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Game Over, Arcades? Fubarduck talks SFV in Japan
In the wake of SFV’s launch, Japan’s World Warriors are finding new ways to level up their game.
Arcade cabinets line Japan's game centers
© Michael Migliacio
In the heart of Tokyo among the dizzying, pulsating city lights of Shinjuku Ward, there exists a several-story structure emblazoned with a crimson coat of paint. Its lowest floor, open to the elements, is packed with large crane games beckoning busy passerby with flashing lights and catchy music. To the left of this whirling sensory overload, the lights and music give way to a narrow, steep staircase, flanked on both sides by concrete walls peppered with event notices and old game advertisements rapidly aged by wind and rain.
At the touch of a button, the door at the bottom of the staircase slides open, sending a cloud of stale cigarette smoke billowing up the staircase and out into the neon Shinjuku skyline. The iridescent glow of rows upon rows of densely-packed LCD and CRT monitors pierces through the artificial fog as the air begins to reverberate with the bellows of in-game announcers, the metallic ‘clank’ of 100-yen coins, and, of course, the unmistakable sound of mashing buttons. Welcome to TAITO Station South Shinjuku, the world-famous training grounds of some of Japan’s fiercest fighting game competitors.
ようこそ.
You have arrived.
Akihabara is a gaming mecca - but not for SFV
© Michael Migliacio
For decades, fighting games in Japan have been defined by the nation’s bountiful arcade scene. Even today, despite the evolution of online play and “arcade perfect” console gaming, arcades (more commonly known as game centers) remain a staple in Japan among fighting fans. They enable players-on-the-go to come in and get their fix quickly and cheaply, and they are notorious for being the places to go in order to access fierce competition. In Tokyo, that fierce competition is always right around the corner.
However, things are changing. This year’s launch of Street Fighter V marks the first time a mainline title in the long-running series did not debut in arcades before coming to home-based platforms. In fact, according to series producer Yoshinori Ono at Capcom, the game might never receive an arcade release at all. Now that the game is finally available worldwide and the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour is in full competitive swing, the impacts of this significant decision by Capcom are beginning to echo throughout Japan — and the international community is taking notice.
Few people are more qualified to talk about the impact of Street Fighter V on the arcade scene in Japan than arcade owner and Japanese-to-English translator Ryan “Fubarduck” Harvey. A well-respected member of the Austin FGC for over a decade acquainted with professional players on both sides of the Pacific, Harvey has a unique perspective into how Street Fighter V is impacting players in Japan’s gaming community.
Fubarduck knows a lot about the Japanese scene
© Fubarduck
Survival of the Fittest
According to Harvey, Japan’s most dedicated Street Fighter players have had to adjust to the lack of centralized spots to gather and trade information — a role previously filled by arcades. This lack of centralized competition spots has splintered the community into small pockets of players that routinely battle and share strategies. These groups are commonly focused around specific characters.
Online play is also a significant part of the equation, of course, and is mainly used to fill gaps in matchup knowledge. “[Japanese players] are playing online more because it is now the only way to get matchup experience against characters they may not have access to at a competent level offline,” Harvey says.
In this way, the scene in Japan is beginning to mirror the divided communities of the West, which have existed without lively arcade scenes for years. As for the players who make a living on Street Fighter, the names everyone is used to seeing at international events? “Their concern is playing the game, no matter the environment,” says Harvey. “They’re doing what they always did... they have enough established friends and connections within the community that they will not be affected by the lack of an arcade scene for Street Fighter V.”
Mid-to-high-tier players who may not have massive amounts of time to invest, such as the salarymen that can be often seen frequenting the aisles of TAITO Station, do not necessarily share the same opinion as the professionals. These players — individuals who may not have made investments in recent console or PC hardware and invest a few hundred yen a day playing local competition — are missing out. For them, the reaction to Street Fighter V’s new competitive reality is decidedly mixed.
“There is definitely disappointment echoed among some of my acquaintances,” notes Harvey, continuing that many fiercely competitive yet underrepresented Street Fighter fans are still heading to arcades to battle it out in Ultra Street Fighter IV. “To [these players], it’s still the most relevant Street Fighter easily accessible at their neighborhood arcade.”
Some arcade-goers have tossed SFV in favor of IV
© Capcom
Street Fighter’s New Generation
Harvey has a lot of praise for the fighting engine of Street Fighter V. “As a competitive fighting game, SFV is one of the most thought-out titles that has ever been created,” he says. The game was a hard reset for the franchise, providing a fresh entry point into the series for new competitors. There are lots of skilled players rising up through the ranks in local communities as well as the international stage, and an arcade scene is certainly not required for serious competitors to show themselves.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 — another major Capcom fighter in a franchise that went console-exclusive — had several spectacular competitors in Japan that rose out of online play. “Reichan and Condor Missile were online-exclusive savants, and they are widely considered to be the best UMvC3 players in Japan,” mentions Harvey. “This generation of new blood may have never set foot inside a game center.” Even the professional gamers are beginning to focus efforts on training up this next generation of World Warriors. Yusuke Momochi and Yuko “ChocoBlanka” Momochi, the power couple of Team Evil Geniuses, started a brand new program called “Shinobism” that is aimed at grooming up-and-coming Street Fighter players for competition on the world stage.
“I hope we’re lucky enough to see some fresh new talent out of Japan in the coming years,” Harvey says. “Daigo Umehara, among others, has been extremely vocal about the importance of sharing fighting game knowledge and recruiting new players to the scene.”
Out of Continues
So where does this leave arcades in Japan? “The story told often in the West about arcades dying off in Japan isn’t entirely accurate,” according to Harvey. “The big chain arcades are still thriving.” That’s not to say there haven’t been notable casualties in the general shift to online play. Smaller mom-and-pop arcades have definitely taken a hit. GAME SKY Nagoya, a charming little arcade in Osu Kannon that served as the previous stomping grounds for professional players like Kindevu, Momochi, and ChocoBlanka, was shuttered last year, and a month rarely goes by without another story about a shuttered arcade or game shop in the previous gaming Meccas of Akihabara in Tokyo and Den Den Town in Osaka.
SFV and SFIV are living side-by-side in Japan
© Capcom
Fight for the Future
While excitement among professional players and the fighting game community about EVO is reaching new heights, Harvey notes that “there is a mutually agreed-upon issue [in the Japan FGC] that there are very few new players joining the community — everyone who cares about playing the game is probably already playing it.” Capcom deciding to forego an arcade release not only locks out players who lack access to a set of hardware to run the game, but also limits exposure of the title to a wider audience of potential new players. Still, all hope is not lost. “It’s [still] widely believed that an arcade release will happen once Capcom’s exclusivity agreement with Sony ends”, says Harvey. When (or if) this will happen, however, is unclear. The big challenge for now isn’t so much finding a place for professional gamers to level up as much as it is generating interest in the game outside of the core fanbase.
For now, those in Japan looking for a Street Fighter V fix will have to make an investment in a PlayStation 4 or PC, and join a local community. For the immediate future at least, visitors to TAITO Station South Shinjuku are still greeted with the same bright lights, deafening noise, and competition unlike anywhere else in the world. And for those players, it’s far from game over.
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