14 DAY TRIAL // Street Fighter IV is currently one of the most expected titles set to hit the store shelves at the beginning of 2009. Slated for a February 17 release date in the United States, and scheduled for February 20 in Europe, the game will definitely attract a lot of fans who can hardly wait to get their hands on this new title in the classic fighting franchise.
The fact that it has been already launched in Japan, last summer, as a version only for the arcades in the country, made people wonder whether Capcom would make the same move in other territories, like North America or certain countries in Europe. Chris Kramer, senior director of communications and community for Capcom, recently spoke with Edge and said that there were no plans to bring an arcade version of Street Fighter IV in the United States, because of the fact that these versions weren't very popular.
He then went on saying that the industry of arcades was dying, and that the launch of Street Fighter IV wasn't going to revive a phenomenon that had disappeared a few years back. The fact that arcades were still popular in Japan prompted the company to launch such a version, but it would be only for that country, continued Kramer.
"At this point, it does not look like Street Fighter IV arcade machines will officially hit the U.S. arcade market. There's not really an arcade business in the U.S. anymore. It's sort of like an 'amusement' business that sometimes has arcade games in it. Street Fighter IV's a great game, but could it rejuvenate an industry that died off seven or eight years ago? I don't think so. I don't think it's that great. I don't think anything by itself would be capable of revamping a whole business like that."
These statements came as a reply to the fact that a lot of Americans are importing Japanese arcades into their own country, just so they could play Street Fighter IV. It was then that people started to presume that, faced with such a demand from fans, Capcom might bring arcade versions of the game in the US.
Although this is bad news for arcade owners and players, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners have nothing to worry about, as opposed to PC users, who didn't receive a concrete release date of the game for their favorite platform.