Namco has "no say" in Street Fighter x Tekken

Anytime two massive companies team up, you can expect an armada oflawyers and endless conditions that must appease both parties. Consider Who Framed Roger Rabbit, whereboth Warner Bros and Disney negotiated screentime for Bugs and Mickey down to the second. You'd think Capcom and Namco would have undergone similar discussions when it came time to mix up their hottest properties, but it turns out part of the deal is that Namco can't butt in at all.

Duringa recent hands-on at this month'sCaptivate event, I asked producer Yoshinori Ono what the day-to-day experience was like working on SFxT, if there was a constant back-and-forth between Capcom and Namco. His response:

So it's not just Namco who's shut out - Capcom similarly cannot dictate the upcoming Tekken x Street Fighter, which places the SF fighters in a Tekken-like 3D arena. Kind of amazing, huh? We assumed both teams would have constant communication with each other, giving feedback or criticism or saying "that's not Tekken enough!" on a daily basis. It's an interesting method, one that'll definitely make each game feel like a product of its developmer; that is to say, SFxT will feel decidedly "Capcom" while TxSF will veer much more towards a "Namco" style. Even with this quote though, we have to assume there's some degree of communication between companies, right?