Don't Expect Street Fighter V For a Long, Long Time

[Steven Bogos]

Don't Expect Street Fighter V For a Long, Long Time

Capcom's producer Tomoaki Ayano says we probably wont see Street Fighter V until around 2018.

Street Fighter IV came out in 2008, and while it has had its revisions [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/conferences/gdc2010/7284-Hands-On-Super-Street-Fighter-IV] that keep resetting its price to the "new game" level, it is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, especially with Next-Gen consoles just around the corner. Capcom's producer Tomoaki Ayano has unfortunately dashes the hopes of anyone waiting for a PS4/Xbox One Street Fighter title, stating that "it would probably take us until the year 2018 before Street Fighter V comes out."

"Game development is a long and arduous process," he continued. "If you look at the history of the series, it took six years to go from Street Fighter II to Street Fighter III, and nine years to go from Street Fighter III to Street Fighter IV." "I hope everyone will play Ultra Street Fighter IV for a long time," he added.

In his interview with Ultra Street Fighter IV [http://www.vg247.com/2013/08/05/ultra-street-fighter-4-characters-arent-just-ripped-from-sf-x-tekken-says-producer/] that previously starred in Street Fighter X Tekken would simply be ripped from the later game. "Users do not need to worry," he replied, "because the new characters will definitely not just be copy and pasted from Street Fighter X Tekken. If we did that, they would undoubtedly be the strongest characters in the game."

He continued by explaining that there is a huge difference in the two game's combat systems, most notably Boost Combos, which don't exist in Street Fighter IV, and Ultra and Super Combos, which don't exist in Street Fighter X Tekken. "A simple rip wouldn't allow us to make the necessary changes, so a lot of work is going on behind the scenes."

Ultra Street Fighter IV will be out in early 2014, and will add Rolento, Elena, Poison, Hugo and an unannounced fifth character.

Source: VG24/7 [http://www.vg247.com/2013/08/05/ultra-street-fighter-4-characters-arent-just-ripped-from-sf-x-tekken-says-producer/]

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[Ghonzor]

I'm glad I never cared about Street Fighter. The shameless mining of the property and the utter bullshit that follows each installation would surely drive any fan mad.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

I wish I could still play fighting games with any amount of proficiency. Age has taken that particular pleasure from me. Reaction times slow, hands ache, and fighting games just require too much split-second timing.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Street Fighter V will come out the same day as HL3

 

[Abomination]

I'm sorry, it takes you 6+ years to make a 2.5D fighting game?

You mean it's cheaper to just release the same game on the same engine with a few minor tweaks at new game price every year.

They probably spend more time thinking up bombastic fighters rather than actually fiddling with the mechanics. Didn't they introduce a guy who fights using oil to ensure he's all lubed up and slippery?

 

[Paragon Fury]

Hey, what do you know? It takes time and development to keep making good games out of a good series; not just a label.

Shame some other series seem to have forgotten this......

 

[Yuuki]

I'm sorry, it takes you 6+ years to make a 2.5D fighting game?

With fighting games the visual style doesn't even make up 5% of how much work has to go into making the MECHANICS fully balanced and functional. It's all about the mechanics.

I don't know if you're aware of how ridiculously complicated fighting systems can get when it comes to things like input frame-timing, how each characters' abilities react/counteract with each OTHER characters' abilities, prioritization, combo systems, etc etc. It takes a very long time to get right which is why Capcom is unwilling to spit out something new/different...because then that process starts all over again. SSIV has 35-40 characters in the roster which is amazing in itself, with tons of unique playstyles between them (some do share playstyles as others).

At the very core arcade fighting games revolve entirely around multiplayer, they are multiplayer games. The fun is derived from fighting other people (because AI gets weird and predictable) and communities build up around it. Street Fighter has been a staple of the arcade community for decades. Super Street Fighter IV quickly got taken to pro-gaming levels, ending in winners walking away with $10,000-20,000+. This is why stuff like balance and mechanics have to be 99.99% near-perfect, which is what takes the most time and effort to develop.

The main thing I disagree with is Capcom's stupid DLC policy and pricing/re-release schemes, that is just greedy. But overall when it comes to fighting games they are unrivaled.

 

[Abomination]

I'm sorry, it takes you 6+ years to make a 2.5D fighting game?

With fighting games the visual style doesn't even make up 5% of how much work has to go into making the MECHANICS fully balanced and functional. It's all about the mechanics.

I don't know if you're aware of how ridiculously complicated fighting systems can get when it comes to things like input frame-timing, how each characters' abilities react/counteract with each OTHER characters' abilities, prioritization, combo systems, etc etc. It takes a very long time to get right which is why Capcom is unwilling to spit out something new/different...because then that process starts all over again.

At the very core arcade fighting games revolve entirely around multiplayer, they are multiplayer games. The fun is derived from fighting other people (because AI gets weird and predictable) and communities build up around it. Street Fighter has been a staple of the arcade community for decades. Super Street Fighter IV quickly got taken to pro-gaming levels, ending in winners walking away with $10,000-20,000+. This is why stuff like balance and mechanics have to be 99.99% near-perfect, which is what takes the most time and effort to develop.

The main thing I disagree with is Capcom's stupid DLC policy and pricing/re-release schemes, that is just greedy. But overall when it comes to fighting games they are unrivaled.

I understand how under the hood there's a lot going on... but the same can be said for almost all games.

The AI, combat and free-running mechanics of Assassin's Creeds combined with its massive areas and mini-games has a ton under the hood.

Skyrim's systems have far more going on.

Even Crusader Kings II has a TON of mechanics that is going on in the background.

To imply that fighting games are more complex than other games mechanically just because of the precision they need is incorrect. Yes they require precision but they are also very focused on the same thing every time.

They also have a benefit of not having to put much effort into a narrative.

 

[Ghonzor]

But overall when it comes to fighting games they are unrivaled.

BlazBlue would like a word with you.

 

[Tanakh]

-snip-

I will just say you really don't understand PvP balance, nor what the other poster meant by "It's all about the mechanics". Mechanics in SF have more to do with Starcraft or GO, while the games you mention are for the most part like building a theme park, not that one is harder than the other, but the comparison is futile.

I honestly am happy with the current release schedule of SF games. And if anything Capcom amazes me with the current state of the game, I think only SC is better balanced than SF, you can see games like LoL, DotA, Tribes, Planetside WoW (PvP), UMvC3 among others having many more cracks; look at this table http://www.eventhubs.com/guides/2008/oct/17/street-fighter-4-tiers-character-rankings/ , it's as even as humanly possible, and you can see even some of the lower tier toons at the finals of EVO and the like.

 

[Abomination]

I will just say you really don't understand PvP balance

I most certainly do understand PvP balance. Or do I have to provide some fucking credentials?

nor what the other poster meant by "It's all about the mechanics". Mechanics in SF have more to do with Starcraft or GO, while the games you mention are for the most part like building a theme park, not that one is harder than the other, but the comparison is futile.

If one isn't harder than the other then the comparison is NOT futile. It's comparable if they're both comparable in difficulty. The EFFORT required to make a game is what is important here, not the type of game being made.

If one task requires 3 years of training and takes 8 hours to produce and the other task requires 3 years of training and takes 8 hours to produce then one claiming they have to take 6 years to produce it while the other is able to pop one out every 2 years you know someone's not telling the truth.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I think I'll just keep playing Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike instead.

 

[Tanakh]

I most certainly do understand PvP balance. Or do I have to provide some fucking credentials?

Don't bother. Chances are I will continue thinking you have zero insight about PvP video game development, and you will keep thinking you ain't clueless. Thanks for the offer though, it's just chances of a good comunication are slim.

 

[Steven Bogos]

The AI, combat and free-running mechanics of Assassin's Creeds combined with its massive areas and mini-games has a ton under the hood.

Skyrim's systems have far more going on.

Even Crusader Kings II has a TON of mechanics that is going on in the background.

To imply that fighting games are more complex than other games mechanically just because of the precision they need is incorrect. Yes they require precision but they are also very focused on the same thing every time.

They also have a benefit of not having to put much effort into a narrative.

It's not very fair to compare Street Fighter, which is pretty much 100% about player vs player competitive action, to games like Skyrim and Assassin's creed, which are singleplayer only experiences.

When you get a glitch in Skyrim, you may get slightly frustrated, but you just reload your previous save and carry on

When you get a glitch in Street Fighter, it loses you the match. Games that are not perfectly balanced won't even be considered for tournament play, which is the bread and butter of games like Street Fighter.

Short version, you have to put a lot more effort into balancing a fighting game over balancing an RPG, because if an RPG is full of glitches and is unbalanced it doesn't really matter, but if a fighting game is it will completely fail.

A more apt comparison would be something like Starcraft II or League of Legends - games that live and die by their game balance.

 

[Yuuki]

If one task requires 3 years of training and takes 8 hours to produce and the other task requires 3 years of training and takes 8 hours to produce then one claiming they have to take 6 years to produce it while the other is able to pop one out every 2 years you know someone's not telling the truth.

The difference is that in a sandbox game a few bugs here or there are easily acceptable. Hell, Elder Scrolls games are basically bug-wonderland considering how many videos you'll see floating around of hilarious shit happening. Assasins' Creed also has lots of weird shit happening, but it's all taken with a grain of salt because of the singleplayer nature combined with a sandbox world. Things are extremely "loose".

Meanwhile in an arcade tournament game if bugs are found, literally everything comes to a halt and the multiplayer community will actively try to fucking STRANGLE (or carpet-bomb) the developers 24/7 until it is fixed. The degree of "perfection" required in one kind of game is vastly tighter than the other, there is almost zero room for glitched characters or broken combos. The kind of QA tests that arcade fighters have to go through is nothing short of insane.

Take Skullgirls for example. The dev said that each character takes $250,000 to create from scratch, and Skullgirls is considered a low-budget Indie title.

Tanakh is correct in saying that PvP/multiplayer-based games really shouldn't be compared to singleplayer/story games. The development strategies behind the two categories is fundamentally different. The kind of effort that goes into balancing a game like Starcraft 2, League Of Legends or arcade fighter is just...different than the effort that goes into crafting a linear/sandbox RPG or FPS.
For example, in the latter you can just happily sprinkle new content with no repercussions, in the former if you introduce a single new thing that doesn't fall in line in terms of perfect PvP balance with everything else that's already in the game, then the shit hits the FAN.

It takes incredibly strong resolve to deal with the PvP/multiplayer community. They are absolutely ruthless in terms of exploiting mechanics, hurling bricks at the developers, relentlessly complaining about every_single_fucking_thing and overall being borderline impossible to satisfy. The developer has to make sure they listen to the correct people, filter out all the other noise and implement the perfect system (or tweaks) for months/years as long as that game is supported. Achieving balance in multipalyer games is like solving a 50-sided Rubik's Cube.

Meanwhile the long-term strategy for most singleplayer/story games from a developer/publisher point of view is this:
1) Did the game install?
2) Is it playable?
3) Could you get to the end?
4) Yes to all the above? Then STFU, you got your $60 worth. We'll fix bugs when we fucking feel like it.

 

[Scarim Coral]

This news doesn't suprise me for some reason. I guesas it's because it did took them a while from them to release SF4. Beside we only got 4 years to go now.

 

[shirkbot]

But overall when it comes to fighting games they are unrivaled.

BlazBlue would like a word with you.

This made me chuckle, so it is reposted. That and I tend to enjoy Capcom's fighting games the least.

OT: I don't care if it takes you 8-10 years to make a new game Capcom, but you keep releasing the old game with a new title and a minimum of changes and calling it new. Stop doing the latter and I think we'll all accept the former on the grounds of quality. Though, I have my suspicions that your timetable might change if you stopped the constant re-releases...

 

[bjj hero]

Forget streetfighter, can we get a new IP? New world, new charecters. I like streetfighter (prefer king of fighters though) but id like to see what else can be done.

Darkstalkers was awesome. They can do so much more.

 

[Teoes]

Forget streetfighter, can we get a new IP? New world, new charecters. I like streetfighter (prefer king of fighters though) but id like to see what else can be done.

Darkstalkers was awesome. They can do so much more.

Steady on there.. that's not how the games industry does things! Didn't you hear that games need to be either existing or viable franchises out of the gate to even stand a chance of being made?