Yoshinori Ono admits Street Fighter III kept newcomers out a bit

Yoshinori Ono told Nintendo's Satoru Iwata in an Iwata Asks segment that Street Fighter III was more "closed off," to the gaming public at large and made more for the die-hard fans of the series.

Because the developers essentially closed off the entry barrier to anyone other than the most experienced players, Super Street Fighter IV was made to be more inclusive and bring back those who loved Street Fighter II.

"They [the die-hard fans] were also the loudest people who made their voices heard," said Ono. "I really understood how they felt, so I thought their voices were everything. But I didn't realize there were other people to whom the game could not resonate with at all until just about four or five years ago.

"We had locked the doors of the 'entrance' without even knowing it. By designating the 'entrance', it ended up becoming a game that only a select few could enter.

"Since we can't equate the loudest person as everyone's opinion, we went back to the roots of the people who played Street Fighter and tried to analyze it. When making games, I always tell my staff to never forget going 'back to the roots' and the 'class reunion'. Going back to the roots means to look carefully into the very beginning where it all started.

"The class reunion means to think how we could let the former players who played the original to feel like joining it again. The people who played Street Fighter until their fingers hurt back in the '90s carry a sort of image in their hearts. We can't reuse what used at the time in the same way, but we should make a happy class reunion that every attendee can imagine. That's the kind of Street Fighter IV I wanted to make."

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Thanks, Eurogamer.