Capcom on PS3 exclusive SFxT characters

Capcom has responded to Xbox 360 owners upset by the current lack of exclusive characters in their version of upcoming fighting game Street Fighter x Tekken, saying it is "spreading the love".

The PlayStation 3 and Vita versions of Street Fighter x Tekken so far include three exclusive characters: Cole MacGrath from PS3-exclusive superhero action series Infamous, and quirky fictional Sony characters Toro and Kuro.

Capcom is yet to announce any Xbox 360 exclusive characters.

In a thread titled "Xbox fans who want Street Fighter X Tekken", in which an Xbox 360 owner asks: "Are fans that play Xbox going to get ignored in Street Fighter X Tekken like NetherRealm Studios did with Mortal Kombat?", Capcom USA senior vice-president Christian Svensson explained the Japanese publisher's position.

"Guys, we've done lots of exclusive content on Xbox 360 platforms (DR1, DR2, Lost Planet, etc.)," he said.

"We spread the love around from time to time. Nothing more I can say on the topic for the near term."

The mention of Mortal Kombat is a reference to the inclusion of God of War protagonist Kratos as a playable character.

In April, ahead of the game's release, Eurogamer revealed that NetherRealm wanted to include a character exclusive to the Xbox 360 version of Mortal Kombat, but was unable to do so.

"Unfortunately, the circumstances didn't allow us to make an 360 exclusive," was all Mortal Kombat boss Ed Boon could say when quizzed by Eurogamer.

"I'm not allowed to talk too much about it, but I can tell you we certainly wanted to do an exclusive for 360, but that's all I can say. It was not a decision we made where we said, oh, let's not do one for the 360."

At the time Boon refused to specify the characters he wanted to include exclusively for the Xbox 360 version, but he hinted that NetherRealm discussed the likes of Master Chief and Marcus Fenix.

"Anybody who's really knowledgeable about the Xbox video games, the big titles, names like Master Chief from Halo, Marcus Fenix from Gears of War, and any other Xbox exclusive title, is going to come up in a conversation in talking about it. So clearly we've discussed it.

"But, like I said, it wasn't something we decided, no, we don't want to make a 360 version of a character."

In June Street Fighter x Tekken producer Yoshinori Ono told Eurogamer the inclusion of an Xbox 360-exclusive character in the game "will depend entirely on Microsoft".

"When we first started talking to SCEA about the Vita version and ways we could link that up to the PS3 version the conversation naturally drifted toward what else we could that's very PlayStation-ey, very specific to those platforms," he added. "So we started thinking of characters we could cross over.

"We settled on Cole fairly early because he's a character that fits the Street Fighter universe. He doesn't seem out of place. He has electrical moves. We already have Blanka, so we know in this universe it's not unusual for people to have electrical powers. And we think his fighting style measures pretty well with Tekken, as well.

"He won't feel like a shoehorned in guest character."