Why is PS4 the only console with no flagship fighting game?

This was just something that struck me yesterday after the lineup was announced for EVO- but PlayStation really is the only console on the market at the moment without a flagship fighting game to its name.

Nintendo, of course, has Super Smash Bros. on Wii U- it's a very well received, high selling fighting game with a thriving competitive scene (it is one of the headlining games at EVO this year). Smash Bros. allows for multiple types of gameplay and user input, and is generally considered to be a stellar fighting game.

Then we have Killer Instinct on the Xbox One, which is another great game- it's a revival of the classic fighting game franchise from Rare, and while its initial release might have been met with slightly muddled reception mostly due to missing content, steady support with multiple characters and 'seasons' from Microsoft, as well as incredible core fighting game mechanics, have made it a great fighting game as well- and now, it is another headlining game for EVO.

But what about PlayStation? Why does PlayStation not have any headlining, marquee fighting game? The closest PlayStation has is Street Fighter V, but that is neither a PlayStation franchise (it is third party developed) nor exclusive (it also appears on PC- it's not even 'PlayStation exclusive' as it would have been if it were on PS3/PS4 or PSV/PS4). Why is this the case? Why has Sony not attempted to have its own fighting game franchise, especially considering how prestigious and important the genre is, and how they are willing to throw money on yet another first or third person shooter?

Because there are enough 3rd party fighting games? i mean killer instinct is just plain mediocre when you compare it to the heavy weights of the genre, street fighter, injustice, DOA, tekken, soul calibur, etc. The only real outstanding 1st party fighting game is super smash but at the cost of sacrificing the 3rd party ones.

Admittedly Killer Instinct was fairly average at launch, but as it stands now, it is supposed to be very, very good.

haven't played it in a long time but i think there are more than enough 3rd party games in the genre for any fan of fighting games.

I guess they aim to change that with Street fighter V.

Definitely. I am not saying the PS4 has a dearth of fighting games, or anything, it doesn't, I am just wondering why Sony doesn't have a flagship fighter of its own is all.

It has Guilty Gear, which is miles ahead of Killer Instinct...

@Shewgenja said:

I already address this in the OP lol.

Because no matter what you can't top the best--street fighter, virtua fighter, and maybe king of fighters. That is like a 3rd party debating on whether or not to make an exclusive wiiu 3d platformer staring a tv repair man.

they tried with all stars but failed miserably.

It used to be tekken, right? Idk, the closest thing now would be street fighter, but yeah thats not really exclusive.

All I wanna play right now is DoA Last Round. You know why.

Then MKx when that comes out.

@charizard1605 said:

@Shewgenja said:

@Ghost120x said:

I guess they aim to change that with Street fighter V.

I already address this in the OP lol.

Battle Arena Toshinden had to take a seat for the Tekken craze. Most people seem to play Guilty Gear on Playstation as well. So, it's not necessarily without a fighting franchise identity so much as the third party stuff did better than their swing at a first party titles PSABR was also very unsuccessful.. Hell, with Mortal Kombat X just around the corner, fighting game fans will be just fine on PS4.

@Krelian-co: Sort of, although to be honest, All Stars was a Smash Bros. (so not a traditional fighter), and it wasn't very well done at that (given to a B tier team and minimal market support).

I am sure they could do substantially better.

Guilty Gear isn't for casuals, though. It takes a ridiculous amount of skill. Maybe that's why people forget about it.

Sony Playstation All-Star Battle isn't good enough?

Won't we get the sequel?

And yet, the PS4 has more arcade fighting games than Xbone and I believe caught up to the Wii U (although that's going to change soon as the Tekken 7 releases, SF5, SF4 Ultra, DOA, MK, etc).

Perhaps having a "flagship" isn't required for these machines or for fighting game fans. I know as a fighting gamer, the PS1, PS2, and PS3 not having a "flagship" fighter didn't stop me from buying a crap ton of fighting games on those machines. I think Tekken was pushed in the PS1 era, and I was never as big a Tekken fan as I was Street Fighter, in fact, I hated Tekken for pushing 3D and lacking the depth of 2D fighters at first. Tekken 1-3 being a "flagship" fighter didn't win me over, I preferred VF over Tekken, and I preferred 2D fighters over both of them big time, especially SF back then. Guilty Gear Xrd is another title that is on PS3 and PS4 and is great, but not a flagship...yet it's at Evo. Obviously SF4 Ultra and SF5 are incoming. This reminds me of when people would ask why Sony doesn't push a mascot. We don't know, but we can speculate and repeat previous PR. The Xbox and 360 didn't have a "flagship" fighter either, but yet it had a lot of good fighters. You can't have a flagship in every genre. Smash Bros is low on my totem poll when compared to the arcade fighters I grew up with, the fact it's a flagship has no bearing on where I rank it as a game.

I love fighting games, since the early 90s. The N64 didn't even have my beloved Street Fighter on it or Tekken or Soul Calibur. It was a very rough machine for fighting game enthusiasts back then. Nintendo decided to fill that hole with Super Smash Bros N64...and that game was rough as well, even by back then's standards. Still, it got them going. Now we get one Smash Bros game per console for an entire generation...while it may be a "flagship" game of sorts, it's not enough to fill my appetite and lacks a lot of elements I look for in a fighting game. It's fun for what it is though.

As a longtime Arcade gamer, 'flagship fighters' didn't matter to me, just good fighters. If you are asking why Sony doesn't pursue the genre who knows? We aren't Sony so we can't answer that? Perhaps it's because the PS brand got the majority of top rated fighting games on the market, I guess they never felt the need to compete. They tried to make a few and it didn't work out (War of the Monsters, Playstation All Stars, etc) and now SF5 is coming.

Isn't Playstation All Stars the main draw of EVO?

Guilty Gear Xrd, SF5. And any Capcom fighting game WILL sell more on PS4. Unless you're Nintendo having a flagship fighting series isn't important.

Street Fighter 5

Dat "console exclusive"

Correct me if am wrong but wasn't killer instinct originally from Nintendo ? And didnt Microsoft only after bought rare ? Which is "worse" than buying just the publishing etc with sfv ?

They're definitely gonna pitch Street Fighter V as it.

They're changing that with Street Fighter 5. But then again it's multiplatform. Killer Instinct may come to PC too.

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign.

Best part? it's got substantially better gameplay than Smash and Killer Instinct. #GFB

I'm guessing one is not needed, too many other great 3rd party fighting games for sony to even attempt to compete. I personally wouldn't mind if someone brought back bloody roar, it was one of my favorite fighting games on the PS1.

Sony has Injustice and Guilty Gear if you want fighting games. Shooters are more important currently then fighting games. Is it really that surprising that Sony would create another shooter instead of a fighting game? They made Playstation All Stars and look how well that turned out. Fighting games appeal to a hardcore audience of players and have a higher risk factor. It's not like shooters which appeal to larger majority and are less risky in general.

because their last game, sony all stars ultimate fail, which was based around the finest characters sony had to offer - was about as much bloody fun, as playing a game on an xbox.

Xrd is pretty awesome and I just got into king of fighters for the first time thanks to ps now. From my little experience with it I say it's awesome. I can't believe of all the fighters I play, this game was complete ignored by me for years. It's like the Virtua fighter of 2d fighting games.

I know you addressed in the OP, but yeah man, SFV... I really couldn't care less beyond that. Pretty much any fighting game I want to play is going to be multiplat.

I can agree to the point that Sony could make some better decisions with their first party. They like to crank out new IPs which is great, and they do have variety, but it would make sense for them to cover more bases.

Do they need one?

lol?

Super Off topic meltdown post. Why? Was ist das...That was really depressing post you just put on display for everyone. It was embarrassing and chock full of fanboy flavor. Take a mulligan and give it another shot.

You didn't address anything I said or the topic? It's really not that hard to read and appropriately respond...unless you have "problems". Do you have "problems"?

You apparently can't read because I attempted to answer the question posed in the OP as accurately as possible.

You of course went WAY off topic utilizing ad hominems to demonstrate fanboyims? You trying to demonstrate just how dedicated you are to the Xbox brand? We get it! Thing is, my post wasn't attempting to be partisan, but rather set up my experiences on this topic over generations of games consoles. I didn't even speak against my Xboxes other than to say it had great fighters on both and the machines didn't have "flagship" fighters, and I didn't mention how disappointing the new version of Killer Instinct is that I own. I don't get it. It's almost like you didn't read and just wanted to vent against someone. You do that A LOT. You want derail the topic, is that it?

I spoke about fighting games, the current state of affairs with fighting games on the Wii U, PS4, and Xbone. I spoke about my passion for arcade fighters. I spoke about the N64, the PS1, the non-importance flagship fighters, Tekken (which I didn't like), Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Street Fighter, Guilty Gear Xrd being at Evo, Xbox/360 not having flagship fighting and they having great fighters, I mentioned this is like the "Sony doesn't have a mascot question from yesteryear", and Sony's failed attempts at the genre (PS All Stars, War of the Monsters, etc).

If I was trying to defend Sony for not having flagship, I would be pretending I loved Tekken, I would have posted that PS Allstars would be at Evo but Sony didn't pay unlike the other companies, and I wouldn't have called PS All stars a failure. I would say all kinds of silly things, but I didn't. I just wanted to answer the question in the best way I could, from the stance of an ACTUAL hardcore fighting gamer here in SW and someone that lived through these eras.

If you are so passionate about fighting games, by all means sound off on the freakin' subject, young user. I don't know what else to tell you other than you should avoid such a sorry display. Your strange post was incomprehensible. That was really in poor taste and I don't know if it's an intelligence issue, reading comprehension, random fanboy trolling, or if you are drunk posting.

What is so wrong to you about a user being honest and posting their LONG experience on a topic? Settle down, good lord.

Was I supposed to troll and lie? Is that what you would have me do? Can you not just read a post and address it like a human being? It's not that hard. Give it a shot sometime instead of derailing a topic and calling users names just because you don't agree with their post. I can't know what pissed you off so bad if you don't explain what about my post above you disagreed with in particular.

i hope they never make another ps all stars game

Considering all the multiplatform choices to pick from, no.

PS All Stars or what ever it is called.

Smash is not a fighter.

And Sony doesn't need a flag ship fighter because they already have the third party support.

ONLY on Playstation. (3 and 4)

Killer Instinct is no "xbox"- franchise either, think first one i saw was on N64. So you asking why no other platform have Super smash?

So nowadays it is not enough with have a flagship game like "Infamous 2n Son/Uncharted" now it need have "flagship" game in every genre?:P

Guilty Gear Xrd, which is also cross-play but hey ho.

It also has a better metascore than still unfinished Filler Instinct. How the hell did that wind up at EVO again?

@Shewgenja said:

On PC. Though it could be argued that it's biggest audience will be on PS4.

Tekken used to be the go to PS fighter iirc, then there's always PSASBR...

@SolidTy Had to bring his fanboy bullshit into this topic /sigh

It's a tough genre to break into, you already have several high-profile well established fighting game series. I'm surprised KI turned out good enough to make it to EVO. It's possible Sony would have wanted something like that at launch, but a lack of resources might have prevented them from having their own flagship series, or perhaps there was another reason. Most questions in the world have one answer: money. It's either related to that, or there could be another reason. Sometimes interesting projects just don't align at the right time, you know the right teams of people , etc.

@LegatoSkyheart said:

ONLY on Playstation. (3 and 4)

I have a feeling this is coming to PC next, after BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend hit Steam a month ago. Or maybe just Chrono Phantasma.

Regrading Killer Instinct, assuming it does inded come to pc after all the hints, the only one with an exclusive fighter will be Ninty.

Also, Playstation All Star flopped

Sony never had a fighting game,they simple rely on Tekken back on the day.

Come on fighting games on the early 90's were hot,fighting games today are not all that,the only big one is Smash bro and because it is a kiddy game.

lol Tomato. Making terrible posts again.

Dude it is a kiddy game,which is ok but Smash bros appeal mostly to kids and teens,i know i have a 16 year old son,and he has many friends here were i live and they all get together to play smash bro here in my house,the oldest is 18.

My friend kids are crazy about it as well,i even went into a gaming even here that is done yearly,which have all platforms even PC,and the biggest boot was Smash Bros boot,and was filled by long line of kids and teens.

It is a game which appeal mostly to those demographics,obviously there will always be your usual old nerd or older person who like it but that is smash bros biggest demographic teens and kids.

Yet it has higher score than KI in meta...lol

They don't make for good cinematic experiences. :P

I dunno.