This week, Street Fighter series producer Yoshinori Ono said during an interview that there are no plans for a PC version of Super Street Fighter IV. Ono blamed piracy as the reason to avoid another PC release, claiming that Street Fighter IV on the PC was one of the top pirated games.
In a translation conducted by Andriasang, Ono put a positive spin on the piracy issue however, saying that the game saw a wide-spread release thanks to illegal distribution. Still, Capcom isn't about to hand out free games, and plans to protect its Street Fighter IP (franchise) by holding off on a PC version of the latest installment.
Still, there was some hint that the game could eventually hit the market. According to Ono, the arcade version of Super Street Fighter IV already runs on Taito's DirectX-based Type X2 arcade board, so the PC version is essentially ready (99-percent). Ono indicated that Capcom would need to implement some kind of "super" copy protection solution to keep it out of pirate hands.
Currently the original Street Fighter IV for PC is available on Steam for $29.99. To help reduce piracy, Capcom may need to abandon physical media and stick with digital distributors such as Valve's platform. However Ono said that would be unfair to PC gamers who don't have access to those digital outlets or means to purchase content online.
