Speaking during an interview with 4Gamer, Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono has revealed he’s keen to see the Street Fighter franchise continue beyond the critically-acclaimed fourth instalment in the beat-‘em-up series.
Once again, Ono-san cited available funds and staff as the main obstacle in getting a new Street Fighter off the ground, as he did when shooting down rumors of Street Fighter V just a few weeks back.
However, he did flirt with the idea of transitioning into a free-to-play service depending on how things go.
"I don’t want to stop Street Fighter’s main series at Street Fighter IV," said Ono-san. "Realistically though, developing a title for next-gen consoles will require a huge number of staff members and a lot of money. This issue of money also applies to the gamer, as it’ll be needed to invest in a new console, game, and arcade stick.
“If you look at fighting games as a competitive sport, some would say the more players there are the better," he added. "Going with a free-to-play model would lower the initial cost, which is one of the main positives about it.
On the other hand, whether we could guarantee that we’d recoup development costs is something I don’t currently have an answer for, so I’d like to see how well Harada (Tekken producer) and Hayashi (Dead Or Alive producer) handle it first and think about it more after that."
Street Fighter IV is getting yet another addition to its extensive expansion line-up, with Ultra Street Fighter IV adding new characters, stages and various balance tweaks upon its release for PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 in 2014
You’ll be able to buy the pack as a full retail edition or as a $14.99 upgrade for existing SSFIV: Arcade Edition users.
Would you like to see the Street Fighter series go down the F2P route? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.