The Lack Of 3D Fighting Games And Their Declining Popularity

While fighting games in general are not as popular as they used to be, the 3D fighter genre is doing much worse.

[FallenAngel1984]

“While fighting games in general are not as popular as they used to be”

What level of BS is this

[Terry_B]

I think he means the number of fighting games.

While the few long running series are still popular and successful there are less and less of them.

From Capcom..only Street Fighter is left.
SNK releases a new fighting game every couple of years ..with timespans of at least 3 years between a KOF, in 2024 we might see the new Fatal Fury
NRS still does Mortal Kombat and who knows..maybe Injustice 3
Namco's last fighting game was released in 2018 and Tekken 8 won't appear before 2023.
Arc System's BlazBlue seems to be dead..their latest Guilty Gear looks phenomenal but split a good part of the fan community due to the less technical gameplay.
Dead or Alive..is pretty much dead now.
Virtua Fighter is dead as well
And the other fighting games out there? 2d..2d..2d.

And while fighting games in general have the Evo and other tournaments, the popularity of the genre is a bad joke compared with the past where basically every teenager knew how he performs a Hadouken.

I am 43, play fighting games since SF II ..played hundreds of them and still try to have a good overview over the scene.

[isarai]

3D refers to range of movement in fighting games. Basically games where you can sidestep, in that sense all there really is is tekken, DOA and Soul Caliber, but really only tekken has any foreseeable future, the others are in limbo or dead.

[CaptainHenry916]

I know right

[FallenAngel1984]

Except we still get a numerous amount of fighting games across various sub genres still getting released, even moreso than we had in the past.

Capcom still also has Marvel vs Capcom

Games in general take years to get sequels. That doesn’t mean the genre is dead. We still get new fighting games released every year in addition to existing games getting new content

In addition to traditional 2D and 3D fighting games we have platform and arena fighters, of which there are many

[Terry_B]

Last MVC game was 2017 and it looks like we won't see any MVC again except fangames and mods.

[FallenAngel1984]

There’s usually one one installment in a generation for most fighting game series nowadays

You can’t say it’s dead until the end of the 9th gen if we don’t get a new installment

[FallenAngel1984]

SFV came out in 2016 and it’s sequel will come out 7 years later

Tekken 7 came out in 2015 and we don’t know when Tekken 8 will release

KoFXIV came out in 2016 and it’s sequel released 6 years later

Mortal Kombat X came out in 2015 and it’s sequel came out 4 years later

Super Smash Bros came out in 2018 and nearly 4 years later we don’t know when the next will release

And then going further down the list

- SCV took 6 years to get a sequel
- DOA took 7 years to get a sequel
- Guilty Gear took 7 years to get a sequel

It’s ridiculous to say because it’s been some years since the last installment passed by that the series is never coming back when that’s becoming the norm for the genre. It’s even more ridiculous when you look at sequel gaps in other genres and say that the entire genre is dead because it takes longer to develop games now than it did before.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki...

Even lesser successful series than MvC like Killer Instinct, Samurai Shodown, & ESPECIALLY Fatal Fury made/are making a comeback despite being dormant for LONGER than MvC.

[FallenAngel1984]

Not everyone knew how to perform special moves in fighting games. That was a bar barrier for many, hence why many fighting games nowadays have more accessibility options

[Terry_B]

in my youth..everyone knew how to perform the specials moves, 10 hit combos and often even the fatalities. #nineties

[FallenAngel1984]

That’s your specific corner

People I know just liked to mash buttons because they enjoyed the experience

[Mobis-New-Nest]

Technically it really isn't BS, because if fighting games were popular we would be on Capcom vs SNK 7, Marvel vs Capcom 7, Killer Instinct 7, Thrill Kill 7, Dark Stalkers 7, Power Stone 7, Bloody Roar 7, Rival Schools 7, Pocket Fighter 7, Battle Arena Toshinden 7, The Last Blade 7, Fighting Vipers 7, Ready 2 Rumble 7, Def Jam Vandetta 7, each fighting game running 120 frames with 4K resolution but gamers don't want that. So that's why fighting games are losing popularity.

[purple101]

had ready to rumble on dreamcast, powerstone too, played rival schools at a friends house,

bloody roar my mate had on gamecube and played that.

toshienden i had on ps1.

many of the others too. - what a great list you made.

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Mobis

That’s a poor example because I could do the same for another genre. I could say if RPGs, racing, sports, platformers were popular we’d get sequels to (insert dormant franchise here).

Just because we don’t have immediate sequels to dormant franchises doesn’t mean the entire genre is unsuccessful. That mindset is ridiculous to apply when you see that particular genre still breaking records across various titles.

. SNK and Arc System Works, publishers who mainly get by by producing fighting games, wouldn’t even exist anymore if fighting games weren’t successful. A large part of Bandai Namco’s success comes from producing licensed fighting games every year, something they clearly wouldn’t do if the genre weren’t successful

[XiNatsuDragnel]

3d fighting games need a comeback so badly.

[isarai]

I miss DOA so much. 5 was so good but has terrible latency when playing BC on ps5, and 6 is just soulless and half assed

[generic-user-name]

Tekken 7 is the best selling Tekken in the franchise, I thought it would have sparked a revolution in the genre by now.

[Knightofelemia]

I like certain 3D fighting games like Tekken, Virtual Fighter I prefer 2D fighting like the classic MK games, classic Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, King of the Fighters, Fatal Fury, Samurai Showdown, Killer Instinct.

[ApocalypseShadow]

It's stagnation. I've played since it all began from karate champ, yie ar kung fu, street fighter, mortal Kombat, VF, DOA, Tekken, snk fighters, digital fighters, you name it. Even overseas fighters like Jackie Chan's fighters.

There was this level of progression from fighter to fighter. 2D, 3D, combos, air, multiple plains. But it has turned into the same companies regurgitating the same fighters, variations of the same fighters, special effects plastered all over the moves where you can't even see what's going on and no progression of combat learning or technique. Leave the simple fighters to people who can't learn the moves. You don't downgrade the game for them to play. They need to learn it or move on to another game. You don't simplify GT racing. You don't simplify VF games. You're not supposed to simplify SF games.

I'll admit Capcom creating a street fighter world is a good idea on the side. But this should have been done by Sega years ago. As much as I love Shenmue, it should have been VF RPG. The story of Ryo is cool. One of the reasons I keep my Dreamcast systems. But if it was VF RPG, it might have gained more traction as VF was very popular as a skills fighter. CASUALS need not apply.

When you learned the moves and beat the different styles, it was awesome. The first time throwing a Dragon punch consistently. First combos in mortal Kombat. The juggling and side stepping of 3D fighters. The weapons fighting of soul Calibur. Then.... Just the same stuff.

We need a new modern fighter. With real timing and technique. We're at a point that cpu calculations can have multiple animations from attack moves, defense stances, counter move stances, parry moves, block moves. At a frame rate that is fluid just as any modern basketball game character or animation we see in Uncharted or TLofU. Combat that looks and plays similar to the kung fu network movies we all used to love. Well, I still love. We have even enough buttons for arms, legs, jumping, blocking, etc.

You won't see this happen because of the current stagnation. Every generation, we had a new fighter with moves we had to learn. A huge increase of fighters wanting to test their skill against others as real martial artists did years ago. If all we are going to get is the same SF, Tekken and mortal Kombat, then nothing will change. That's why it's dying out. Why the fighting community has shrunk just like the arcades where we squared off. My explanation of the next technique fighter might not have come across to some. But others will get what I mean.

[lucian229]

need me some soulcalibur VII

[Rainbowcookie]

Gonna be a while...Namco is Tekken focused then after maybe 🙂

[lucian229]

I knoooow 😭

[Rainbowcookie]

I don't think so, but for me I do have a bad taste since the introduction of paid Dlc. You used to have games where you unlock or earn characters...that was fun...now you get seasons which isn't bad , but they price is currency driven. Take the last Tekken it cost on Psn R170 (South African) if I remember correctly then each dlc character is like R50. So to have them all cost you too much to make it enjoyable. So people wait for complete editions...that may or may not arrive, but by that time the servers are dead. I am positive for SF6...but the dlc or the seasons wasn't announced yet. I feel street fighter, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, KOF, Samurai Showdown,Guilty Gear, Dragon Ball, Soul Calibur and Tekken are all alive and well...Dead or Alive, Killer instinct might be dead and Virtual Fighter ...is dead 🙂 Most of those are 2d though, but I think as 3d people still would buy them.
That said their isn't a lot of innovation in these games like on the past. I need a new Tobal or Bloody Roar. I guess the single player of the genre will become more openish world with r.p.g elements...but Im fine with that.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Yeah. It's turned into micro transactions and seasons. Totally moving away from the basis of video game combat. VF was close with Yu Suzuki trying to put what learning a martial art is about. The training involved. The commitment. But games have moved away from that. More mayhem and pyrotechnics. And how many little items developers can sell to the consumer.

If we were to ask gamers what video game characters they like, they could easily name Goku or Ryu, Ken, Sub Zero, Mitsurugi, Terry and so forth. If you were to ask them what video game fighting style they have mastered like wing chun, mantis, drunken boxing, crane, kendo, etc, they couldn't tell you anything. Because they didn't learn anything. Fun. But no knowledge.

I still enjoy what's been released all these years. But if we had a real fighting game with real fighting styles and the game teaches you that style, stances, weight, distance, when to block, when to parry, when to sweep, when to jump and you master that style. You become the "wing chun master" announced at tournaments just as fighters tested their metal against other styles, other regions in countries, decades ago. We would have achieved in video game form what Sensei have been trying to teach in real life.

Make a 3D fighter like that, and I'm all in. It's a massive undertaking programming all the animation, all the moves, all the balancing and an engine that could handle it. But hey, instead, here's another street fighter. Here's another Tekken. Not bad. But I'd like to see better after 40+ years of playing.

[Abear21]

Fighting games are always best when a few people can pass the controller around in person. Trash talking is a must and you just lose most of the fun of them when it’s online or single player.

[FallenAngel1984]

Every fighting game has a local multiplayer mode

[TheEnigma313]

The problem is incomplete games. Having to pay for characters

[Yi-Long]

I think a lot of these games would still be popular if they didn’t do the whole DLC-greed BS.

Yeah, hardcore fighting games fans will buy a new SoulCalibur, Tekken, Street Fighter, etc, and will probably buy the season passes.

Here’s the thing. Most mainstream gamers, who LIKE fighting games, but they’re not ‘hardcore’ fans/players, they won’t. They’ll pick up a cheap complete edition when that comes out, but they’re just not going to drop 50-60 bucks on Day 1, simply because they know they’d just be buying a base-game experience with half the roster.

I’ve said it before, but these companies have killed their own genre with their greed.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I still feel like we have just as many 3D fighters as we do 2D, if you want to be technical, Guilty Gear is 3D with anime style lovingly applied overtop. And we just had a new Tekken and a new Street Fighter announced not long ago, I could go for another DOA though, but I would like it to be more like the older DOA games (especially with the large amount of outfits).

[anast]

Paying for characters and the lack of desire to invest in boundry pushing fighting games is the problem. Almost all current fighting games are derivative and boring reskins.

[Silly gameAr]

I want a reboot of Bloody Roar. I really have no idea why they haven't rebooted that series yet.

[TriniOutsider]

The only 3D fighter that dies out faster than the rest is DOA because those games as of late focused way too much on overpriced cosmetics.

[mastershredder]

3D fighting games.... That's kinda hard to say since the executed gameplay is no different than a 2D fighter counterpart. Not a whole lot has changed for this genre other than the way you wrap it. True "3D" fighting games would be more like 3rd person arena type games. All Fighting games no matter how it's skinned and dropped in a 3D environment are still restricted to a flattened overlapping classic clunky 2D interface and that's getting pretty stale.