You make good points; however, most of your presumptions are made on the notion that the majority of customers will value quality game-play over all else. You also seem to presume that Capcom is seeking to match the other brands' feature flexibility.

Generally, most players are average, and would rather have a lobby to talk 5hit to their buddies, rather than appreciate fine-tuned game-play (that only a very above-average player could appreciate).

Financially, Capcom needs to move quickly in order to 'counter' this month's Tekken 6 release; otherwise, everyone will be getting Tekken6 for Christmas. If Capcom releases SSFIV, by mid November/early December, they have a 'fighting chance,' to dominate the genre, especially with SFIV's momentum. If not, then this 'information leak' was not really a leak at all. Capcom realized that they couldn't make the release deadline, and decided to give this information to the SF fans as something to look forward to, and perhaps hold off on moving onto 'the next big thing.'

SSF4 will not release this year and that's a fact. You'd be surprised how many people appreciate a good netcode and it is required in order to have a good lobby experience with several people. Also, I know people who have loved street fighter for years but still play average and try to improve.

In the end of the day, it's what many people want and what is needed to keep up with competition otherwise why would people purchase it if they can get those features in other games where as ssf4 might not have it. Time will tell.

I'm not disagreeing with your opening points; in fact, I think netcodes can make/break the online gaming aspect of any game. I'd like to see the same implementations; however, Capcom can't really advertise better netcodes to the majority of the average/casual fan-base. For example, if you were to tell a group of kids that SSFIV will be exactly the same as SFIV, except it'll have better netcodes, they'll think it's a rip-off to spend another $50 on that.

I realize that I'm being very pessimistic; however, usually companies don't look at what their die-hard fans want at all; rather, they want to appeal to the mainstream and majority, in order to make the most money possible, appealing to the broadest fan-base.

If SSFIV is not coming out this year, then I can only presume that this leak was deliberate, coming out only 28 days before Tekken 6's release. While each brand definitely has its fan-base, as you've said in your above letter, there's fierce competition amongst the brands.

P.S. I agree, the skill of the player has nothing to do with whether or not they're a long-time/die-hard fan. I'm not sure how you've construed that I'd phrased otherwise.

I know if they only add the netcode and nothing else, people wouldn't buy it, but we don't have to worry about that. SSF4 will have 8+ characters, new moves and better balance plus new modes. In the ned of the day after you're done playing arcade, survival and all that, all there is left is online. That's where you can find competition and that's the whole point of a fighting game. I don't think you need to be hardcore to appreciate a good netcode. Casual are used to playing lagless in FPS so they get annoyed as well when playing online. I think you're underestimating how many people care about this issue.
Also, have you not read all the news and information about SSF4 (including the spring 2010 release date)? Have you read any of the interviews about the game? the news is everywhere on the internet so I don't know why you expected a release this year. Forget about the leaks cause they are meaningless unless capcom gives official word.

So we agree on that better netcodes alone -while vital to any fighting game - won't sell SSFIV. The statements that I'd made earlier relating to prioritization of features was based on my incorrect assumption of a winter '09 release.

To answer your question, I've read some of the forum topics pertaining to potential characters ; however, I didn't think it would be beneficial to look for a fact (the release date), based on a rumor. Can you send me the link to the interviews you're speaking of?

Now that you've mentioned it, indeed I agree with you that anything that will make game-play smoother on the PSN deserves to be prioritized, especially since Capcom is not pushing a tight deadline (Although I've always viewed the lag issue to be a PSN connection stability issue). Lag typically occurs as a result of data stream rates. With 'lighter-weight' games, such as HD Remix, the data stream fluctuations are less noticeable. Modifying the netcodes may come at the expense of graphics or sound performance; this may not be something that will appeal to the mainstream. I remember Paul talking about how some PC gamers are putting their settings on 'very high,' which created intense lag. Perhaps making some similar in-game online adjustable settings...

That being said, I'd say that 95% of Xbox Live matches are completely lag-free; so, the netcode tweaking should be PSN specific.