Super Street Fighter IV PC release unlikely

Street Fighter IV gained substantial critical acclaim upon its release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in February 2009, but PC gamers had to wait until July before gaining access to the game. As it turns out, Capcom's delay did little to deter software theft, as series producer Yoshinori Ono said in a recent interview with Japanese gaming site 4Gamer that while SFIV on the PC was a strong seller, it was also "number one in piracy."

As relayed by gaming blog Andria Sang, Ono went on to note that Capcom has largely ruled out releasing Super Street Fighter IV on the PC, due primarily to SFIV's piracy problem. Explaining this rationale, Ono said that while he was happy that piracy allowed more gamers to experience SFIV, Capcom cannot allow the game to be considered "free" in certain regions, due to the impact that mentality would have on the intellectual property.

The possibility of a PC release still remains, though, as Ono said that since the arcade version--which is due in Japan in December--runs off of Taito's DirectX-based Type X2 board, the Windows version is essentially already complete.

However, the company would first need to find an effective piracy solution. Unfortunately for PC gamers, that solution won't be Valve's digital distribution service Steam, as Ono said that using it would preclude too many people from buying the game.

A remixed version of SFIV, Super Street Fighter IV added a host of new and returning characters, including T. Hawk, Dee Jay, Juri, Cody, Guy, and Adon. SSFIV also featured new ultra combos for every character, enhanced online play, and balancing tweaks.