{"id":53762,"date":"2025-11-10T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53762"},"modified":"2025-11-11T10:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:15:08","slug":"wed-go-bankrupt-arika-developer-explains-why-crossplay-support-isnt-as-simple-as-players-may-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/wed-go-bankrupt-arika-developer-explains-why-crossplay-support-isnt-as-simple-as-players-may-think\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;We\u2019d go bankrupt.\u201d Arika developer explains why crossplay support isn\u2019t as simple as players may think"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Street Fighter EX series developer <strong>Arika<\/strong>, founded by Capcom veterans Akira Nishitani and Mihara Ichiro, recently celebrated its 30<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary. To commemorate the milestone, the studio announced a major discount on 2018\u2019s <strong>Fighting EX Layer, <\/strong>which is available for only $0.99 on Steam and PS4 as of November 1 (originally $39.99).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ever since the price revision, Fighting EX Layer has seen a boost in player numbers, and the rekindled interest has inevitably led to requests for additional ports and new features like cross-platform support. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/miharasan\/status\/1985906881005756684?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">responding to such requests on X<\/a>, Arika\u2019s vice president Mihara Ichiro explained that adding crossplay requires more effort and financial risk than players may expect, despite \u201cfree\u201d universal options like Epic Online Services being available.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1515\" height=\"852\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1515px) 100vw, 1515px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251107-53762-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251107-53762-001.jpg 1515w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251107-53762-001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251107-53762-001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMaintaining crossplay costs so much that we\u2019d basically go bankrupt,\u201d he says. \u201cUnless we were selling over a million copies at full price and everyone bought the season pass, we\u2019d end up in the red.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only would maintenance fees require Fighting EX Layer to have a constant stream of revenue for the developers to break even, but it seems overcoming the game\u2019s dated architecture would also create significant additional costs. \u201cThere are engines that can reduce maintenance costs,\u201d Mihara adds, \u201cbut since this game is already more than seven years old, implementing something like that at this point would be\u2026 you can imagine.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Industry peer Alwei, representative of Indie-us Games, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/aizen76\/status\/1986250201989063085?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">also offered insight into the issue<\/a>, citing Epic Online Services as a helpful but by no means cost-free solution for implementing crossplay. \u201cOur in-house title <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/1584690\/TrinityS\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TrinityS<\/a> uses Epic Online Services (EOS), so right now our maintenance costs for cross-play between Steam, PS4, and PS5 are zero. That said, the development costs involved obviously aren\u2019t zero, and whether those additional costs even translate into profit is an entirely different issue. That\u2019s why it\u2019s a difficult decision to make.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1517\" height=\"849\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1517px) 100vw, 1517px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251107-53762-002.jpg\" alt=\"Fighting EX Layer\" class=\"wp-image-53768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251107-53762-002.jpg 1517w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251107-53762-002-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251107-53762-002-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/aizen76\/status\/1986292429742625013?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explains<\/a> that, although EOS does comes with a range of features necessary for crossplay like matchmaking, player storage and title storage, each platform still requires separate optimization work, which tends to be the most complicated part of the process.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While large publishers like Bandai Namco (Tekken 8), Capcom (Street Fighter 6) and Sega (Virtua Fighter) have the leeway to invest in cross-platform support, it appears to be a much riskier move for small and mid-sized game companies. Knowing the difficulty it involves, Arika\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/miharasan\/status\/1986024877481202062?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mihara reminds fighting game players<\/a> not to take what they have for granted. \u201cI you keep bashing the fighting games that do have crossplay, developers will start questioning the point of putting their money on the line for it. I mean, sure, if something\u2019s bad, it\u2019s bad (lol), but saying \u2018It\u2019s bad, but keep at it!\u2019 would be a lot nicer. We\u2019re only human, after all.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/virtua-fighter-5-revo-adding-rollback-netcode-to-13-year-old-source-code-seemed-impossible-at-first-but-we-knew-it-was-necessary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O: Adding rollback netcode to 13-year-old source code seemed impossible at first, but we knew it was absolutely necessary, says dev<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arika vice president Mihara Ichiro recently responded to players&#8217; requests for crossplay support in Fighting EX Layer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":53765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-53762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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