14 DAY TRIAL // Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft's Xbox division, promised to make amends for the loss of Street Fighter V, which will only be available on PlayStation 4 and PC upon release.
The news that the upcoming installment in the popular fighting game series from Capcom wouldn't be coming to Xbox platforms took many by surprise, and a lot of malcontent users fled to Twitter to ask Spencer what the dealio was.
Spencer responded with a curt "business deals happen," after which he went on to say that Microsoft already had a first party franchise in the genre, and that he would rather invest in that than make a deal for Street Fighter.
Spencer continued with his usual Good Guy Greg online persona, complimenting Sony for its PlayStation Experience event held during the last weekend, which will become a yearly occurrence.
He also congratulated Sony for a solid 20 years of fun with the PlayStation brand, and added that he still felt good about what was in store for Xbox fans in 2015, in spite of the heavy competition from the Japanese corporation.
Close, but no cigar
As the old saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, or in this case, the most iconic and popular fighting game franchise in the history of gaming.
Sure, Killer Instinct is nice and all, with its fresh coat of paint, Double Helix did a bang-up job rebooting the old franchise, and Iron Galaxy Studios is doing great expanding on it now, but the truth is that the game can't hold a candle to the most competitive fighting title in the world.
Killer Instinct was a solid free-to-play launch title for the Xbox One computer entertainment system and continues to offer owners of the system a great and accessible alternative to many fighting games, but it doesn't have anywhere near the same fanbase that Capcom's title has, nor does it have any of the lifelong die-hard fans that Street Fighter has.
The good thing from all this, however, is that Phil Spencer promised to do something in order to make up for the future lack of Street Fighter on the Xbox One. For the time being, there is no information regarding what kind of exclusivity deal Microsoft intends to counter with.
Capcom insisted on cross-platform multiplayer, and Sony happily obliged, enabling future Street Fighter V players on PC to test their mettle against those on PlayStation 4.
Microsoft is determined to maintain the status quo, that is not to share a player base with either Nintendo or Sony console users, and this might be the reason Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and Street Fighter V aren't in the cards for Xbox home consoles.
@broggiedoge Love the idea of game franchise bartering, I'll work on making amends for SF.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 8, 2014
