When Nintendo secured home console exclusivity for Street Fighter 2 in the early 1990s, it sent shockwaves through the gaming world.
Capcom's one-on-one fighter was the world's biggest game at the time, and whichever home system got the first port was going to benefit massively – and I imagine many people picked up the SNES purely to play the game.
However, according to Steve Garwood, former president of Turbo Technologies, Inc. and Turbo Zone Direct, Street Fighter 2 was almost exclusive to the TurboGrafx-16.
TTI was a joint venture between PC Engine creators NEC and Hudson to distribute the console in North America under the TurboGrafx-16 branding. Turbo Zone Direct, meanwhile, was an entity established to oversee the distribution of the TurboGrafx-16, Turbo Duo, and Turbo Express in North America after TTI withdrew from the market.
Speaking to the Retro Game Club, Garwood claims that TTI had the chance to lock down Street Fighter 2 for its console, but by the time the deal was being discussed, his bosses in Japan were planning a retreat from North America due to the poor sales of the TurboGrafx line.
"It should have been ours," says Garwood. "We had it in our pocket. It was to be a Turbo exclusive. We were this close to getting it exclusive. It would have been big."
Street Fighter 2 was released on NEC and Hudson's hardware, but only in Japan; the PC Engine received a port of the updated Street Fighter II: Champion Edition in June 1993.
For reference, the SNES port of the original game launched in June 1992 in Japan and July 1992 in North America, so, taking the timing into account, it could be that Garwood is referring to exclusivity on Champion Edition, which also came out on the Sega Genesis in September 1993 as Special Champion Edition, and not the original version of the game. After all, it's been a long time since all this happened.