Tekken 6 boss pleased by SFIV success

Tekken 6 director Katsuhiro Harada is very happy with the widespread success of Street Fighter IV, despite it arguably being a rival to his own game.

“I’ve been a fan of Street Fighter in general, and I was kind of sad to see it die out in the arcades,” said Harada-san, speaking to VideoGamer this week. “So I was very happy to see it make a comeback – especially with that new look it returned with while staying true to the original formula. I believe a lot of fans were very happy with that.”

Harada also believes that SFIV may have helped to lead a resurgence in the popularity of fighting games across the world.

“Although it wasn’t a huge success in Japanese arcades, it was kind of good to see that come on top in several continents, doing particularly well in America. And also Soul Calibur IV and Mortal Kombat did really well in the US, so there was an overall effect of several successful fighting games coming together.”

Tekken 6 is scheduled for release in the US on October 27, with a European launch to follow shortly after.