During the development cycles of the most recent Street Fighter titles, a contingent of fighting game fans has been adamant about the return of Street Fighter EX characters. Cast members like Skullomania and Doctrine Dark are constantly included in wishlists, and this writer was almost convinced that some of Ono’s previous hints pointed towards Pullum Purna’s reappearance.
Unfortunately, these hopes rarely find fertile ground due to one clear-cut factor: Capcom doesn’t own the EX series’ original characters. Those properties belong to Arika, who functioned as the lead developer on the 3D titles, and they’ve yet to venture out of those confines.
This time around, however, things may be looking up. Arika vice president Ichiro Mihara recently took to Twitter to shed some light on the situation, providing a string of tweets that touched on how things might pan out in the future.
“Regarding Street Fighter EX, as long as we are not discussing Capcom characters (e.g. Ryu), we have the rights to our characters,” Mihara said, setting the scene. “Specially interesting is that we arranged to have the priority in 3D fighting game development with Capcom after Street Fighter EX […] but it seems [the contract] wasn’t valid at the time of Street Fighter IV’s development.”
Despite what he sees as Capcom disregarding a previous arrangement with Street Fighter IV, Mihara gave props to the work producer Yoshinori Ono put into the series. “I feel that game is the direct result of Ono’s effort and passion,” he explained, “and Street Fighter and Street Fighter EX are now two separate series.”
“I guess I can put it as, possibility-wise, there is a possibility of Street Fighter EX characters making guest appearances in Capcom games, so if there’s a future in that area, look forward to that,” Mihara concluded. “We plan to continue to take on the challenge of creating games in a variety of fields, so I might not be able to give a very clear point of view on copyrights, but [Arika president Akira Nishitani] is aiming for user-friendly titles, so we hope you continue to enjoy our games. I’ll fight with the lawyers (laughs).”
While, to the best of our knowledge, Street Fighter V’s cast has been decided through 2016, this opens up a number of routes for the title to take in the future. Of course, these kinds of partnerships are a two-way street, and a suitable agreement will need to be made by both Capcom and Arika before anything happens. Only time will tell if Mihara’s efforts produce results.
Source: Ichiro Mihara, translations courtesy of USD and PandaPeleador
