The Japanese fighting games craze may be long since past us, but certain series are still "kicking about." SNK's King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown maintain a cult following, Tekken and Virtua Fighter are still refining the 3D fighting genre and Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur make sure that the world is still safe for jiggling boobs. All of it might not exist, however, if it was not for the phenomenal success of Street Fighter II.
Street Fighter II hit arcades nearly two decades ago, spawning countless clones and embedding itself in the pop culture of gaming with its various moves and characters. While the game eventually received sequel series in Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter III, those games never managed to draw in the same broad appeal that their predecessor did – likely in part because the arcade scene in the U.S. was already dying. When Capcom decided to revive the franchise, there was no doubt that they'd try to emulate the spirit of Street Fighter II in order to rekindle the series' formerly massive following.
We spoke with Emily Anadu, director of brand marketing at Capcom, about Street Fighter IV's reenergizing the brand. Round one, fight!
The answer lies in the heart of battle!
According to the NPD, Street Fighter IV was the second and third best selling title for the month of February and the thirteenth and fifteenth best selling during March. During that same time period, the title was the first and sixth best seller on Xbox 360 and first and fourth best seller on PS3. Street Fighter IV sold nearly 850,000 copies during February on both platforms combined and 1.1 million units over both months in just the U.S.
"From the development of the game to the marketing of the game, we were all very clear that we had to make sure that we were pulling along the gamers that used to play back in the arcades, who helped make the brand what it is today."
"While some of our retail partners were pleasantly surprised by how well Street Fighter IV sold, everyone at Capcom who has worked on this title and has been on the road for the past 8 months getting the game in the hands of our fans knew that our fans would embrace the title once it hit store shelves," said Anadu.
When asked how the early results for Street Fighter IV compared to other entries in the venerable series, Anadu responded frankly. "Most of us that work at Capcom now were not around for the previous editions of Street Fighter, but we all had a really strong emotional connection to the brand. Whether it was because we grew up playing the game or because we are pop culture junkies and recognize what an icon Street Fighter is," expressed Anadu. "Going into SFIV, we all knew that it was critical to really connect with the fans of the franchise in different ways, such as reaching out to competitive players to come to our Fight Club events, soliciting fan art for the inside of the packaging or letting our fans choose which figurines would be in the collector's edition. Having a strong community, pr and marketing team really contributed to this."
It all depends on your skill!
Developing Street Fighter IV to appeal to as wide an audience involved some simple design decisions and also some complex ones. As a spiritual successor specifically to Street Fighter II, the game features all of the original world warriors (including Ryu, Guile and Ken) with their classic move sets all there. At the same time, Street Fighter IV has brand new characters (like El Fuerte, Rufus and Abel) and some popular characters introduced post-SFII (like Dan and Sakura) with enough new elements to master, like Focus Attacks and Ultra Combos, to keep jaded veterans happy.
"Last year during Comic-Con, we let consumers get their hands on SFIV for the first time," commented Anadu. "There were lines that took literally over 3 hours to get through just for the chance to sit down and play on one of the Japanese style arcade machines. We all knew that we had a hit on our hands because not only were new players embracing the game, but people in their 30's, 40's and 50's were also stopping to play because they recognized the characters that they played with in the arcades 10 - 15 years ago. The game's producer, Yoshinori Ono, was very clear in his vision for the game. He did a great interview that stands out in my mind, when he was quoted as saying, 'Sometimes you remember things as looking cooler than they did. Since it's been 15 years since Street Fighter II came out, you might envision something that looks better. What we're trying to do with Street Fighter IV is to build a game that looks like your ultimate memories.' From the development of the game to the marketing of the game, we were all very clear that we had to make sure that we were pulling along the gamers that used to play back in the arcades, who helped make the brand what it is today. Character selection was critical towards this goal. Gamers had to know that there was something very familiar in this 'new' Street Fighter. Using old favorites also let us have a lot of fun with the advertising for the game. Lines such as 'Hit It Again For The First Time' paired with an image of Chun-li and 'Return of the 15ft Pimpslap' paired with an image of Dhalsim, were meant to reach out to our long time fans while also letting the newbs know that an old favorite was returning and worth taking a look at."
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