV and the two other announced arcade titles make landfall in the States and Europe – but the brickwall that is being placed against any contact with Japan from the arcade scene outside of Japan tells me there is some serious spinning going on!
Capcom Japan had better be listening as this is not going down well – not just with myself but with others. My local distributor is willing to look into it – they are fairly large yet they weren’t contacted by Capcom but if this is the attitude that they are taking towards distributors it probably won’t go very far. It’s too bad as SFIV will certainly do well in arcades, giving a boost to any arcade that gets it but it is apparent that Capcom USA has no interest in participating in the amusement scene at this time.
It’s not surprising the official website doesn’t mention the arcade version. But it doesn’t mean there will be no US release. Time Crisis 4, Virtua Tennis 3 and Soul Calibur III international websites didn’t mention the arcade version either but arcade versions were released in the US. It’s a shame that game companies’ consumer branch (responsible for websites) doesn’t support their company’s own amusement division. Arcade market is not dead yet, but it looks like they want it to be. Or at least, they do everything for it, it’s called sabotage!
There is a lot more to this story.
I hope to have a detailed breakdown on the Capcom plan for international arcade before the end of the month.
It may be a little late to the table, like Soul Calibur 3, but I’m sure SFIV will come to the US arcades. Remember, Capcom whores out scores of expansions for their Street Fighter games. SFIV is just the model 1.
Capcom is a big money company and isn’t going to bother much with arcades for their top-tier games. It’s the smaller companies now that do coin-op. Get used to it.