Producer Yoshinori Ono has been talking about 2016's Street Fighter V, and teases "something that nobody is expecting"...
NewsLooking back, it's hard to believe that the Street Fighterseries was in something of a creative funk back in the late 2000s. Eight years had elapsed since the release of Street Fighter EX3, and the powers that be at Capcom were initially resistant to making a numerical sequel to its long-running fighting franchise.
Thankfully, producer Yoshinori Ono pushed through that resistance, and the resulting success of 2008's Street Fighter IVand its updates gave the series a real creative kick up the backside. The popularity of Street Fighter IV was such that Ono had none of the trouble getting the greenlight for Street Fighter V.
"I've worked on many different projects within Capcom, but in my career here, the greenlight process was comfortably the most straightforward," Ono told Edge Magazine in a new interview. "This game was probably a hundred times easier to get off the ground than the previous one."
Ono goes on to add that, with Street Fighter IV gradually evolving over its seven year history, the process has given the producer and his team the platform to make something much bigger.
"...with Street Fighter V, we have a fantastic opportunity to create something with a larger scope, a game that encompasses all that Street Fighterhas become in the last few years, but which also expands on that to become something it has never been before as well," says Ono. " So now we want to create something that nobody is expecting. It’s going to be a title that caters to fans, of course, but one that also invites completely new players onto the scene. Street Fighter IV was about reviving a passion. Street Fighter V is about growing that passion."
What Capcom has revealed so far - such as the gameplay footage which has emerged from various sources since December - certainly points to an expansion of the 2.5d combat introduced in Street Fighter IV. As for the "something that nobody is expecting"? We'll just have to wait and see.
Street Fighter V is out in 2016 for PlayStation 4 and PC.
