Capcom recently fired off a fact sheet in our direction for Super Street Fighter IV and while most of it talks about the stuff we already knew -- additional fighters, online lobbies, car punching -- it did inform us of two new online modes for the expansion to this year's excellent brawler and hook us up with some screens of the updated lobby system.

Teams of two, three and four will be able to see who's the best Hadoukener around in the new Team Battles mode, which is a "round-robin elimination" mode where "one man stays until beaten, next team member rotates in," Capcom's Chris Kramer told Joystiq. So players will be able to either control a team themselves or assign slots to other players in the room. Just don't go expecting any tagging in and out -- that only happens in other Capcom games.

The other new mode is Endless mode, a one-on-one elimination mode where two players duke it out and the winner stays in the hot seat and fights the next individual queued up. If you've had any experience with DOA 4, then Endless mode is kinda like that game ... sans the ability to be a chicken in a sombrero running around a martial arts dojo.

Capcom was also kind enough to include some new videos, strictly for training purposes. You can check out newcomer Juri fight T. Hawk above and, if you want some MAXIMUM gameplay footage, head past the break to see her fight Deejay.

Look, if people are going to eschew their work day in favor of having a gaming tournament, we're the first to sympathize. In the case of those in the business of protecting our lives from murderers and financial institutions though, we find it hard to offer much solace. So when eleven officials from several Florida agencies were caught on videotape playing games a couple months back and the story caught on internationally, we were hopeful that those found guilty would maybe, you know, actually receive some form of punishment.

Instead, the Lakeland Ledger reports that the offending officers will suffer such retribution as ... a few hours of retraining? The names of the officers are even being withheld due to their "undercover" status at the time. Lakeland sheriff chief of staff Gary Hester goes as far as to say, "We are learning from our mistakes ... I think we handled [the investigation] properly." He then hurriedly rushed back to a game of Street Fighter IV in progress against a competing police department.

... Okay, we made up that last part.

Plastic peripheral powerhouse Mad Catz has unleashed its fiscal 2010 Q2 earnings results (that's the three months ending September 30, 2009 for us normal folk) and, while the company is still making plenty of cash ($21.6 million this quarter, to be exact) it saw losses of 16 percent when compared to the same period last year, where Mad Catz' net sales earned it $25.8 million. Its biggest market, North America, also saw a dip in sales this year to the tune of 18 percent; US sales have fallen nearly 20 percent this quarter, while Canadian sales rose 55 percent.

When comparing its gross sales by platform, Mad Catz only managed to lose a small fraction of its PC platform business, while simultaneously building its PS3 and Xbox 360 revenue streams by ten and four percent, respectively, and growing its specialty controller business nearly 20 percent. The company did take a considerable hit in its Wii business -- sales dropped eight percent -- as well as in other platform markets, however.

Citing what its key products were during its fiscal Q2 2010, Mad Catz obviously had a lot of love for Capcom, as several of the fight sticks it offered for 2D fighters were top earners. Aside from that, it pointed to its new line of Rock Band accessories and some Wii items such as its Remote and z-Chuk as other successful ventures.

While this quarter may not have been the best for the company, all signs point to it being a successful fiscal Q3 2010 for Mad Catz. With its collaboration with the biggest game in the universe and its venture with Capcom to offer new fighting game stuff -- the company also confirmed that Marvel vs Capcom 2 stick is legit -- we have a feeling our next post on its earnings will probably have an image of Scrooge McDuck in it.

Much to the chagrin of many Street Fighter fans trying to get their online multiplayer on, matchmaking issues and lack of a multiplayer lobby system really stood out as glaring missteps in Street Fighter IV. Thankfully, it appears that Capcom has taken the hint and will be including an eight-person multiplayer lobby for groups to observe other matches and virtually "quarter up," as it were.

SSFIV's Masahiro Taguchi let the cat out of the bag on the official Japanese blog for the game (translated by Andriasang), saying that the regular ol' Street Fighter IV did not properly convey "the feeling of players gathering together for fights." He says that the ability to create multiplayer lobbies was on the table before creating SFIV, but was scrapped in favor of the one-on-one model currently in place. As frame rate can be a particularly important issue with fighting games relative to other genres, Taguchi makes a point to dispel any worries of online stuttering while observers look on to games in progress, though admitting that the process of making this lag free was a bit of a "technical feat." We're looking forward to putting Taguchi's claims to the test in 2010 when Super Street Fighter IV lands on our consoles.

[Via Andriasang]

This latest trailer for Super Street Fighter IV shows off the new online modes, including the "Endless Battle" mode that allows up to eight players to play multiple matches, with the loser of each match going to the end of the virtual line; the "Replay Channel," which allows players to record and view replays together with voice chat; and a bunch of new tournament options.

It's all great stuff, but we know what you came here to see: If you skip to about the 2:30 mark, you can watch Ryu car bashing and barrel bashing! Check out how excited the kilted barrel-dropping machine operator is -- he loves watching his barrels get smashed!

[Thanks, Vince]

After scans from Famitsu all but confirmed it, Capcom today revealed that the crescendo of humanity vs. his own creations – car bashing – will return in Super Street Fighter IV. Though the image of Juri above is all we're offered by Capcom-Unity for now, various Capcom staff Twitter accounts lead us to believe we'll be hearing more about this bonus stage next week. In the meantime, we've dropped an excellent video of John Cleese beating up a car with a stick for you just after the break. You're welcome.

While Street Fighter may be the perfect symbol of man's inhumanity to man, we always considered SFII's bonus stage (which used the punching of a car as a John Henry-esque metaphor for the struggle to maintain humanity in the face of an industrial age) as the more poignant symbolism. Capcom appears to agree, as some new Famitsu scans seem to indicate that the car-punching bonus stage will return in Super Street Fighter IV.

Also depicted is the barrel smashing mini-game, though that doesn't represent anything ... except that it's fun to smash barrels.

So what if you weren't able to make it out to Capcom's second annual NYC Fight Club last night? Don't worry, we went -- and got trounced by the competition -- in your stead. Though Super Street Fighter IV was only there for Capcom to demo (and give a small handful of community members time with), we snapped pictures of everything. We also played a mess of Tatsunoko vs Capcom in a next to final build (yes, we put the two recently revealed characters through their paces), and even shot some video of legendary Street Fighter player turned Capcom employee Seth Killian demoing new SSFIV characters in front of a roaring crowd (550 or so people over the course of the night, a rep approximated for us -- more than double last year's attendance numbers).

As we weren't able to get our hands on the three new fighters being showcased (Juri, Deejay, and T. Hawk), we talked to Jamal Brewster, a gentleman who exchanged kindness for some time with Deejay during one of the night's four live demos. "He doesn't feel cheap or overpowered .. he does feel good though, like he belongs in the game -- a lot of his moves have been retained from previous games," Brewster told us, echoing sentiments from Seth Killian earlier in the night. But how did you get chosen to play the game, you lucky dog? "One of the representatives here, she was almost passing out in the corner over there, and a friend of mine and I noticed this, so we did our best to try to help her out. We sat her down, gave her some water, and the people here were so grateful that they offered me a chance to play Super Street Fighter IV and they gave me an autographed hoodie of Tatsunoko vs Capcom."

In case it wasn't already clear: Yes, Capcom Fight Club is most certainly for the fans. Hit the break for a video of the new characters in action (sorry about the quality -- it was really dark) and be sure to peep the gallery below -- it's just like you were there! We'll have a hands-on of Tatsunoko vs Capcom's final two characters later on. Promise.

For the longest time, we didn't understand game soundtracks. "Hey, just turn the game on and walk away," we said. But after our 17th red ring and 10th Cell chip to commit melty, plasticy suicide, we quickly began to see the value.

Capcom's feeding our new habit with three new additions to the Music section of the Capcom Store: Ten Years Of Resident Evil: The Official Soundtrack, Resident Evil 5: Original Soundtrack and Street Fighter IV: Original Soundtrack. If you too are hesitant about leaping into game soundtracks, Capcom's sweetening the offer with 25 percent off the Mega Man 9 score for anyone who purchases one of the new offerings.

We're not sure how to break this to you, so we're just going to say it straight up: Super Street Fighter IV is going to have an even tougher (read: cheaper) Seth than Street Fighter IV. But we've got good news alongside that: You won't be forced to fight him over and over until you unlock that last playable character, as they'll all be unlocked right from the get go!

After Capcom's Seth Killian spoke with Kotaku earlier today regarding the unbelievably cheap final boss (can you tell we're bitter?), we shot an email to him to make sure he hadn't misspoke when he said, "Seth will be even cheaper and more irritating." Killian clarified his statement for us, saying, "[SSFIV producer Yoshinori] Ono himself promised that Seth would be even more challenging ... 'cheaper' and 'more irritating' are premature since the AI isn't finished but he isn't going to be a pushover."

When we wrote back, terrified that we'd never get to play the game's entire cast of characters, he reassured us that, "All characters are unlocked to start." We'll be getting our hands on SSFIV later this week and hopefully we'll get to find out just how much more difficult Seth is becoming.

With Super Street Fighter IV proposing to add eight new fighters to the already content-rich SFIV experience, we could easily envision Capcom charging top dollar for the title -- despite Capcom's comments to the contrary -- but that doesn't appear to be the case. According to a GameStop listing, the retailer pegs the release down to March 23, 2010, which certainly falls in line with Capcom's quoted "Spring 2010" placeholder, and suggests the game will have a $40 price tag.

Look, Capcom, all we're going to say is this: the price isn't an issue, but in all of your tinkerin' with this and that, you better not mess with our favorite character, Dan -- or we will find you ... and likely grovel at your feet, asking you to change him back.

[Via Destructoid]

The official Super Street Fighter IV development blog has revealed some unused character art for the first game, revealing a different take on Abel than the giant amnesiac in bike shorts we know now. Before he was beefy and uncomfortably pant-less, he was wispy ... and pretty much only in pants.

"With Abel," battle planner Taisaku Okada explained (as translated by Andriasang) we wanted to make someone representative of 'the weak can beat the strong,' and so he was originally a small judo character who could be mistaken for a girl." Eventually, it would appear, they opted for someone representative of 'the strong can beat the ... also strong."

The post also reveals E. Honda's skeleton, which, like all the characters', is rendered in full 3D. The other characters' hairstyles probably don't have bone structure, however.

[Via Andriasang]

In an interview with Famitsu, Super Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono did a lot of hinting, but didn't really offer any specifics about the new Street Fighter IV update. For example, he declined to explain what's going on with the changed Ultra Combo gauge, though Famitsu speculates the mark in the middle is a Roman numeral I, to denote the first of multiple meters filling. However, there's still enough information to be interesting in Andriasang's translated synopsis.

Ono said he wanted to expand online play, to more closely approximate the excitement of being at a tournament. Online match viewing is something Ono hopes to add to the game, making Street Fighter more of a spectator sport. He also said he wanted to augment the Replay Viewer feature in some way.

As for the most noticeable new addition to Super -- the new characters -- don't expect Juri to be the only original character among a bunch of old Street Fighter series also-rans. Ono said he wanted to add more original characters who, like C. Viper, are at "the borderline of what fans might accept" using unusual fighting styles.

Microsoft has announced that several new titles will soon be joining the ranks of the Xbox 360's budget priced Platinum Hits line. The new additions include some seriously heavy hitters, namely Grand Theft Auto IV, Street Fighter IV, Left 4 Dead, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Saints Row 2. Microsoft's announcement (oh so conveniently) neglected to mention prices for any of the titles, but a quick check around the ol' internet points to a price of $29.99 for most of the new additions (though SFIV curiously seems pegged around $40 for the moment).

We should also point out that while these are some legitimately great games, both SFIV and Force Unleashed are receiving upgraded, budget versions in the near future -- Ultimate Sith Edition later this year and Super Street Fighter IV in early 2010. It's also worth noting Left 4 Dead is receiving a full-blown sequel only a month from now.

Microsoft has also announced that retailers will be offering a "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" promotion for Xbox 360 Platinum Hits through October 31, though the release makes no mention of which retailers are doing so. We've contacted Microsoft for more information on the promotion.

T. Hawk and Juri managed to bogart most of the spotlight of Super Street Fighter IV's reveal, but there's a third character crashing the party now: Dee Jay. The Jamaican with a taste for tunes (and kicking you in the face!) returns and takes up a healthy amount of real estate in the new trailer above.

The video isn't the only update on the Super Street Fighter IV front, as the game's official blog (translation) mentions Capcom is considering an arcade update. Producer Natsuki Aizawa says while Capcom is looking at the PS3 and Xbox 360 as the main platforms for the expansion, there's still "a chance" it'll come to arcades. "One thing I absolutely want to get across is, we most definitely haven't given up on the arcade Street Fighter IV," she says. We're sure that matters to most Japanese gamers. As for America, we all know arcades are more elusive than the Great Sasquatch.

Source - New trailer
Source - Capcom says arcade release of SSFIV a possibility [Via Andriasang]