Short and sweet: Thanks to this picture in a recent tweet from Harada's Twitter we now know that Namco knows we exist. Get hype!

In case you can't tell, look at what Katsuhiro Harada is holding in his hands...

Well for the past week, this website and several others have been ablaze, discussing the possibility of another installment in the Soulcalibur franchise. While Soulcalibur IV was hugely successful outside of Japan, the game was obviously designed to be the last in the series; especially since the word around the rumor mill is that Project Soul, the group responsible for SC3 and SC4 had been disbanded. Last week, Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken franchise for Namco dropped the bomb that he would only look into another Soulcalibur game if it appeared to him that there was enough interest.

While some may have thought Harada was simply trying to boost his twitter following; this community banded together, with the help of other fighting game communities to show Harada that the interest still exists. In less than a week, 3,000 people signed the Facebook petition to prove to him that we still...

With the success of some community driven fighting games, it seems that Namco has realized that they too should try to be a bit more active amongst their respective fighting game communities. Since then Katsuhiro Harada, the producer for the Tekken and Soulcalibur series has been very active in talking with his fans. A few days ago, one of our local veterans, Enkindu, discovered a short mention of Soulcalibur on Harada-san's twitter. In short, he mentioned that Namco could possibly put work into a new Soulcalibur game if the interest was high enough.

Well since then, several members of these forums have been sending tweets to Harada, asking him for the game, showing him that there is indeed an interest in a sequel. Well as of one hour ago, it seems that Harada has informally responded to my tweet in which I requested a new Soulcalibur game, and that he involve the folks here at 8WayRun. I'm not sure if Namco even knew we existed, so I felt it worth mentioning. While not making...

As you can see, there has been some changes here at 8WR. We are now running the most current version of vBulletin4. The main reason for this upgrade was for security reasons, but with the upgrade comes a lot of changes, hopefully for the better. I really have no interest in going over them all, so I'm sure you all with figure them out in time.

As it stands, the upgrade isn't complete. Naturally I have a lot of styling work to do in order to get this website to look a bit more similar to our old styles. For now, I have released this new version as it stands so that the downtime on these forums would be minimal. I've been preparing for this upgrade for a few months now, so bugs should be few and far between; nevertheless, you should keep me informed of any issues you find.

Of course, we have also lost a few features in the upgrade. I have removed the arcade system; it just seems pointless and I don't see any reason to bring it back. As well, the online tournaments and ladder...

Important note from 8WR's official hypeman Malice

There's alot of people out there who are either unaware that Hilde/Algol were banned from tournament play, do not know what the current ruleset is for Soul Calibur, or have no idea where on the site to find the current ruleset.

If you happen to be one of those people, then this friendly reminder is for you. You can find the current ruleset within the Wiki section of 8WayRun.com under Frequently Asked Questions. From there, you can see the standard rules and that Hilde/Algol have been banned from tournaments for Soul Calibur 4.

http://8wayrun.com/wiki/tournament-ruleset/

You all heard the man. Now get hype and get ready for FSAK!

SC4's last big tournament on the East Coast hosted by IdleMind is coming soon. As many of you 8WRers as possible should attend. Check the thread for all the necessary info: FSAK main thread

Specific information about the side tournaments can be found here: Side tournaments thread

Vote on the entry fee and which side tourneys you'd like. Be sure to read the first post thoroughly. Nearby hotel info is up as well. Also keep track of who may be coming and who is confirmed with my list: FSAK hype list

Recolors thread First 50 come, first 50 served...