This comes to us from an interview with Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono by Shack News and brought to our attention by The Stinger Report. Street Fighter fans should find this interesting:
“” Shack: Since there’s no planned arcade version for Super Street Fighter IV, do you think the future of SFIV is geared toward American and European audiences beacuse they are more console-based players? Do you hope to convert Japanese players into console players?
Yoshinori Ono: (I have removed a little part here-Adam)
For me personally, Street Fighter is an arcade game. It always has been. I’d love to do an arcade version, but the company is focusing more on console games right now, so [an arcade version of Super] didn’t reallypan out. That said, if there are people out there that want to see an arcade version, by all means, be vocal about it and let us know.
…If you know any arcade collectors or operators in the US, please tell them to write us letters saying they will buy 100 machines.“
Emphasis mine there. This obviously confirms that at the moment there is no planned arcade release for the update to Street Fighter IV in arcades but as Mr. Ono himself stated, if arcade players are vocal enough about it, then we could see one. I am looking into getting some proper contact information for this but if you the players or operators really want this, the best bet is to flood Capcom with requests via their websites. Mr. Ono continued in the interview after that to discuss the US arcade market and his discussion of how they would expect a couple hundred arcades to go with it although they would prefer thousands of orders
I think getting thousands of orders, or even hundreds of SSFIV orders is not an impossible task but it certainly is difficult for a couple of reasons:
First of all price. When Capcom first showed SFIV for arcades everything was great until we found out that you had to buy two cabinets if you wanted a 2p experience and they wanted about $10,000 for each. some places had to place a minimum order of four machines. When Capcom was shopping for interest in distributing the game in the US it’s not surprising that they were pretty much shot down as very few venues have both the interest and money to invest in that. Obviously there were some locations that did but to sell the number of units that Capcom thinks it should sell, they needed to change their pricing strategy to really move units. If they could create a version where it’s 2 people on one cabinet(which makes the game enticing to smaller venues, which shouldn’t be ignored) and for a price well below $10k then we are talking but my hopes aren’t high on that unless they have learned a good lesson. I personally cannot think out a reason why if they did a SSFIV release that “development costs” should all be shoveled onto the arcade when in reality, the console release will cover that nicely.
Next is you have to convince us operators that the arcade version of Super Street Fighter IV will have enough to pull player interest away from their consoles. I know that interest is out there to a degree, as I’ve had people coming in expressing interest in an arcade version of SFIV even after the console release and some people do see the advantage of playing against someone at an arcade as opposed to over the internet (yes there are those who would rather do the latter, I know). Will the arcade version get any nice extras since we are paying a heck of a lot more for the game that can be purchased in a home form too along with nice arcade sticks?
BTW, Mr. Ono also mentions wanting to do a new Darkstalkers so we’ll have to see where they go with that one.
Is Capcom insane? $10,000 for a generic cabinet with SSFIV in it?! I’d say that would be plausible if it were 1982 or even 1992, but this is 2010, the kids ain’t exactly hanging out at the arcade at the mall; that is if there is even a mall to hang out anymore.
This is one of the reasons the arcade industry is on the ropes. People WANT to buy Capcom’s games, even at the incredibly expensive prices Capcom is demanding, but instead of filling that demand, they ignore it.
Or how about charging something reasonable, like $5,000-$7,000 for a SSFIV machine (or less).
Amen. I doubt anyone really wants to pay the huge prices for new games but most of the time we have no choice if we want something new. It makes it very difficult to maintain a new selection as well as open up a new arcade. a
4-6 grand and they would have their thousands of orders…. I doubt they will ever sell at that price range…..
Exactly, you take a page from companies who ARE selling games in the thousands. For example:
Golden Tee series – they usually sell these for under $4000 and consistently sell in the thousands. helps that they have a loyal base of bars to pick them up
Silver Strike – I saw a release not long ago where IT had already sold 3000 of these before the game was even available. You can get it for around $3600 I believe.
Guitar Hero – we know it’s sold at least 3000, it helps that it has the name. These go for $7000 or less but it’s two players per cab unlike SFIV.
H2Overdrive – while many know that this is a successor to Hydro Thunder, it’s not in the name and it has sold 2000+ units. Now this is the most expensive of the list ($7400 roughly) but with the new and cheaper 32″ version coming along, who knows.
I don’t know what the margins would be for Capcom so whether selling the cabinets in the range of games like Golden Tee is possible I don’t know, although I personally wouldn’t mind putting SFIV into a pedestal cabinet like IT uses. Some of the purists might “require” a Vewlix to be happy however.
capcom should add in features that the console version doesn’t have such as the joystick, yes the option is there to buy one but why pay £60 for a joystick for just one game plus you need to get one for the other player. other stuff they could imput is maybe touch screen funtion like gavering up energy, no the DS does not count. maybe a player card that dispences a card that allows you to play only that character when you swipe it like in dinosaur king plus it may even start off a craze maybe the next pokemon type collecting. there can also be rare cards. this could really help the industry out and really benifit capcom totally
People comparing prices of arcade machines to ones of yesteryear need to take inflation into account. Look at the price of a bottle of water compared to many years ago, the price of confectionary now to years ago. Everything has gone up. People see one game they are very interested in and somehow expect it to be as cheap as a games console. Games consoles are cheap cause they are sold at a loss: the money is made back by licencing games (unlike games for the PC, which is why console games are much more expensive than PC games).
These games make a lot of money in arcades, so the cost is recuperated quite rapidly. Operators are afraid to invest in new games cause they are not sure people will come to play them. That is why people need to make it clear that they want to play them in arcades, so operators feel confident to order them.
As for the price of one machine compared to a pair; all Vs games should be played on Vs cabinets such as the Vewlix Vs. The other versions of the Vewlix are either supposed to be linked together back-to-back in the vein of the Vewlix Vs, or they are for co-op games.
The reason for the Vs cabinets is it is near vital for each player’s actions on the controls to be unseen by their opponent.
Inflation or not, it doesn’t excuse the fact that SFIV is priced way above any other fighter on the market as well as many other non-fighter arcade titles. The initial $20k-$40k price tag DID prevent a lot of locations from grabbing one. No one in the arcade industry is expecting the price to sit around a home console but price does matter. There has been some price competition in the industry lately or game makers producing games that give you more bang for the buck, which is driving prices down among other game makers. But Capcom was in a universe where they think that all operators are sitting on mounds of cash and will drop whatever price they ask for simply because the name Street Fighter is on the game. That is not the case.
As for all Vs. games “should” be played Vs. style, that’s a matter of opinion, generally from the hardcore fan base. I understand how nice it can be to have a setup like that but it’s unrealistic to force that on EVERY location out there. I see people play fighters on the same cabinet every day and I’ve never had someone ask for a VS. setup. The fact that Capcom didn’t even offer a VS. solution doesn’t help them sell more units. It again comes down to what operators can afford. You are right that operators need to know that a game will recuperate it’s initial cost and with Capcom obviously more focused on console games, it’s hard to convince us that such will be the case. We have heard on this site a couple of times of people who took the risk of buying some SFIV setups where they never recuperated the costs. It’s not just about recuperating the cost of the cab but actually making some profit off of it in a reasonable period too.
If SFIV had a guaranteed window of exclusivity for arcade ONLY for lets say a year, then I’d say that a higher price tag would be reasonable.
Capcom wants to say, “Yeah, we’re going to charge you 8X what the game should cost, AND we’re going to release it on the home systems in six months, or worse, first.”