Joystiq interviews Capcom's Seth Killian - Page 2

When does the next update come out? Champion Edition, Hyper Fighting, anything?

We are not in planning stages for that yet, because everybody wanted to see how this did. This is a big gamble for the company. But obviously it has gotten the reaction we were hoping for. We think it is going to be a big success.

So who knows what we will do? Whether we will try to take it in a new direction, try to expand on IV, whether we even get to a game like that; it will depend on the success of IV, but it is something I would personally love to see.

Would you guys revisit digital distribution of games like you did with Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix?

Yes. The HD Remix was a great success for us. I believe it was the best selling digital title of all time. We really put a lot of love into that game. So if we think the market could be there for another one, we would definitely think about trying to revisit another Street Fighter game in the same style.
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One of the things that kind of surprised us and a lot of the press, because it was so underground, was the Street Fighter Club. Are you guys going to continue doing that? I know they have one set up here at the launch party.

Well we have got it sort of going a little bigger. So we have got the Gamestop tournament, which is going to be in 2,500 stores. It is the biggest Street Fighter tournament of all time. We are partnered with the EVO group on that one. Those guys know more about tournaments than anybody on the planet. They have been running Street Fighter tournaments forever.

That is fantastic stuff there. It starts underground, but now is the time for the main event. We will still be trying to take the game everywhere we go and let people play it.

The Japanese arcade cabinets are at the event tonight, but we don't see those out in the wild really. Is Capcom trying to push to bring those to North America, or is the arcade dead here now?

The arcade market is very tough. There are a bunch of great arcades around the country. Some of my best friends run great arcades. I love the arcades. That's where I grew up. But as a business model trying to bring over a large number of units, it is a tough business right now. We tried to make some deals early on in the going. They really didn't pan out, so we weren't able to bring the game over here in the arcades.

But they have showed up in the gray market. We can't legally support that or whatever, but as a fan, I am certainly very happy about it.

I was wondering how Capcom felt about the gray market.

Well, I will say this. We have all sorts of stuff covering awesome Street Fighter cabinets and tournaments that are run on gray market cabinets on our community blog all the time, so we are excited that people are excited about the game.

Back to arcades: Do you want to give a shout out to any of the arcades that your friends own? We've been visiting different arcades. We went to Austin, Texas to a place called Arcade UFO.

That is actually run by a buddy of mine, Ryan Harvey. I have been playing with Ryan since he was a little kid. I feel like he is still a little kid. But he is all grown up and has his own business. That is one of the great ones.

Here in LA, Denjin Arcade is a great one. There are a lot of great players there. We just lost one on the East Coast called Tokyo Game Action, which is very sad. They lost a lot of money in a flood and were forced to close. It was just a burst pipe. It is very sad because they did a great job with it.

Ed Boon has said he wants to see a Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter game. What do you guys think about that? Do you talk about it around the office, or is it just too out there for you?

I love Ed. I've played all the Mortal Kombat games. We will see. It is a fun thing to think about. It may be a little zany right now. I mean, Mortal Kombat has sort of a different aesthetic than Street Fighter. But you know. If we made it, I would play it.

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