Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is the first new game in the series in 26 years. SNK Corporation has poured a lot of money into it from a marketing and advertising standpoint, but it doesn’t appear to have paid dividends, and now SNK’s CEO has stepped down barely a month after its release.
You might have seen Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves advertised somewhere. It was all over WWE’s ring during Wrestlemania weekend, it’s been heavily promoted on the internet and YouTube, and SNK Corporation went all in on the franchise’s first new release in a quarter of a century.
Low Steam numbers and sales have led to the company’s CEO being transitioned to a new role already.
Fatal Fury: City of The Wolves Flops, CEO Steps Down
Cristiano Ronaldo is a playable fighter in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Many world-renowned DJs also helped to fashion the game’s soundtrack. Along with its aggressive marketing campaign, Fatal Fury didn’t pull its punches on any front.
However, on May 12—not long removed from the game’s April 24 release date—SNK Corporation made a statement.
“SNK today announced that Mr. Kenji Matsubara will transition to an advisory role, where he will continue to lend his expertise and vision.
During his tenure as CEO, Mr. Matsubara has been instrumental in driving the company’s growth and innovation.
He transformed SNK by expanding its development division and strengthening its sales and marketing functions, building it into a global publisher capable of competing worldwide.
As part of this transition, the board will appoint the Chairman of the board to assume the interim role of CEO.
The board expresses its deepest gratitude to Mr. Matsubara for his dedication and leadership during a transformative period in the company’s history.
SNK Corporation remains committed to its strategic vision and is excited about the future as it enters this new phase of leadership.”
Fatal Fury’s all-time Steam player count has only hit 4,592, and in Japan, the game had only shifted 10,000 copies on PlayStation by the end of its second week. It remains to be seen if the game receives a boost in the future, or if it’s already DOA.
Are you one of the seemingly rare players to buy Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves? How does it compare to other contemporaries such as Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8? Let us know through the Insider Gaming forum.
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Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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