Rumor: Capcom and Namco Making Pair of Crossover Fighters

[Gigaguy64]

Oh God i hope this is true.....
This year just keeps better and better.

I called it guys.
The age of the fighter is upon us!

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

Namco vs Capcom for me. Prefer Tekken and Soul Calibur style fighters to Street Fighter. The idea to make two, one ideal for each side of the fanbase is a great decision.

 

[John Funk]

Interesting but given that very few Crossover games of any sort make it to the US for a number of reasons it's hard to get excited. "Namco x Capcom" for example never seemed to have a US release. There are a lot of reasons for this, both the public ones that are expressed, and other darker ones according to my reading, but the bottom line is that I've long ago learned to not get too excited about what Japan does unless I'm likely to ever see a release of the game in anything like a timely fashion.

Assuming that the rumor is 100% true ... A game teased at a US event, and unveiled at a US event, wouldn't make it to the states?

That's some pretty shaky thinking.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Interesting but given that very few Crossover games of any sort make it to the US for a number of reasons it's hard to get excited. "Namco x Capcom" for example never seemed to have a US release. There are a lot of reasons for this, both the public ones that are expressed, and other darker ones according to my reading, but the bottom line is that I've long ago learned to not get too excited about what Japan does unless I'm likely to ever see a release of the game in anything like a timely fashion.

Assuming that the rumor is 100% true ... A game teased at a US event, and unveiled at a US event, wouldn't make it to the states?

That's some pretty shaky thinking.

Also consider that the last time Capcom did this with real intent it worked out extremely well. Capcom VS SNK 1 and particularly 2 were extremely solid games with 2 actually being on the tournament scene for a decent stint. SNKs SNK VS Capcom, well.. it wasn't as big a success but that was more due to lack of polish and balancing than it being a bad idea.

 

[Therumancer]

Interesting but given that very few Crossover games of any sort make it to the US for a number of reasons it's hard to get excited. "Namco x Capcom" for example never seemed to have a US release. There are a lot of reasons for this, both the public ones that are expressed, and other darker ones according to my reading, but the bottom line is that I've long ago learned to not get too excited about what Japan does unless I'm likely to ever see a release of the game in anything like a timely fashion.

Assuming that the rumor is 100% true ... A game teased at a US event, and unveiled at a US event, wouldn't make it to the states?

That's some pretty shaky thinking.

I long ago became cynical about things like this as plenty of games that by all rights seemed like they should have seen a US release never did. A good example would be the expanded version of the JRPG "Cross Edge" called "Cross Edge Dash" for the X-box 360 which seemed similar credible announcing and wound up surprising NISA when they found out that there wasn't going to be a US localization of it after all.

Another example would be the game "Soul Hackers". Or various information over the years implying that the US would be getting localized versions of various "Super Robot Taisen" titles none of which ever materialized for alledged "liscencing issues". Heck for that matter I believe "Namco x Capcom" itself got attention for having a credibly promised US release (at least on forums) and then vaporized with the excuse "well, we didn't think it would work because the US audience isn't familiar with too many of the characters".

So yeah, I take a "been there, done that" attitude here. When it comes to JRPGs, Crossover games, and similar things my basic attitude is that no matter what is said, who the source is, or how credible it seems, assume it isn't coming until it's finished localization and is actually being distributed to Warehouses. These things tend to be killed horribly at the 11th hour.

The guys making the announcement here might genuinely believe the game is going to be released in the US going by the event. However a surprising amount is going to depend on both the continued good will of people holding various liscences (as various Namco and Capcom characters might also be liscenced out to other sources at the same time), marketing people continueing to support the idea, and simply put the reaction of the Japanese gaming public to a US release. Going by many things I've seen, enough Japanese fanboys screaming that a US release cheapens something, yelling about race/culture traitors, and/or threatening to boycott futher projects by a developer if they send something overseas can be a massive influance in getting something's localization nuked even if the people in charge stand to make a lot of money.

While it might seem shaky, I'll simply say I've been here before. With this kind of thing assume the worse, hope for the best.

 

[John Funk]

Interesting but given that very few Crossover games of any sort make it to the US for a number of reasons it's hard to get excited. "Namco x Capcom" for example never seemed to have a US release. There are a lot of reasons for this, both the public ones that are expressed, and other darker ones according to my reading, but the bottom line is that I've long ago learned to not get too excited about what Japan does unless I'm likely to ever see a release of the game in anything like a timely fashion.

Assuming that the rumor is 100% true ... A game teased at a US event, and unveiled at a US event, wouldn't make it to the states?

That's some pretty shaky thinking.

I long ago became cynical about things like this as plenty of games that by all rights seemed like they should have seen a US release never did. A good example would be the expanded version of the JRPG "Cross Edge" called "Cross Edge Dash" for the X-box 360 which seemed similar credible announcing and wound up surprising NISA when they found out that there wasn't going to be a US localization of it after all.

Another example would be the game "Soul Hackers". Or various information over the years implying that the US would be getting localized versions of various "Super Robot Taisen" titles none of which ever materialized for alledged "liscencing issues". Heck for that matter I believe "Namco x Capcom" itself got attention for having a credibly promised US release (at least on forums) and then vaporized with the excuse "well, we didn't think it would work because the US audience isn't familiar with too many of the characters".

So yeah, I take a "been there, done that" attitude here. When it comes to JRPGs, Crossover games, and similar things my basic attitude is that no matter what is said, who the source is, or how credible it seems, assume it isn't coming until it's finished localization and is actually being distributed to Warehouses. These things tend to be killed horribly at the 11th hour.

The guys making the announcement here might genuinely believe the game is going to be released in the US going by the event. However a surprising amount is going to depend on both the continued good will of people holding various liscences (as various Namco and Capcom characters might also be liscenced out to other sources at the same time), marketing people continueing to support the idea, and simply put the reaction of the Japanese gaming public to a US release. Going by many things I've seen, enough Japanese fanboys screaming that a US release cheapens something, yelling about race/culture traitors, and/or threatening to boycott futher projects by a developer if they send something overseas can be a massive influance in getting something's localization nuked even if the people in charge stand to make a lot of money.

While it might seem shaky, I'll simply say I've been here before. With this kind of thing assume the worse, hope for the best.

If they weren't going to release a game over here, announcing it at San Diego Comic-Con would be phenomenally stupid.

 

[Sylocat]

Please, please, please, please, PLEASE let this be real...

And if so, please release it over here as well... there is some hope, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom was released over here.

 

[Therumancer]

If they weren't going to release a game over here, announcing it at San Diego Comic-Con would be phenomenally stupid.

Yes it would be, however part of what I'm saying is that the people making the annoucement could very well be genuine and yet the product will never materalize for a US release because things change down the pipe. While this can be said about any game, this tends to happen especially often when it comes to crossover games and JRPGs.

My overall point being that I don't think anyone should get excited because their is an annoucement, since I don't think it means all that much even if it's a high profile one. It's sort of like if it was annouced again that we were going to be getting more "Super Robot Taisen" titles in the US... I'll believe it when I see it.

While it wasn't as high profile, I'm sure Atlus meant it when they said we'd be getting "Soul Hackers" many years ago too. I'm sure NISA meant it when they were saying
we were going to get "Cross Edge Dash". Fighting game or RPG, in general no matter how reliable the sources seem to be the US generally does not get crossover titles. It's pretty bloody rare when it happens (although Soul Hackers is not a crossover title, it's one of the 11th hour cancellations that has most annoyed me).

It doesn't invalidate the report, all I'm saying is that I don't care what their platform for the annoucement is, I'll believe it when I see it and can hold the game in my hand. I think it's too early for anyone to get excited. I think fans should expect the worst and hope for the best in this case.

Plus I'll put it this way, if they are just announcing it then they haven't really gauged the Japanese reaction yet. If there is an overwhelming negative reaction to the game being localized and sold overseas, going by some stuff I've read, it's very likely that this will cause them to backpedal no matter what they would like to do. What's more we've got no idea what the liscencing situation is going to be like, true or not, one of the routine issues is that companies like Capcom liscence out characters to other companies. Sort of like how people were saying that "The Punisher" didn't get into the marvel action-RPGs despite fan demands because when those games were being made contracts prevented them from using the character (due to movie deals and such) in other products. One of the things that helps kill crossover games is that if like half the roster is under contract to things like oh... other crossover games, and that contract prevents them using the character to sell a product overseas (probably with wording not intended for this, but still including it), that means the localization is probably going to get cancelled since what's left of the game would probably be a shadow of itself. The thing is that while a company like Namco or Capcom might own all the characters, as it's been explained to me all of them are seperate intellectual properties and get committed to differant things. The point here being that if a deal comes up in the meantime that the company things can be more profitable using some of those properties that can nuke the entire thing before release.

We'll probably wind up having to agree to disagree. The bottom line is that while the announcement is cool, I think it should be taken with a grain of salt given the kind of product it was. Sure, there is a really respectable seeming platform involved, but the situation is such where I don't think that nessicarly means anything, other than the choice of venue meaning that if these games are made, there are enough people working for the companies who would like to see a US release at this paticular moment. For all the planning, and the choice of venue, things usually change with this kind of project for one reason or another. The same guys who okayed that annoucement are going to quickly backpedal if they decide in the next couple of years that they will lose too much money/respect domestically, or can make more money through cumulative individual liscences that would interfere with the game's overseas localization and release.