14 DAY TRIAL // Street Fighter IV is one of the most anticipated arcade titles currently under development. The game brings back the already popular heroes of the franchise, like Ryu, Ken or Chun Li, and introduces several new ones, like Poison Ivy or Abel. The development and concepts of the game, like the character design, which departed from the anime style characters from the previous versions, have been subject to a bit of criticism, but all in all, a lot of die hard fans are waiting for this game.
And when I say fans, I mean everybody else except the Japanese ones, because Capcom already launched a coin operated arcade game there in the mid-summer and it is already a huge success. Although the boards necessary for the arcade cabinet to run the game haven't been in stock, because of the large demand, one way or another, quite a lot of them made it over the ocean to the United States, where a couple of sightings of arcades running SF IV have been reported.
It was only natural that US citizens would start importing the game boards from Japan but the American branch of Capcom has released a statement warning people who had brought the game in the USA about the possible dangers. "Technically, what they are doing is illegal and could get them in legal trouble from both Capcom and several different branches of the federal government," said Chris Kramer of Capcom USA. However, don't go running to destroy the game boards, because he also added, "I think people running operations like that run a greater risk of getting into trouble with the federal government than with Capcom. But there would be precedence if we chose to prosecute. Officially, we would not ever encourage the gray market import of our products."
In this context, the company is really walking a fine line, because it was obvious that some people would import game boards from Japan, and if they were taken to court for it, Capcom's popularity with the fans would surely be damaged. So in the end, not taking the matter to court is the best course of action for the company, because it's not like the Americans are stealing from it, since those game boards were purchased from Capcom by the Japanese people, who sold them to their friends from the US.
Keep in mind that SF IV will be coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation3 and the PC but the release date hasn't been set by the developer, so until then, the arcades are the only way to play the game.