But only in Japan of course
Many of the features and expectations present in our current roster of fighting games can be traced back farther than most players realize.
That even applies to cross-platform play, which took many years to become the standard in not just fighters but video games in general, with Capcom pulling off the feat on console over 20 years ago.
Even longtime fans in the West likely don’t know that Capcom vs. SNK 2 was the first video game to officially support crossplay on consoles between the Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation 2.
Hell, I played the PS2 version of CvS2, and I admit that I had never really heard of this before seeing Richmond_Lee share an old magazine advertisement trying to get players hyped up about the special feature.
On top of talking about “multi-matching,” they list a special modem pack for the PS2 release for 3,000 yen more to play online in 2001 (or around $20 USD today).
This was of course only available in Japan using the KDDI’s multi-matching service, which Capcom had used previously on the Dreamcast presumably in titles like “Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service” a year earlier as one of the very first fighters to natively support online play.
A couple of other titles like Dai Guru Guru Onsen would also support crossplay between Sega and Sony’s consoles but would come out later than CvS2.
Dreamcast even had crossplay with PS2. It was pound for pound one of the best, most innovative systems ever. The Dreamcast didn’t fail. The world failed the Dreamcast. pic.twitter.com/mqJ1Ijc0D6
— Art-Eater (@Richmond_Lee) June 16, 2024
It would have been mind boggling to see this feature come westward back then, but that would have also been a doomed venture considering the Dreamcast had already been discontinued earlier in 2001.
The Xbox and GameCube versions of CvS2 did release later, which is where many people may have experienced their first fighting games online along with the likes of Mortal Kombat: Deception, and Street Fighter Anniversary Collection (on Xbox).
Those of course were not crossplay compatible (and considering what connections were like in the U.S. at the time may have been for the best anyway).
Game Watch still has a press release from Capcom in 2001 online stating that the multi-matching technology offers “low lag in low latency environments” to make action-packed multiplayer possible.
We’re not quite clear how the service worked exactly since the release says there’s no need to apply for an internet provider and just needed a modem to play (so there may well have been subscription or pay to play fees to battle foes on the internet).
Interestingly, it goes on to say that Capcom plans to develop games to allow four or more players to connect simultaneously and make more popular titles compatible with the internet on consoles as well as PC.
It’s difficult to say what the PS2 to Dreamcast connections would have been like back in 2001, but they probably weren’t very spectacular compared to modern rollback netcode (although still likely better in Japan than what was available on early Xbox Live in the U.S. at the time).
Online fighting games themselves date back almost 30 years now to at least the release of the XBAND service in 1994/1995, which unofficially brought the multiplayer services to titles like Mortal Kombat 3, Super Street Fighter 2, Primal Rage, Killer Instinct and of course Weaponlord across the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.
That service saw very limited success and was discontinued in 1997 except some dedicated fans apparently managed to resurrect it.
Funnily enough, XBAND had a big issue with rage quitters even back then where players would simply unplug their modem adapter to the point the company had to implement a system to detect that and distribute wins and losses after a disconnect.
The Dreamcast was ahead of its time in regards to internet-related features and pioneered crossplay between console and PC too, but CvS2 appears to be the first successful attempt connecting competing consoles.
Plenty of game companies would make their first attempts at online connectivity in the PS2, DC, Xbox and GameCube era though it wouldn’t become an expectation for fighting games until the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era where we’d see a mixture of bare bones offerings and wild experimentation.
And even then, it took until around 2020 for most Japanese developers to get fully on board with using rollback netcode over the previous delay-based tech.
Although their last crossover game came out in 2003 with SVC: Chaos, the chances for a Capcom vs. SNK 3 have arguably never been higher than now with Fatal Fury’s Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui coming to Street Fighter 6 as DLC characters.
The lead developers for SF6 have also discussed both parties being interested in doing more in the future too while The King of Fighters 15 is gearing up some “special character development” that some fans suspect may be a Street Fighter / Capcom team for them too.
The future is unknown as to what’s coming as the next big thing for fighting games, but the past remains forever fascinating and full of things to learn about.
And though not much remains of Capcom vs. SNK 2’s crossplay venture that’s become the standard for video games as a whole now, there is at least a commercial that’s survived online to help take us back to 2001.