SD-Tekken reports Tekken 6 will not receive a US release in arcades

There has been a bit of speculation over the last couple of weeks as to when exactly distributors in the US would receive Tekken 6 cabinets. As has been pointed out previously, the game has failed to show up on the 'usual suspects' lists of companies that often times handle the distribution of Namco Bandai arcade games here in America. While no official sources were named, over at SD Tekken, one of the largest US based Tekken fansites, it is being reported that Tekken 6 will not be receiving a release in the US via official channels.

Of course, this won't limit arcade operators and distributors who choose to import the game, but as was pointed out in the article posted by SD Tekken, those wanting to get their hands on a cabinet will be facing some increasingly hefty price hikes. There are a few cabinets that can be found here and there, but it seems that for anyone who was expecting to see Tekken 6 meeting the same market penetration in the US as Tekken 5/Dark Resurrection will end up being disappointed.

As a side note, Kevin Williams of the Stinger Report posted a comment over at Arcade Heroes, where he states (prior to the latest revelation from SD Tekken) that he was going to be asking some tough questions in regards to this situation and how it relates to the US/UK distribution of the title to the Namco Bandai CEO at ASI in late March. It'll be interesting to see the response from an 'official source'.

I can't help but feel despite the obvious lack of faith in the US arcade industry by some companies, this may end up being a big missed opportunity due to the rabid fan base of the series. The only thing that I can see this really doing for the US base is drawing more fans away from arcades to begin with... Especially with the heels of an impending console release of Tekken 6 being planned late 2008.

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