The intense arcade rivalry between Capcom and Namco erupted right under our noses with the release of Street Fighter X Tekken, but the relationship between the titanic companies goes back a long way. In fact, it even predates the release of the first Tekken game: according to Yoshiki Okamoto The Osaka company had to pay the Pac-Man house to be able to use the “Street Fighter” brand commercially. How is it possible?
Okamoto is not just anyone. In addition to being the producer of Street Fighter II, as well as all subsequent versions and revisions of the game, he worked for Capcom until 1997. Logically, and as can be guessed from the title of the iconic fighting game, it was a sequel: The first Street Fighter hit the arcades in 1987. And this is where things get a little complicated.
Lovers of classic martial arts cinema know that the name in question of that fighting game had been associated with one of the most iconic sagas of star Sonny Chiba for at least a decade: The Street Fighter. In Cervantes’ language it would mean “The street fighter.” However, his original Japanese name was Gekitotsu! Satsujin-ken. In theory there was no problem.
The conflict here was about a trademark that Namco had registered and that was just a little different from the Chiba films: “Street Fight”, which comes to mean “street fighting.” And this is when, through your YouTube channelYoshiki Okamoto explained that if Capcom wanted to use the title of Street Fighter It was necessary to pay them a licensing fee so that their arcade fighting game did not conflict with their brand.
What’s more, as you can see below, Okamoto gave a very specific example in this regard: when the port of the game was developed for PC Engine (our Turbografx) at that time there was no budget to pay for the brand, so it was decided to readjust the title to Fighting Street and step out. Something that is detailed in Japanese starting at minute 5.
As we mentioned, Yoshiki Okamoto worked at Capcom until 1997 (the same year in which Street Fighter III) with which he admits not knowing if they currently still have to pay for the license, another agreement was reached or if it is no longer necessary given that the presence and iconography of the Street Fighter saga is already global in scope.
It’s curious how many times the Street Fighter franchise has been able to maneuver and adapt to possible brand transgressions: it took Mike Tyson decades to figure out that one of the characters was basically himself, Ken was given a last name to avoid getting into trouble with Mattel when it comes to making figures and even the Soundtrack of its stage has very fine similarities with a certain theme from the movie Top Gun. But it is clear that with Namco, not even Capcom itself wanted to take any chances.
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