Street Fighter IV Dev Confused By Americans

Americans are gravitating toward new Street Fighter IV character Abel, and that’s a bit of a surprise for game producer Yoshinori Ono.

Four new characters have been added to Street Fighter IV: Abel, Crimson Viper, El Fuerte and Rufus. While watching fans play the game last week at Comic-Con, producer Yoshinori Ono said he noticed Abel was getting more playtime than any of the other characters, which he didn’t expect.

“With all due respect to him, he’s a great character, but honestly we thought Crimson Viper would be a big hit here,” Ono said. “We got a lot of marketing data and a lot of advice from our U.S. branch in creating that character. She was kind of custom-tailored for the States and we thought people would like her.”

Ono said he would make use of what he learned about all the new characters during his time at Comic-Con when he returns to Japan to continue working on the game. “What we need to do now is found out what his [Abel’s] deal is, why they like him and use that information going forward,” he said. Perhaps he will also take home the lesson that sometimes, marketing data is wrong.

Source: MTV Multiplayer