Even though Street Fighter IV arcade cabinets haven't officially gone on sale in the U.S., that hasn't kept North American fans and certain arcade establishments from getting caught up in SFIV import fever.

But Capcom kindly reminds U.S. arcades that importing pricey, gray market SFIV arcade boards isn't exactly lawful.

Noting that enterprising individuals have imported SFIV boards for personal use, Capcom's Chris Kramer added, "Nothing is keeping arcade owners in the U.S. from following suit, except for import laws."

While individual fans have found ways to get their hands on bootleg boards, there have also been scattered sightings of the game being placed in public venues, such as the San Jose State University Student Union.

"Technically, what they are doing is illegal and could get them in legal trouble from both Capcom and several different branches of the federal government," Kramer said.

But would Capcom ever actually prosecute illegal SFIV importers?

"I think people running operations like that run a greater risk of getting into trouble with the federal government than with Capcom," he replied. "But there would be precedent if we chose to [prosecute].

"...Officially, we would not ever encourage the gray market import of our products."

Nevertheless, Kramer, who serves as Capcom's community and communications boss and runs the Capcom Unity blog, doesn't want to completely rain on the SFIV parade.

"You’ll see several blog posts on Capcom Unity about SFIV arcade sightings across North America. It’s interesting to our community to see SFIV in the wild here in the U.S., since we’re still not sure when or if the game will be officially released in arcades here."

And even Kramer is dumfounded as to how some individuals in North America are able to acquire SFIV, with one fan even confirmed to have hooked up a gray market board to a monitor at his own house.

"I don't know how this works," said Kramer, "but resourceful Street Fighter devotees in the U.S. have clearly been able to purchase [gray market] boards from overseas without having to order four stand-up cabinets," which is a requirement when buying direct from Capcom.

"Most of these Asian operations are charging a few grand per board, and people have to buy a pair."

Pic courtesy AkihabaraNews.com