« IPW Exclusive: Interview with Seth Killian on Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike OE, DLC Strategy & Dream Projects »

In Part 1 of this iPlayWinner exclusive interview, we grilled Seth Killian on the gameplay systems we can expect to see in Street Fighter X Tekken. This week's portion of the interview starts off with Third Strike: Online Edition, delves into Capcom's DLC strategy, then pries into Seth's own hopes and dreams.

3RD STRIKE: ONLINE EDITION

iPlayWinner: 3rd Strike: Online Edition is a love-letter to fans. It has GGPO. It has YouTube features. When are we going to see those kinds of features in new games? Or, is that only going to be for re-releases of old games?

Seth Killian: Well, I’ve talked before about how much easier it is to implement GGPO. You’re sort of able to just drop it into games that are based on 2D animations and things like that. It’ll still work [in other games], but it’s a much easier process to just drop it into games like that. In terms of the overall feature set, you’ve got to help me in my mission. I push for these things once in a while, with some success in some areas. If we can communicate to the Japanese office that I’m not crazy, that it’s not just me, that the fans really react to this stuff, and that it’s really important to them, we can get more of these features in there. We’re making progress in a lot of ways, but we go in different directions on some of the Japanese titles. You’ll still see improvements in the online and overall feature sets and things like that.

As far as some of the really detailed stuff like button config on the select screen and whatnot, they listen to me, and then they go, “Yeah, but you’re just crazy. No one cares about that!” They don’t do it in a dismissive way. It’s just that they don’t think about it in quite the same way. Japan is a traditional place. They tend to do things the way they did it before, which works out great some of the time; but, for other things like this, I think there’s room for different views. If I really like a feature, and the players really like it, help me tell that story and we’ll see what we can do.

iPW: Theoretically speaking – we’re not talking about actual plans…

SK: I know where we’re going now.

iPW: What game would you like to see get the online edition treatment next, personally?

SK: Oh, personally? That’s a tough one because I’ve actually gotten the ones that I wanted to get personally. I wanted to see Super Turbo [HD Remix,] and MvC2 is the next off of my list. As for 3rd Strike, although it’s not my personal game, I felt like it deserved it. The community for 3rd Strike really deserved that. From here, personally, CvS2 is not my game either. Because I play cross-handed, roll-canceling Blanka’s electricity is like tearing out your teeth for me. It’s really difficult! It’s a great game, but unfortunately, it runs into licensing issues and stuff with SNK. We don’t own the license free-and-clear. We’d have to work out a new deal with them. Their status has also become strange now. They’ve got the Playmore label, and I’m not even sure what the status of SNK at this time is. I’m ignorant on the subject, although I know it’s complicated. I’d be happy to see CvS2 and some of the Alpha games. I’d like to see them come back as well. Alpha 2 is my favorite, though we’d probably have to go with Alpha 3, just because it’s more popular.

iPW: For 3SOE, if a new glitch is found that threatens the arcade authenticity, is there any way that the game could be patched to fix that?

SK: Yeah. Certainly it’s possible. We would try to evaluate it and see both whether it threatens arcade authenticity and whether it’s actually worse. Maybe it’d be an interesting glitch that was actually really awesome. Yeah, obviously it’s a new day, so we’re in position to theoretically patch it if something came up.

iPW: As for YouTube features, something was mentioned [in Capcom’s press release here] about being able to stream the best match in progress, so that people could watch that. How do you figure out which is the best match?

SK: I’m not sure exactly what got said there, but they’ve asked us not to give any more details about the YouTube functionality quite yet. We’re going to be talking more about that. That’s the problem with a game where the gameplay is unchanged. It’s a port, so we save a little bit of juice for the feature set. You know we’re not going to have character reveals in 3rd Strike, so it’s important to try to build up and have a little bit of news closer to launch. All of the core guys, all of the guys on iPlayWinner, already know everything about the game. There’s a wider audience that we’ve got to try to talk to. Hopefully, those guys will buy the game, too. We need to save a little bit and build up as we get closer to launch. Since we don’t have characters or new systems to reveal, all we’ve got are our features. I think they’re going to be pretty cool.

DLC

iPW: How do you decide on DLC for a game? Is it something that is based on fan demand, or is it something that is decided along the development process before the game is even released?

SK: It depends. In some cases we have a DLC plan before the game is released. We tell people that it’s not a matter of carving stuff off that gets left out. It’s not “You were going to get this, but now – HA! HA! HA! – we’re going to hold it back for DLC and make you pay more for the same game.” In some cases, there’s a DLC plan in advance. In other cases where a game like Super came out, and then there was a lot of interest – and the DLC’s been very popular – we try to we retool as we go. We say “Oh, people really like this!” and we’ll try to do more. It’s a matter of getting the technical backend in place, having it from the beginning, as well as politics internally. I don’t mean some sort of vicious politics. It’s just a matter of keeping the team that makes the kind of DLC you’re talking about.

See, that’s one thing I think that people outside of development might not think about. They just think, “Well, there’s the Street Fighter team, and if they’re not making a new Street Fighter game, they’re just sitting there motionless.” [They think] you throw the dust cover over them and then pull it off when it’s time to make a new Street Fighter game. No, all these guys work on other projects. They’re part of other projects. They work on a lot of different things internally. As soon as you’re done with one game – and you get a little break, hopefully – you’re on to something else, again. Even if there’s a demand for DLC, the guys who make that kind of DLC might be in the middle of something else that’s occupying all of their time. It’s not just a matter of turning on the DLC switch. It requires more planning. Capcom’s DLC strategy is sort of coming up to speed. I think we’re making strides in the right direction. Hopefully, we’ll find that happy middle ground where we’re giving enough players enough of what they want, all on the right schedule.

CONSIDER THE STREAM MONSTERS

iPW: It seems that there are now more people watching streams than there are actually playing the games.

SK: [Laughs]

iPW: When you’re making games, is there any consideration now given to making them enjoyable for the spectators? Are there things that you’re looking to do to add value for the viewers, in addition to the players?

SK: As far as streams and viewers in general go, I would love to be able to stream right from the game, right from your console. That’s a bigger project in dealing with the first parties, Microsoft, Sony, and possibly Nintendo as well. We’d need to figure out how that works and how they could open up their systems to allow that. I feel like streams are the future in a lot of ways, and I want our games to be supporting those and letting everybody get out there and see them. I think one of the advantages that games like StarCraft have had is that you basically have streaming software built-in to your gaming rig as well, and you’re online. Basically, you just throw a switch, and you’re streaming instantly.

Also, there are people that bond with different personalities. Obviously, iPlayWinner brings a spicy brand of commentary, and there are people that are all about that. Other people want a different kind of thing. I think it’s just a matter of giving enough people a chance to put their unique flavor and personality out there. You let new viewers find their way into the game that way. I would love to be able to support that in some ways in the future. In terms of [viewers affecting how we design] gameplay or anything like that, I wouldn’t worry about it. We’ve got cinematic throws in Street Fighter X Tekken. I don’t know if that’s really for the viewers or not. We focus right now just on the fighting game fans.

DREAM PROJECTS COME TRUE

iPW: Do you have a dream project? If you had carte blanche to make any game you want, and you’re the producer, what would it be?

SK: Yeah. I’ve got it. I still have a chance of actually making it. I’m looking a lot at the future right now. We have a very small meeting about the future of Street Fighter that we do about once a month right now. It’s just the head of the Western division, Ono-san, and myself talking about where we want this to be, and what we want to do in terms of games, and just the future, generally. There’s still a chance for my project, and I’ve got a lot of ideas. I don’t even look at it as if it has to be my dream game. I don’t want to give details away about something that could, maybe, actually happen, but that’s the last thing on my list.

I made a list of ten things that I wanted to do when I came to Capcom. Cross off #9 with Third Strike Online. It was one of the things on my list that I wanted to see happen when I started at the company. I threw away a very different life that I’d worked a long time to get when I decided to come over to Capcom. It was a really big deal for me. It’s been very gratifying to see so many of the things that I had hoped to happen come to be realities and to see the reaction and to see the impact on the scene. It’s meant a lot to me personally. Now, I want to cross the last things off my list and really take this to some exciting new places, and then maybe write a new list. That would be exciting. I just wanted to make sure that Street Fighter 4 was good and that we could really have something to carry us. That was sort of one of my background missions not on the list: even if I got fired from Capcom, we would have enough good games out there to keep the scene going for another ten years.

We had a ten-year dark period without a lot of Capcom fighting games. There were very few. Now, we’re in an exciting place where we’ve shown that fighting games can be a success again. They’ve meant so much to me that it made me sad to see them shrink to such a small part of the gaming pie. They were just sort of a forgotten genre. To see that come back has given me a lot of faith for the future, and I think we’re going to do a lot of special stuff going forward.

iPW: That’s very, very unselfish of you, that you put your entire past life on the line so that we could play fighting games.

SK: [Laughs.] Well, they pay me. [Laughs.] I’m not suffering too bad, but my family at the time was like “You’re doing what?” [Laughs.] “This is a bad idea!” But I think it worked out, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s one of those cases where you get one opportunity in life and you make the best of it.

iPW: You came from competitive fighting games. Now, you’re making games. Mike Z is showing off Skullgirls inside [at ECT3]. Generally, what do you think not just of Skullgirls the game, but the idea that someone with an intimate knowledge of the games is now getting the chance to make one?

SK: That’s been happening in Japan for a while. We have a lot of great guys who come from the ground up at Capcom Japan, but my hat is really off to Mike. I mean, Mike has been talking to me about this game, in many forms, for a long, long time. I’ve known Mike for – I don’t know – probably ten years or something ridiculous. The game looks fantastic. I’m super-happy for him, and we talk all of the time. He’s also happy at seeing the scene explode like it did after Street Fighter 4. He said “I knew what game I wanted to make, but because fighting games are back on the map, that gives me the opportunity to actually have customers for this.” He now has not just customers for the game, but also a publisher who’s actually behind it and feels good about it. Hopefully it can be a big success for them and get even more people sucked into the fighting game scene, because it’s really amazing.

To me, it makes me so happy to see Mike, because this has been such a burning passion in him. I never thought I would get a chance to work on a fighting game. I was going in a completely different direction in terms of my career and all that. So for me, it was sort of a surprise. It was sort of being in the right place and right time in life. But for Mike, he’s really been dedicated the whole time and believed in this project and pushed, pushed, pushed to make it happen. So to see it all coming to fruition and really looking great, it just makes me… [Huge grin. Seth’s positively gushing at this point.] It just makes me really happy! I’m just really – I couldn’t be happier for Mike!

If you somehow missed it, don't forget to check out Part 1!

Thanks again to Seth and to Capcom for making this interview possible!