Tekken X Street Fighter canceled? Yes, says “leaked” announcement FAQ

With nearly one year since the last official announcement about the upcoming Namco fighter, it’s no wonder fans have begun to ask themselves increasingly worried questions.

• Does Tekken X Street Fighter have a release date?
• Is Tekken X Street Fighter canceled?
• Has Tekken X Street Fighter become vaporware?

Well, question no more. Last week, Top Tier Tactics broke into Namco Bandai’s headquarters in Shinagawa, Japan to uncover the answer to all three of these pressing queries.

The answers are no, yes, and yes.

Seem anticlimactic? Don’t fret. After knocking out four guards and perfectly ghosting their main offices, our agents made it out of the building with an as-of-yet unpublished press release slated for dissemination next month. The document, which is apparently a draft written by Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada himself, outlines the reasons for Tekken X Street Fighter’s cancellation. It also reveals several stunning facts about the game’s development that offer further insight into this stunning revelation.

“Leaked” Tekken X Street Fighter Cancellation

Dear Tekken fans, Street Fighter fans, and fans of senseless crossover fighting games everywhere: it is with a heavy heart today that NAMCO-BANDAI announces the cancellation of TEKKEN X STREET FIGHTER. While we know several dozens of you have been anxiously awaiting this ultimate action, limitless fighting spirit title, we are currently ceasing all development on TEKKEN X STREET FIGHTER and scrapping all assets for a variety of fiscal, organizational, and fiscal reasons.

As executive producer, I know I speak for everyone at NAMCO-BANDAI when I say this decision was not made lightly, quickly, or darkly (?translation?). For this reason, the TEKKEN X STREET FIGHTER development and design teams have attached the following FAQ to answer your questions. Please read it, consume it, and enjoy with much satisfaction the knowledge and serenity of the answers it contains.

We once again thank you, our funders, for your continued purchasing of our games and of publicly traded stock in the NAMCO-BANDAI corporation.

TEKKEN X STREET FIGHTER Frequently Asked Questions

Why is TxSF being cancelled?

Honestly, we never really planned to develop TEKKEN X STREET FIGHTER to begin with. But the guys at Capcom called us up and said, “Hey, we’re about to announce this game Street Fighter X Tekken. You can either sue us and look like assholes, or you can just pretend you agreed to it and smile for the camera.”

We didn’t appreciate these bully tactics, but at the same time we had to save face for complex Japanese reasons even we don’t understand. So Mr. Harada told the board at NAMCO-BANDAI that our development and creative teams would be completing TxSF in tandem with the SFxT release. But really, he was crossing his fingers the whole time behind his back so it didn’t really count.

When was the decision to cancel TxSF made?

Once it became clear that gamers, the media, and Capcom actually expected us to create a game called Tekken X Street Fighter, we were all very nervous. After all, it is well known that the Tekken series was never very good. Now we had to create a game where players could directly compare our bland characters and stale fighting mechanics to that of the Street Fighter universe? This was a daunting task.

Regardless, we set out to live up to our promises because we knew if we didn’t, Tekken fans everywhere would be angry, and nobody in our Shinagawa offices wanted to spend the time necessary to answer up to thirty sternly written letters. We called in hundreds of freelancers, contractors, and full-time artists and coders to plan out the greatest fighting game ever made, TEKKEN X STREET FIGHTER.

Unfortunately, we hit major stumbling blocks almost immediately. First, a marketing intern from Shouji prefecture brought up the excellent point that it would be very, very difficult to portray Guile’s hair in three dimensions. After much debate and four layoffs, we ultimately decided to simply exclude the character Guile from TxSF.

But then, in a March 2012 strategy meeting, one of our artists, Takani, said something like “How will players use the hadouken attack, or other important Street Fighter projectile attacks, when the opponent can simply sidestep it?” The meeting room went silent, and after six hours of quiet we had no answer. The entire board resigned in shame and the project was blacklisted.

What platforms was TxSF being developed for?

With all due respect, the TEKKEN X STREET FIGHTER team took a drastically different approach to development than the idiots our esteemed partners at Capcom.

Please understand, Capcom strode to release STREET FIGHTER X TEKKEN on current generation consoles. This shortsighted decision allowed Street Fighter and Tekken fans to actually play the game they had heard about and were so eager to try out. For months now, fighting gamers have had the opportunity to watch, practice, learn, and even compete in matches of STREET FIGHTER X TEKKEN. This was a huge tactical error.

The NAMCO-BANDAI marketing department advised the TxSF team that such a release would greatly hamper interest for our title. Therefore, we began development on next-next generation consoles in order to ensure our advertising specialists could build hype for TEKKEN X STREET FIGHTER for as long as possible. As such, our developers were working in secret with hardware manufacturers to complete TxSF for the following gaming platforms:

• Playstation 5
• Xbox Pi
• Steam Machine Omega
• Wii We
• Mac

All versions were slated for release in early 2019/late 2020. However, our resources were depleted before initial console adaptation could begin in earnest.

When will the next DLC for One Piece: Pirate Warriors be released?

Thank you for your thoughtful question! We’re happy to announce that the next DLC pack for One Piece: Pirate Warriors will be released as soon as next month in JPN and USA regions, then two weeks later in all remaining digital distribution regions. We know that One Piece: Pirate Warriors fans are clamoring for more anime-inspired content, and they won’t be disappointed with Ready Set: Booty Call, the last DLC set for this adrenaline-packed title. Don’t miss it!

What will be done with the assets already created for TxSF?

In April 2012, we at NAMCO-BANDAI stated that nearly 10% of game assets had been completed. What most consumers did not realize at the time was that this was a lie. In reality, our artists had completed less than 2% of all materials needed for Tekken X Street Fighter.

To be more specific, they kind of just finished sketching C. Viper’s cleavage.

When the executive producers learned that the TxSF physics engine would not support the kind of realistic breast physics necessary to accurately portray Ms. Viper’s most interesting animations, all other departments were tasked with overtime work to complete the project. This ultimately bankrupted our primary creative team, resulting in fifteen layoffs, three suicides, and –most disappointingly– absolutely zero frames of completed cleavage animation.

This isn’t a question, but fuck you, Namco

Yes. We get that a lot.