In December 2014, Capcom announced its exclusive partnership with PlayStation for the release of Street Fighter 5 on their home console. They also later announced that the game will only ever release on the PS4 with no plans to release it on other consoles in the future. Naturally, this spurred a backlash within the Street Fighter community, particularly with gamers who don’t have a PS4.

We recently had a chat with Yoshinori Ono, the executive producer of the upcoming title and long time Capcom employee, and asked him to weigh in on this decision.

“Last year, I think it was on the 5th of December, I was in Las Vegas for the Sony conference where we announced the game and announced that it was going to be PS4 exclusive,” Ono said. “Within 60 seconds my Twitter feed exploded with people typing the “F” word at me in various iterations. By this time, it’s settled. Either they’ve gotten tired of typing it or they’ve somewhat come around to see why we’ve partnered with Sony this way and why we’ve gone through a platform that lets us have cross play between the console and the PC version.”

The reasoning, Ono explained, is not so much in the power of the machine itself as it doesn’t differ all that much from other current-gen machines, but rather the services, the OS, and the flexible online system. They were particularly keen on the versatile nature of the online services of the PS4 as it was important for them to have the best online gaming experience possible to carry the torch from the one in Street Fighter 4. So far, Capcom has been pleased with what the PS4 online capabilities have allowed them to do with the game. They hope to further refine the game with the feedback that they’re getting from the current beta online.

“I’d like to think that hopefully in the meantime some people might have bought a PS4 and they’ve realized it’s a great platform,” Ono continued. “Or maybe once they’ve heard of the exclusivity they’ve gone and bought one to play Street Fighter 5, who knows?”

What do you think of the PS4 exclusivity? Sound off in the comments below.