Tekken producer confirms the death of Tekken X Street Fighter

More than a decade after it was first announced, Bandai Namco’s crossover fighting game, Tekken X Street Fighter, appears to be finally, truly, and officially dead. Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada said in a broadcast earlier this month that “the project died” while still relatively early in development.

Harada made the comments during a stream of Harada’s Bar Radio, the producer’s YouTube talk and variety show. Speaking with Tekken 7 game director Kouhei Ikeda, Harada said of Tekken X Street Fighter, “Yeah, development stopped but we got about 30% done.”

“We even had motions, which you can see reflected in Akuma,” Harada said in translated comments, referring to Akuma’s guest appearance in Tekken 7. “Dhalsim turned out as well as we expected, pretty good. Female characters’ models were really good, too. I wish I could have shown you. I was pretty confident.”

Ikeda then commented about the game’s concept art, to which Harada responded, “What a waste! A lot of artists collaborated on that. We wanted to show it, but the project died.”

Bandai Namco announced Tekken X Street Fighter at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2010. The game was meant to complement Street Fighter X Tekken, a Capcom-produced blend of the two fighting game franchises. While Street Fighter X Tekken was ultimately released in 2012 (for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox 360) and followed the 2D fighting style of Street Fighter, Tekken X Street Fighter was designed to adhere to the 3D fighting style of the Tekken series.

Over the years, Harada implied in comments that Tekken X Street Fighter was in development, but on hold and not officially canceled. Harada would later explain that the game had been put on hold for business reasons, with the intention of not splitting the Tekken player base across multiple games.

The Tekken franchise will cross over with another fighting game brand soon, with the release of Kazuya Mishima for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Kazuya will be the fifth of six confirmed characters coming as downloadable content through Ultimate’s Fighters Pass Vol. 2.