I’ll be publishing this in my coverage of Evolution 2k7 (Hardcore Gamer Magazine), but it really pertains to the entire history of Evolution and the US game industry as a whole.
The question is, if Evolution (and the B-series for that matter) has become the de facto American tournament for fighting games, why has there never been an American fighting game featured at one? Is it solely a quality issue, a lack of player base willing to travel, a non-existent tournament scene, or zero encouragement from the game developers and publishers? EA’s latest Marvel fighting game in development seems to look fairly dismal, but what would it take for a fighting game made in the USA to make it as an Evolution event?
If anyone else wants to put in their two cents as well, feel free to. :karate:
Quick: name the last three fighting games made by an American developer. The most basic point here is that these games do not really exist, and the few that do are just not worth playing. Even fighting games targeted at American audiences (like Def Jam:FFNY and the recent DBZ games) were developed by Japanese developers.
It’s like asking why Japanese developers do not make FPS games.
simple answer though: market research. when americans play fighting games they want something they can pick up and receive instant eye candy from. thats why you dont see intricate fighting games with complex systems- too much for the casual gamer to get into. same exact reason you don’t see many american made rpgs- they wouldn’t appeal to the casual gamer.
One of the most important criteria for inclusion in Evo is a significant community around competitive play. No American fighting game has ever met this test.
It’s not at all important to me what a game’s nationality, of all things, happens to be. Who cares whether it was made in Peru or Sri Lanka or the US or Japan?
Killer Instinct was made by Rare (UK) and Nintendo (Jap), not by an American developer.
Mortal Kombat 2 would be the only American made fighter which had a really strong arcade scene. But thats even older than ST. Plus Midway would probably get all funny if you added one their games to the lineup. I tried seeing if there would be anyone interested in entering tournaments on the Midway boards. My thread was closed cause it was a form of advertising apparently? And that i should ask Midways permission to even run a tournament. Probably take legal action against Evo if they even thought about it.
The real reason why I posed this question is a sort of wakeup call to the American industry. And it doesn’t apply simply to fighting games, either. The American FPS scene is extremely strong (perhaps the strongest in the world), but the level of organization that tournament and professional-level video gaming are at, as a whole, still has a very long way to go. On top of that, I see nothing but good for a company that actively promotes an independent tournament scene.