Bandai Namco Explains Why Tekken x Street Fighter May Never Happen

Back in 2010, Bandai Namco producer and Tekken creator Katsuhiro Harada announced Tekken x Street Fighter, a 3D fighting game in the style of Tekken, but featuring Street Fighter characters as well. Then in 2016, Harada revealed that the crossover fighting game’s development was being put on hold in order not to subtract from Street Fighter V or Tekken 7. He then reiterated this point in 2018. And now, in 2019, Harada has revealed that while he’s still up to create the game, he’s not sure if it’s going to happen anymore.

“Yes, I am emotionally up for it,” said Harada when asked about the project by VCG. “I still want to release the game. However, as much as I want to proceed with the project, things have changed a lot since 2012. So I need to get approval and I need to speak to Capcom again as well — they may say ‘no’ now.”

Harada noted the game was 30 percent complete before being put on hold, but what was already created, had him excited.

“I was excited to see how well Bandai Namco could convert 2D characters like Akuma from Street Fighter, and Geese from The King of Fighters into 3D models and make them look really sexy, visually,” said the producer, referencing guest characters found in Tekken 7. “I was excited about that and I have passion for it, but my logical and business thinking has me wondering if I really should do it.”

Harada continued:

“We started the project back in 2012 and the real interesting question then was, what is going to happen when the Tekken team designs characters for Street Fighter? We started creating 3D models and I really liked them – they looked super cool – and the project progressed to about 30% completion.”

That said, soon Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V released and did well. Further, they continue to do well. Harada notes that traditionally fighting games don’t have long tails, but both the Capcom and Bandai Namco fighting games have, which makes making Tekken x Street Fighter even more complicated.

“Traditionally, the life cycle of a fighting game is very short – maybe one or two years and then you make a sequel. But Tekken 7 is very successful as a service game with its DLC. That makes it much harder to justify releasing another game, while Tekken 7 is still doing so well.”

As you can see, nothing is ruled out by Harada, but it seems unlikely we will see the crossover fighting game anytime soon, if ever.

Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. Do you still want Bandai Namco to release Tekken x Street Fighter?

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