Developers and publishers for every major Japanese fighting game have planned a live stream on August 1st. The ‘Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable’ will feature head developers from Ark System Works, Arika, SNK, Capcom, Koei Tecmo, and Bandai Namco to discuss the fighting game community, behind-the-scenes development, and the potential future for each company’s games. Additionally, announcements and reveals have also been planned to be shown during the live stream.
Typically, fighting game fans for the past few years have anticipated the EVO World Championship tournament in order to see not just the tournament itself, but also new content from attending developers. As the world’s largest fighting game tournament, with hundreds of thousands of global viewers annually, it makes sense for fighting game developers to save their biggest announcements, news, and game reveals for EVO. However, due to EVO 2020 having been canceled along with various other large scale events, developers that were initially hoping for EVO’s massive viewership needed an alternate platform to make the announcements that were planned.
Attending from Arc System Works will be general director Daisuke Ishiwatari and Guilty Gear Strive battle director Kazuto Sekine. Guilty Gear’s Twitter account confirms that a new character reveal will be shown during the stream. Guilty Gear Strive has a planned release date for 2021 — having since been delayed from its original late 2020 release date due to feedback on areas that players felt unhappy with. A new character reveal, along with possible system and UI changes, will certainly win back some favor, especially with fans that were disappointed with what was previously shown.
Fighting EX Layer producer Akira Nishitani, representing Arika, will also be on the stream. Fighting EX Layer has had all its promised content completed since last year, so it is unknown if any new reveals will come from Arika. A beta featuring new rollback netcode was launched earlier this month, so it is likely talk of its implementation and results from the beta will be discussed.
SNK producer Yasuyuki Oda and director Nobuyuki Kuroki will be on the stream to discuss SNK’s current and future projects. At last year’s EVO, SNK announced that the development of The King of Fighters XV was underway, yet no gameplay footage has been shown since. Earlier this month SNK also announced a collaboration with Tencent’s mobile game Honor of Kings, as a free DLC character for Samurai Shodown, so it would be safe to assume the character will be revealed on the stream.
Capcom announced in May that their flagship fighting game Street Fighter V will have a final season called “Season V” and will feature five new characters and three new stages. Street Fighter V producer Shuuhei Matsumoto and director Takayuki Nakayama will both be in attendance on the stream. Capcom also announced their own panel for August 5th, where they will reveal more info about their newest season. It is still possible that a sneak peek is in store for the live stream.
Representing Koei Tecmo is Dead or Alive 6 producer Yohei Shinbori. Dead or Alive 6 unfortunately suffered from low sales and a player base too small to viably continue supporting the game, causing Koei Tecmo to end producing content for the game in April earlier this year. A new version that fixes the issues Dead or Alive 6 had or even a brand new game would help the series begin again with a clean slate, though it is unknown what Koei Tecmo has in store for the stream.
Finally, from Bandai Namco are Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada and Soul Calibur 6 producer Motohiro Okubo. The official Bandai Namco website confirms announcements for both games will happen during the stream. Harada previously tweeted some teaser images from the developers earlier this month, hinting at another season for Tekken 7. Soul Calibur 6 also is currently halfway through its second season, with two DLC characters yet to be announced and at least one is expected to be revealed on the stream. Dragon Ball FighterZ also has three upcoming DLC characters for the game’s third season yet to be announced, though no one on the Dragon Ball FighterZ development team is scheduled to be on the stream.
The Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable stream will be shown and relayed on multiple official Youtube channels. It can be viewed on the Tekken Youtube channel, Arc System Works channel, Capcom Fighters channel, and the Dead or Alive channel on August 1st at 9:00 AM JST.
