Remember back in 2010 when Capcom and Bandai Namco in a joint press release announced a special collaboration of their two fighting franchises? If not, then don’t worry, you’re not alone. At the San Diego Comic-Con 2010, both companies revealed two new games that would feature characters from the Street Fighter and Tekken series, one that would play to Capcoms’ style and the other that would play like Bandai Namco’s.
A couple of years later, one of those games, Street Fighter X Tekken, would release to mixed reaction, while the other game, Tekken X Street Fighter, has been in development for nearly 9 years. At some point, fans just assumed that the game was canceled; in fact the producer of the Tekken series, Katsuhiro Harada, stated that the game was put on hold due to Street Fighter V’s imminent launch and Tekken 7’s development.
9 years later at this year’s special Kuro Kuro End of the Year Tekken Party, Harada was asked point blank about the status of Tekken X Street Fighter, to which he said that the game “is not canceled and still on hold.” If that wasn’t enough to defy logic, he then went to say that the game was “roughly 30% done.” The very fact that this game hasn’t been canceled is a miracle in and of itself, as most games nowadays are shut down if they don’t launch in a timely manner.
In the time that Tekken X Street Fighter was announced to today, we’ve had some outstanding fighting games released, leading to a resurgence in the fighting game community and a renewed interest of the EVO Tournament. Some of those games include Dragon Ball FighterZ, Soul Calibur VI, Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat X, Tekken 7, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. With all of these hyper intensive competitive games dominating the fighting community, would they really want the second game from the collaboration of 9 years ago?
At the very least, Harada seems to be making a point that he isn’t going to just outright quit on the project. Whether his answer was just a placeholder for a more official announcement, or he legitimately wishes to see the game released, Tekken X Street Fighter is no closer to releasing than it was 9 years ago when it was announced. If anyone out there is still holding out for this game, Harada just gave you a small glimmer of hope.