doctajoe
[08] Mercenary
I think Soul Calibur VI will be the Street Fighter IV of the SC series. There are a lot of comparisons you can make between the releases of the SF games and SC games.
Street Fighter 2 was the most popular and iconic game in the series. Soul Calibur 2 is probably the most liked gsme in the SC series.
Street Fighter 3 introduced significant new mechanics and scrapped most of its characters, hurting it sales and popularity wise. Soul Calibur V changed a lot too and scrapped a bunch of fan favorite characters, also hurting it sales wise.
Street Fighter IV went back to SF2's more loved and iconic character roster and gameplay (with some new mechanics) and was a massive success. So logically, Project Soul and Namco would look at that and bring back what fans loved about SC2 (and the good bits of 3/4). The gameplay, the characters, the unlockables, single player modes. That stuff will get you back the core audience.
Also, another little parallel you could draw, though I may be reaching more with this one.
SF3 > SF2HD > SF4 (similar to SF2)
SCV > SC2HD > SCVI (similar to SC2?)
Pattern?
A lot of speculation but yeah, I feel like the time will be right in 2016 for a Soul Calibur VI. It'll look gorgeous (SC1, 2, 4 looked beautiful and sold very well), it'll have had a nice gap since SCV to allow for a reboot and to not feel stale. And most importantly, it would give the team time to make the game and not rush it.
Street Fighter 2 was the most popular and iconic game in the series. Soul Calibur 2 is probably the most liked gsme in the SC series.
Street Fighter 3 introduced significant new mechanics and scrapped most of its characters, hurting it sales and popularity wise. Soul Calibur V changed a lot too and scrapped a bunch of fan favorite characters, also hurting it sales wise.
Street Fighter IV went back to SF2's more loved and iconic character roster and gameplay (with some new mechanics) and was a massive success. So logically, Project Soul and Namco would look at that and bring back what fans loved about SC2 (and the good bits of 3/4). The gameplay, the characters, the unlockables, single player modes. That stuff will get you back the core audience.
Also, another little parallel you could draw, though I may be reaching more with this one.
SF3 > SF2HD > SF4 (similar to SF2)
SCV > SC2HD > SCVI (similar to SC2?)
Pattern?
A lot of speculation but yeah, I feel like the time will be right in 2016 for a Soul Calibur VI. It'll look gorgeous (SC1, 2, 4 looked beautiful and sold very well), it'll have had a nice gap since SCV to allow for a reboot and to not feel stale. And most importantly, it would give the team time to make the game and not rush it.