Title says it all. It’s new, and our scene can get a jump up on the rest of the U.S. simply because we’re able to play it. The console versions [while playable at TGS] probably won’t be released for a while due to an attempt to appease the few arcade owners that remain.
Right now, 2 arcades in the Pacific NW have head-to-head setups for SF4. Arcade info jacked from Preppy’s thread.
Gameworks
1511 7th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101
206-521-0952
Both places have 2 cabs, but only one person can play on each cab a la Japanese versus setup. The U.S. version of the arcade board has yet to be commercially released. In Japan, operators have to order SF4 in batches of 4 cabinets. The cabs are networked, and players with streaks are automatically paired to fight each other. From a marketing standpoint, Capcom says that players of closer skill levels will be matched together. Realistically speaking, it’s to keep money flowing in. In theory, only one person can run long win streaks. Also, people are forced to play each other no matter which cab they sit down at.
Some arcades have 16+ cabinets networked together. And such features do ensure that the money keeps flowing in. But importers end up having to buy cabs in bulk, and are jacking prices up hella for American operators. For this reason, importing Japanese setups can be expensive for local arcade owners. So if you have an interest in this game, support your local arcades and get a leg up before the console version ships.
A-Dhalsim is running bi-weekly ranbat tournaments out of the Narrows venue. Thread here.
As far as when it could be released, I’ve constantly heard from different sources that it would be out before the end of the fiscal year. With that, I’m guessing there’s merit to the random Feb 2009 placeholder we’ve heard of in the past. But, at the sametime, I wouldn’t be surprised if it came out earlier than that like around X-Mas because of all the shit that’s been added to game (anime, joysticks, ps3 home ish).
Capcom and its collective bunch of motherfuckers need to capitalize on this hype ASAP. To us, this is a huge deal. To everyone else, it is just another game in the lineup.
In other news, I need to watch some more videos of the game with more good players. Lots of stuff is popping up nowadays.
Nah, I don’t think they’re going to make it by christmas if all they can offer is an incomplete TGS build now. Hell, the blog said they were going to have three new characters in the TGS build and what did we get? Akuma, Sakura, and Seth. Sakura was the only actual new character, and on top of that Seth wasn’t even selectable. It reeks of being behind schedule. I’d be surprised if they can even make a February release at this rate, which is probably why it’s only tentative. I’d say late March at best, possibly even April or May.
But who cares, it’s not like we can’t play the game like other poor saps. Let them be the ones bitching about release dates, Seattle should just be playing this shit period.
I’m hoping that they can incorporate as many of the gameplay changes into the existing arcade cabinets as possible via updates so that there’s no important gameplay differences.
I do hope that on the console version Akuma takes a little less damage though. 20 minutes of runaway fireballing and TWO roundhouse kicks from M. Bison will give him advantage…seriously there’s a video of Akuma fireballing the fuck out of Dictator, then Dic st. RH’s him TWICE and alllll that leads vaporizes.
edit: Or they could keep his shitty life and make him do like 10% more damage and I’d be happy.
edit edit: Or keep him completely the same except make him DIZZY a lot less.
Well, let’s see…SFIV was released in Japanese arcades like in late June? The game is basically finished; all Capcom has left are tweaking gameplay/balance issues, adding a few more stages/characters, and cinematic character intros/endings. They’ve probably been working on the console exclusive characters for quite awhile now. The reason why they only showed Sakura at TGS is because of her popularity among the Japanese (just my assumption, of course). I don’t think they’re behind schedule, they’ll probably release it on time.
Like Deezo said, the end of their fiscal year is the end of March 2009. My guess is that they’re trying to coincide SFIV’s console release with the live action Chun Li movie (which is hitting theaters February 27th). I think SFIV has a better chance of getting released in February compared to March, as Resident Evil 5 will be coming out that month…and I don’t think Capcom wants two big franchise titles to be released in the same month. But who knows, maybe they’ll delay the game. Man, Capcom’s going to kick off 2009 with some sick titles: Bionic Commando in January, SFIV possibly in February, and Resident Evil 5 in March. GROSS!
They actually took guys off of working on the arcade version to start working on the home version before it was done. There wasn’t much left to do so its not like the game suffered, but it shows Capcom knows where the moneys at.
