The Tekken 5 National tournament has come to an end. While this may live down in history as the most controversial Tekken National tournament (due to a number of various incidents), one thing will remain, Bronson Tran of San Jose, California is the official Namco Tekken 5 National Champion. We'd like to take a moment to congratulate Bronson on his new title, and his back to back Tekken titles (Bronson also won the official Tekken 4 Nationals). However, Tekken is not over and done with, not by a long shot. The 2005 Evolution Fighting Game Championships are just around the corner, but before that, Namco may have something up their sleeves.

As many of you already know, Soul Calibur III was recently announced as a PlayStation 2 exclusive. Namco has already informed us that we'll have more details on SC3 in the very near future, but it's what the company is not saying that has us puzzled. Namco owns a good number of arcades in the United States and overseas, and it's no mystery that even with the console release, Japanese and Korean gamers prefer the arcade scene. In addition, Namco produced a brand new arcade cabinet that was a required purchase for any arcade owners wanting the game soon after release. One of the key selling points of the cabinet was its ability to be used for upcoming Namco titles.

With these facts, and the success Namco enjoyed with Soul Calibur II in arcades and across all three platforms, you've got to wonder why Namco has opted to stick with a PlayStation exclusive port for SC3, completely skipping the arcade scene. While rumors persist that Sony may have an exclusivity deal with Namco, neither company will admit to it, and we tend to think that's not the case at all. However, we can safely say that Soul Calibur III has been PS2 exclusive since very early in the development cycle. This was not a last minute decision by any means, and the somewhat rushed PS2 release of Tekken 5 is a clear indication that Namco wanted Fall 2005 left open for something big.

Now take a step back to this time last year. Namco has Tekken 5 ready to show off, but they waited. What made them wait? They wanted to debut Tekken 5 at the biggest videogame show of the year, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Namco had a few other titles like Xenosaga II, SRS, and Death by Degrees, but Tekken 5 was the big daddy, and the company saved its unveiling for the show. So why has Namco announced Soul Calibur III a mere month and a half before E3? The company must have something even bigger that perhaps would overshadow Soul Calibur III had they announced them both at E3. We've got a few scenarios that may peak your interests:

Scenario #1 - The main reason why Tekken 5 was rushed to console and Soul Calibur III will be skipping an arcade run is because Namco has plans to unveil a brand new Tekken title at E3. The new title will either be tied to the upcoming Tekken movie, or feature an upgraded Tekken 5 game engine with tag team battles ala Tekken Tag Tournament. The game will hit arcades in late 2005 with a PlayStation 3 release at, or around its Japanese launch in the first half of 2006.

Scenario #2 - Soul Calibur III is merely the beginning. At E3, Namco will announce another new Soul Calibur title that will hit arcades around the same time as the PlayStation 2 release of SC3. This new Soul title will feature a completely new fighting engine, with character customization and online ranking similar to Tekken 5. In addition, the new Soul will hit Xbox 2, PlayStation 3, and the Nintendo Revolution in 2006 with online play.

Scenario #3 - Namco X Capcom will appear at E3 in fighting game form to accompany the already announced strategy title. The game will feature characters from Tekken, Soul Calibur, Weapon Lord (SNES fighting game from Namco), Street Fighter, Rival Schools, Tech Romancer, and several other fighters. The title will release in 2006, on all three next generation consoles with online play.

While all or none of these scenarios could end up coming true, we feel very confident that Namco has plenty of surprises waiting for us at E3 2005. Several of Namco's surprise titles we'll know about sooner rather than later, so cross your fingers and maybe we'll be able to drop a few hints before the big show.