It’s been a while since the previous SoulCalbur game, and producer Motohiro Okubo talked about how the next installment took a lot of convincing to start, and how it could possibly be the last if it isn’t successful.
Speaking to DualShockers at Gamescom 2018, Okubo explained the SoulCalibur brand’s troubles:
“The first thing is that the IP itself of the SoulCalibur franchise had low expectations from the company. It was actually facing a crisis of maybe disappearing. It took time for me to convince the company.”
When asked if that means SoulCalibur VI could, in the worst-case scenario, be the last game in the series if it doesn’t do well, and he simply responded with “Yeah, that’s right,” however, the producer wanted to make it clear that he isn’t trying to force players into buying the game, “We don’t want to blackmail the users by saying that it could be the last one, but as it is, yes.”
Okubo was also asked whether the team had any doubt in retaining the level of fanservice from the previous games, to which he said the crisis SoulCalibur is facing played a role in that as well, as the team decided to stick to what they wanted to do:
“Since the SoulCalibur brand is facing a crisis, we have nothing to lose, so we just decided to do what we want to do.”
That said, Okubo added that team isn’t designing sexy characters just for the sake of making sexy characters:
“However, it’s not like we’re trying to make the characters sexy. When we decide on the costumes, we always think about how best they can represent the characters. Sometimes there may be less fabric and as a result, the character may be sexier, but we’re not trying to make the game focused on sexy characters.”
SoulCalibur VI releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 19, 2018. Producer Motohiro Okubo also talked about the possibilities of releasing a Switch version after launch, which you can read about here.
