Let's flashback to 2012: Barack Obama is still in his first term as U.S. President, the first Avengers movie is two months away from its theatrical release, and Capcom's Street Fighter X Tekken is hitting the stores. Fighting game fans have been expecting the companion title from Bandai Namco ever since then, but Tekken X Street Fighter is still a white whale. Over seven years later, and we get another almost update from series producer Katsuhiro Harada, but it isn't very encouraging.

Speaking to VGC, Harada candidly contemplated whether or not it made sense for a Tekken X Street Fighter game to come out. His following explanation was not too far from another update he provided two years ago, albeit a bit more fleshed out this time. While Harada is "emotionally up for it," "things have changed a lot since 2012," with Harada suggesting that he would need further approval from Capcom were he to move the project forward.

At the time when Tekken X Street Fighter was put on hold, development was roughly 30% of the way through, estimates Harada. And with guest characters such as Akuma from Street Fighter and Geese Howard from The King of Fighters making guest appearances in Tekken 7, Harada found himself "excited" about how their characters looked and felt in the transition from 2D to 3D. But that's just the thing—Tekken 7 is still doing quite well.

Street Fighter V is also fine on its own, Harada would say, calling both that and Tekken 7 "some of the best fighting games ever." Harada cited the life cycle of fighting games, which was traditionally one or two years long before a sequel, but modern fighting games act as services now. Tekken 7, in particular, has plenty of post-release DLC support. The fear then is splitting the community. "That was a serious consideration from the marketing perspective," Harada says.

It's a legitimate concern that still holds true two years after his initial concerns—to be frank, Street Fighter X Tekken came out at a strange time in between titles, and arguably lost steam in the fighting game community. Still, it would be a shame to not see half of this ambitious crossover never come to fruition—plus, our previous stories on this website haven't aged well. Have you seen our Street Fighter X Tekken review lately? The last line was literally: "Here’s lookin’ at you, Tekken X Street Fighter."

Here's lookin' at you, indeed. Until then, let's heed some advice from Harada back in 2018: "Shut your mouth and watch streaming or eat delicious pizza."