Author: Ian "iantothemax" Walker

Bandai Namco Entertainment made waves late last year with their announcement of Tekken 7 Fated Retribution. Apart from graphical updates and design changes for returning characters, it was revealed that Street Fighter’s Akuma will be joining the Tekken universe.

Those of you hoping for future crossovers, however, may be disappointed. In a recent interview with PlayStation Lifestyle, senior game designer Michael Murray mentioned that Akuma is their only planned guest character at this point in time. “[Katsuhiro Harada] and I have always been against guest characters because it kinda throws off the Tekken world and setting. But Akuma fits the bill, and we wanted to tie him into the story so that the crossover is not some cheesy gimmick,” Murray explained. “The feedback is really positive. But no plans at the moment for additional crossovers, though we are open to the possibility in the future.”

Murray also provided some insight into their design process with Tekken 7’s initial release, mentioning that they kept things familiar for players returning from previous installments. Fated Retribution, on the other hand, gives them the opportunity to mix things up character-wise now that folks have been playing Tekken 7 for a bit. “[O]nce we […] got the returning players on board, we wanted the Fated Retribution expansion to introduce some of the smaller changes and costumes, and we’re confident that people won’t be thrown off because they’ve played [Tekken 7] already.”

For more of PlayStation Lifestyle’s discussion with Murray and visual design manager Kousuke Waki, follow the link below.

Source: PlayStation Lifestyle via EventHubs

At the conclusion of last night’s Killer Instinct tournament, Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Isgreen joined the broadcast to discuss the title’s upcoming season.

One of the earliest pieces of information Isgreen provided about the future of Killer Instinct came up in October 2014, and he was finally able to confirm that Tusk will be joining Kim Wu in season 3 to round out the classic roster. Both will be available at launch, in fact, with retro costumes reflecting their appearances from previous installments.

As for legacy bosses like Eyedol and Gargos, however, their future is still unclear. “Eyedol’s tough,” Isgreen explained. “Maya was tough, and we figured Maya out and made her look great, in my opinion, compared to what she looked like in the old game. But Eyedol is tough. It’s like this weird Harryhausen monster with satyr legs and a giant club and he had like two moves and he was super cheap.”

Despite all that, Isgreen wouldn’t completely rule out those old, hidden cast members, so fans needn’t give up all hope.

While gameplay details weren’t plentiful, some interesting tidbits surfaced when Isgreen was asked about future character betas, similar to those done for TJ Combo and Battletoads guest Rash.

“We were able to test Rash because of how the pre-production schedule was created for this season. We built him really, really early,” Isgreen said. “And now that we’re moving into real production, it’s become harder to get working because we’re building all of the features and elements for season 3 right now.”

“The issue of doing a beta right now is the systems. We have a ton of new systems and engine work that’s being done this season. The old and the new cast won’t really function correctly if we don’t have all of the features done when we put them in,” he continued. “We’ve changed a lot, and if we were to put out a beta, the character would either be half of the character or they wouldn’t be where we want them to be to show them, even visually. So, I don’t believe that we’re going to be able to do another beta of another character.”

The discussion also turned towards a statement Isgreen made previously about a couple of characters being “reworked” in season 3. While he divulged that folks like Aganos and Glacius will receive what he calls “tweaks,” his previous comments pertain to changes that are larger in scale.

“The ‘rework’ thing is that we’re actually fundamentally changing some of the way that the character plays, or how they go about doing their damage or getting their meter. Two of the characters in the game are getting that treament,” Isgreen said. “It’s really more just because we felt the characters that we did this to weren’t necessarily having to work for all of their ‘things’ as hard as the other characters, in terms of being successful with that character. It made the characters feel a little flat to us.”

This is only a small portion of the topics discussed during this interview, so be sure to visit the stream archive for more. The conversation in question begins around .

Killer Instinct season 3 will launch on Xbox One and PC sometime in March.

Source: Killer Instinct via DSOGaming, NeoGAF

The very first installment of the King of Fighters series was a monumental undertaking for SNK. By pulling together characters from properties like Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Ikari Warriors, and more, they were essentially putting the best of themselves into one of the earliest crossovers the fighting genre had seen.

While we’ll never know everything about the creation of King of Fighters ’94, some new translations by the folks at Shmuplations have provided a bit more insight on the work the developers put into established characters and newcomers alike. Some of this may already be common knowledge to hardcore fans of the franchise, but we’ve compiled some of the more interesting tidbits from the old mook below.

One thing that immediately stood out was portion dedicated to Yuri Sakazki. Due to parallel development with Art of Fighting 2, which was set to make the diminutive karateka playable for the first time, the King of Fighters team found themselves eager to include her in their game as well. This led to Big Bear (Raiden’s babyface persona) and Billy Kane being removed from the game entirely to make room for Yuri on the newly-formed Women Fighters team with King and Mai Shiranui.

Sticking with the Sakazaki family, Yuri’s father Takuma was able to combo off more moves than was intended thanks to a system bug. Thinking he was too weak without this bug, the developers kept it in the game, only to later that he became pretty cheap. That said, they describe the Art of Fighting cast as being much easier to bring to King of Fighters than those from Fatal Fury.

Some of the information may even provide hints to the direction SNK Playmore is taking King of Fighters XIV. While both Chang Koehan and Choi Bounge retained criminal pasts in King of Fighters ’94, their original incarnations were more violent and grouped with another unrealized prisoner character. With the pair rumored to reform this team in the next installment, it would be interesting to find out how if any part of that scrapped design was repurposed.

These are only a few of the facts detailed in Shmuplations’ translation, so be sure to visit their original article by following the link below and see what else you can learn about this classic fighter.

Source: Shmuplations via Orochinagi

We haven’t heard much about Street Fighter: Resurrection since it was first revealed at Capcom Cup, but the crew behind this upcoming web series recently shared posters and set stills of main characters Charlie Nash, Ken, and Ryu to whet our appetites.

(Click images for larger versions)

While we’re still unclear of where the story will go, we do know that Resurrection serves as a companion piece leading up to the story of Street Fighter V. Apart from being developed by the team behind Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, the series will also feature appearances by Mike Moh and Christian Howard, reprising their respective roles as Ryu and Ken.

Street Fighter: Resurrection is scheduled to launch sometime this March.

Source: Street Fighter: Ressurection

Earlier this morning, French competitor Olivier “Luffy” Hay announced that he has left Meltdown, the chain of “eSports bars” that has sponsored him for the past few years.

Since joining the organization in 2014, Luffy has gone on to become one of the strongest Street Fighter players in the world. His accomplishments include first place finishes at Evo 2014, DreamHack Summer 2015, and Red Fight District 2015, not to mention taking fifth at TOPANGA World League 2015 and making two appearances at Capcom Cup.

There’s no telling what the future holds for this competitor, but we’re sure Luffy has a bright future ahead of him. He’s certainly one of the more enticing free agents on the market at the moment, so don’t be surprised if he’s scooped up fast.

Source: Luffy via NeoGAF

If you’re out of the loop, Frosty Faustings is set to return for its eighth installment next month. The regional regularly features some incredible competition in mainstream and niche titles alike, and continues to thrive thanks to this solid reputation and community support.

That support has seen the event rake in some considerable cash for 2016, most of which was provided by folks outside the organization doing what they can to make sure competitors have pot bonuses to look forward to.

Earlier today, Frosty Faustings announced their latest round of contributions, pushing the pot bonus total to $2000. Information on how they reached that amount is detailed below.

• Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- – $500 top 8 bonus
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U – $500 top 8 bonus (from GGTV_Nick)
• Super Smash Bros. Melee – $250 top 3 bonus (from EXP Gaming Lounge)
• Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – $250 top 2 bonus (from MohawkMike and Joey D)
• BlazBlue: Chronophantasma EXTEND – $150 top 2 bonus (from nobodyexe)
• Ultra Street Fighter IV – $150 top 2 bonus (from IFD|Humbag)
• Killer Instinct – $100 top 2 bonus (from TheHadou)
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore – $100 top 2 bonus (from TheHadou)

If you want to get in on this action, early bird registration ends tonight. Prices will go up starting tomorrow, so don’t delay!

Frosty Faustings VIII is scheduled for January 22-23 in Northbrook, Illinois. More details can be found through their official website.

Source: Frosty Faustings

News has begun to surface that Major League Gaming, who once had a stranglehold on the world of competitive gaming, has been purchased by Activision Blizzard. The game developer reportedly snagged a majority of the organization’s assets for a cool $46 million, much of which will go towards paying MLG’s considerable debts.

Although they’ve moved away from the genre in recent years, MLG played host to a number of fighting game competitions, featuring titles like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Tekken 6, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, King of Fighters XIII, Soulcalibur V, Mortal Kombat, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Killer Instinct since 2004.

It’s also being reported that a “corporate action” has removed CEO Sundance DiGiovanni, replacing him with former CFO Greg Chisholm “without a stockholders’ meeting by less than unanimous written consent of […] stockholders.”

While we’ve yet to hear official word from either organization, former MLG employee Scott “Sir Scoots” Smith mentioned that he was notified of the purchase earlier today due to his continuing status as a stockholder.

As for what Activision hopes to achieve with this move, that’s still anyone’s guess. With current properties StarCraft and Heroes of the Storm making rounds on the competitive circuit and Overwatch certain to fill the same niche when it launches next year, it’s likely they were in the market for an established tournament infrastructure to start running their own events.

In any case, we’ll have to wait for confirmation from either of the involved parties to learn what comes next. Stay tuned for more details.

Source: eSports Observer via MarkMan