There Are Talks of MORE Street Fighter Movies

There are always plans [for sequels]. We've seen this as being a really drawn-out way to explore the Street Fighter world. Start small, then go bigger and bigger, bringing in more characters and eventually spinning it horizontally to explore other threads and origin stories.

Being a gigantic fan of the Japanese RPG and knowing the appetites of said fans, I am half tempted to just toss these new Famitsu scans out onto the site and then head for high ground to avoid the ensuing flood of drool, but I'll be nice.

Cross Edge is a new RPG due out in Japan for the PlayStation 3 this September that is a collaboration between some of the top names in the genre. Nippon Ichi, Gust, Namco Bandai, Idea Factory, and even Capcom have lent their properties to this superstar game, which features characters from Darkstalkers, Disgaea, Ar Tonelico, and many more. Hell, a game with Etna and Morrigan together alone is worth eleventy million dollars. The game features turn-based battles, a plot that involves rescuing souls, and...if you look to the bottom right corner of the scan...the ability to dress your characters up in a wide variety of outfits, from PE clothes to devil costumes.

Chances of this coming out in the states? Pretty damn unlikely. Chances of me importing this? Over nine thousand. Thanks to SupaPhly for the scans!

So my day job (Frengo Corp.) is like, not even a block from Capcom supreme world U.S. command in San Mateo, Calif. And equidistant to us both is the above Trader Joe's grocery, which Californians know as a go-to stop for tasty lunchtime treats for not a lot of dough. I enjoy the barbecue chicken pinwheels, even if they do pack 53 percent of my RDA of fat.

But I was in there Thursday and I noticed something.

Industry Insiders Discuss ESA, E3's Future

What's the fate of E3, and of the Entertainment Software Association? It's worth examining in light of recent events. This morning we broke the news that two major publishers, Activision and Vivendi, have decided to take a pass on the event and exit the trade association, while other companies have withdrawn their E3 attendance as well. At the same time, the ESA appears to be facing stirrings of industry discontent with the ESA's leadership, namely its current president, Mike Gallagher.

E3 is not the boon to publishers that it once was, says Penny Arcade's director of business development Robert Khoo, who as the organizer of the PAX fan expo clearly has an interest, to say the least, in how things turn out.

"The reason that E3 imploded in recent years was because the publishers felt that it turned into this sort of pissing contest between them... where they were trying to figure out who could one-up each other," Khoo said. "They all thought to themselves that it just wasn't worth it."

Capcom Promotes Beaumont To COO

Capcom promoted executive VP and officer Mark Beaumont to the role of chief operating officer, the company announced today. Beaumont, a 25-year industry vet who has been with Capcom since 2005, will now be responsible for overseeing and expanding the company's Western development and licensing activities, in addition to his previous responsibility for U.S. and European consumer software.

Full release follows the jump.

That Clock Tower Movie Is Actually Happening, Apparently

Don't know why Capcom bothered with all these. There's 14 shots of Lost Planet: Colonies here, and they really only needed to send one, because when you show Frank West in naught but his Capcom-flavoured undies, we kinda get all distracted...

New Commando 3: Wolf of the Battlefield Footage Is Shootalicious

The best thing about Commando 3: Wolf of the Battlefield isn't the demo for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix—god those are some verbose game titles—it's the ability to shoot lots and lots and lots of things. The sequel to Commando and Mercs is coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network soon (we hope). Let's revisit Forgotten Worlds soon too, Capcom. Please?

Pardon the fuzzy screens from Famitsu we posted last night, but it's all good now that Capcom has come forward with crisp new shots of not two but all four of the shady Shadaloo bosses appearing in Street Fighter IV. Sagat is looking especially menacing in his pics, with the most ferocious Tiger Uppercut I've ever seen bursting to life. As for M.Bison or Vega, depending on where you live...well I only wish Raul Julia were alive today to see more clearly what an agonizingly bad choice he was for that role.
Return of the Kings [Capcom Blogs]

How To Bring The West to Japan

Fact: There are differences between Western and Japanese games. Intrinsic differences that sometimes make it hard to bring Western games to Japan. The words, the phrases, the idioms — they're familiar to you. It's English, and chances are if you are reading this, the language is either your mother tongue or a second tongue or neither and you've happened on this page by accident. But for a segment of Japanese gamers, Western games are just not playable no thanks to the language barrier. But some of those differences arise from the background of developers.

The vast majority of Japanese devs have an arcade background, and if an arcade game is going to be a hit, it needs to work, it needs to be tight and snap. If you put in a coin in a buggy game that locks up or freaks out, you'll complain to the arcade manager, who will then complain to his boss, who will then complain to his boss, who will complain to that game's publisher. Shit's gotta work. While the arcade scene is very much alive in Japan, it's not in the States, and most developers are coming in with a strong PC gaming background. If shit's broken, patch, patch, patch! "Japanese games have very few collision problems — hands, arms going through walls, etc," says Capcom producer and former localization head Ben Judd. "When western gamers see in-game collision issues, they don't care as long as they're having a good time. That's just not acceptable for the Japanese." Things like A.I. and programming is where Western devs really shine, while Japan picks up the slack on things like textures.

Other things that separate Western and Japanese games, points out Judd, include such seemingly small things like "Japanese player typically don't like controlling two thumbsticks are once — they get sick" and "Japanese players like a strong tutorial." Japanese players, says Judd, prefer that characters are skewed slightly younger and have more anime-style qualities, while Western gamers favor 30 year-old bald men. "RPGs are popular," says Judd. "Players don't typically like the first person point of view and want to see their character. It makes it easier for them to support that character." No wonder Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto has found a welcome audience in Japan.

Revenge of Capcom Didn't Dev Street Fighter IV

Reader Pon Zu reminds us that there is another game with the roman numeral IV in that we are terribly excited about by pointing us towards Famitsu, where the latest batch of screens from the game reveal two new characters, M.Bison and Balrog. Better known in the states as Balrog and Vega, these two are at completely opposite ends of the fighting spectrum, with one being all about speed and finesse and the other focused solely on brute force. M.Bison knows not how to kick, and Balrog looks like more of a woman than Chun Li. All is right with the world.

『ストリートファイターIV』四天王の存在が明らかに！[Famitsu - Thanks Pon Zu!]

Where Bionic Commando And Nintendo Stand

Destructoid dares to ask the question: "Is Chun-Li a post-op transsexual?" Hard hitting and thought provoking, to be sure, but, you know. Meh. Her hands are big? yarly.

But it's as good a jumpoff for me to reminisce about the intersection of Street Fighter, my fraternity in college, and a case study in cognitive dissonance.

This happened back at N.C. State, where I was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon's Beta-Beta chapter. Names have been changed to protect the ashamed, but the frat nicknames are, I swear to God, real. Here goes.

Hot Bionic Commando On Bionic Commando Multiplayer Action

They say ignorance is bliss, whoever "they" are, and the new batch of multiplayer focused media for Capcom's Bionic Commando Rearmed proves it. To me, anyway, as I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that Rearmed had such a strong multiplayer component, with team deathmatch, free-for-all and more in the features department. Now, I'm experiencing multiplayer knowledge bliss! I suppose I'll have to reeducate myself on the XBLA and PSN remake to see what else I've been missing. Hey! A swinging mechanical arm! Neat!

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G Ships Over 2 Million

Street Fighter B-Listers Get The T&A Figure Treatment

Ibuki from Street Fighter III and R. Mika from Street Fighter Alpha 3 may not be the most household of household names, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be immortalized in sculpted polyvinyl chloride. Capcomaniax scoops up two sculpts from the Street Fighter character barrel, readying them for a summer release in Japan. They're perfect additions to the T&A figure collector shelf, with Ibuki's thigh-revealing costume sure to be the focus of a many, many macro digital photos on Japanese blogs. R. Mika? We're scared to think of what will be done with her.

We haven't seen anyone offering these figures up for import yet, but if you've got the display case space, they're retailing for 5775 yen (about $55 USD).

CAPCOMANIAX [Mega Hobby]