Bandai Namco has decided to put the fighting game crossover "Tekken x Street Fighter" at the backburner. "Tekken" game director Katsuhiro Harada believes that pursuing it now will "split" the two communities.
"When we develop fighting games, we try to keep the core community in mind as well as the wider audience that wants to play these games," Harada explained to Gamespot.
"But currently the situation is with fighting games, you have 'Street Fighter 5' that just released – a lot of people are playing that fervently – and there's a large crowd out there waiting for Tekken 7," he continued.
This, according to Harada, made finding the right timing for the "Tekken x Street Fighter" launch difficult.
"So it's on hold for the moment," Harada said, breaking the hearts of fans waiting for the crossover.
As per Forbes, Harada's explanation about ditching "Tekken x Street Fighter" makes sense, seeing that "Street Fighter 5" is at its peak right now while more versions of "Tekken 7" are on the way.
In addition, the site believes that Bandai Namco is scaling down on arcade game releases at the moment to avoid "over exposing" itself to the market, which has become a bit competitive especially in Japan where multiplayer arcade games have increased in popularity.
"Tekken x Street Fighter" was a collaborative project by Capcom and Bandai Namco. The two game giants struck a deal back in 2010 to give access to each other's characters for two crossover games. Capcom's "Street Fighter x Tekken" was released in 2012, but Bandai Namco's title never saw the light of day.
Back in 2013, Harada said that development for "Tekken x Street Fighter" was in full swing, but updates have been scarce. Also around that time, Harada said that his team has already settled on which characters to feature and they have also completed polygon models, moves and systems.
The closest thing fans have to "Tekken X Street Fighter" is "Tekken 7: Fated Retribution," where "Street Fighter" character Akuma is included, bringing with him his EX meter.
