In an interview with 4gamer.net, Yoshinori Ono says there won't be a PC version because the vanilla version was so heavily pirated. He also says a Steam-Only version is out of the question because it would be unfair to regions who don't have access to Steam.
 
4gamers.net link (in Japanese)
andriasang.com link (English translated)

What bullshit, damn pirates won't let me have a perfect version with perfect graphics. So much for supporting the game since I bought a copy of street fighter 4.

I understand if they don't release a version that can be pirated, but the logic for not having a steam version makes no sense.

Pathetic excuse. It sold strong on PC...so lets not release the next version. Yep, makes perfect sense.

I thought that game sold a crap load on PC. Apparently if your developing on the PC, your scapegoat is gonna be the pirates. Is that the fad now? I'm really starting to think that pirating is not the issue. It's the fact that fighting games aren't meant for PC. And this is coming from someone who buys most of his games on the PC.

" I understand if they don't release a version that can be pirated, but the logic for not having a steam version makes no sense. "

Well dont worry you'll always have an arcade to go to and play it.

$10 says he sacrificed a PC release to appease MS who're probably not thrilled at how strongly SF4 sold on PC.  MS have a vested interest in keeping as many exclusives on PC as they can.
 
@bwmcmaste said:

" @zudthespud said:

" I understand if they don't release a version that can be pirated, but the logic for not having a steam version makes no sense. "

I would probably interpret it as, "we don't want to deal with Valve, and we can't distribute it on our own with confidence: So there will be none of this high falutin' digital distribution crap!"  "

Would anyone even want to play SF on a PC?

" Would anyone even want to play SF on a PC? "

Makes sense, the online was junk and it was pirated up the wazoo. It makes little sense to spend time optimizing a port where the majority of people are going to pirate it.

That's a bummer. Doesn't affect me directly but I know people who only game on PC who would have been interested in it. 

This isn't surprising with all the people that pirate. I honestly don't think I know anyone who bought a PC game in the past few years. Everyone just torrents them. 

PC gamers reap what they sow, so no sympathy here.  Game companies aren't charities.

Too bad, I was waiting on a PC version so I could try out all the crazy character moveset swaps people were doing with vanilla on PC. Minus one sale, Capcom...

What a shame.

I started with the PC version then got the PS3 and working on the XBOX next. In all honesty, the more time would pass the better the game would actually get. With computers life spans being so short, you also have more of a uniform platform for everyone to play on really.. It'd be sick to have a game like 3rd strike be officially released.. Not sure what exact percentages it would be but I would imagine it could be huge.. I'm actually goign to play PC, PSN is down all day so I'll visit vanilla for a bit with sim..   I don't think Ono understand how steam works.. Someone should break it down for him.

Always disappointing to hear about this kind of thing. I had no intention of buying it or pirating it, but still a shame for the platform.  
@xyzygy said:

" This isn't surprising with all the people that pirate. I honestly don't think I know anyone who bought a PC game in the past few years. Everyone just torrents them.  "

" PC gamers reap what they sow, so no sympathy here.  Game companies aren't charities. "

To be fair, it is highly unlikely Ono's decision to make as to what platforms the game is released on. Almost everyone has higher ups to answer to and it's just the suits at Capcom being a bit on the retarded side of things.  
 
Often times i get the impression that Capcom Japan is going through some growing pains with the stuff they are putting out and seem to be trying to find a way to please their customers as well as not make the mistakes of the Bionic Commando and Lost Planet 2 games.

I haven't even played SFIV yet... I'm more interested in MK but due to piracy they will never make a PC version *sad face*

Apparently they actually sold fairly well with the first one on the PC. The Super version is not being made due to "moral" reasons, he sees the IP as too precious to be in the hands of pirates, even if they will make a net profit overall and even though it will get the game more exposure.  
 
In other words, he's crazy. 

We don't want to alienate any regions from playing this game on PC, so instead we're going to make sure nobody gets to play it.
 
Cool.

hum de dum let's all pretend that pirates don't outnumber the people who pay for games on pc 10 to 1, so we have a real good excuse to get worked up every time this happens.

" hum de dum let's all pretend that pirates don't outnumber the people who pay for games on pc 10 to 1, so we have a real good excuse to get worked up every time this happens. "

:( 
There's other digital distribution methods, like Direct 2 Drive, that could reach all of those without Steam... Please Capcom....Please....

That is pretty messed up.

Bummer, but I kinda had the feeling this would be the excuse for no PC version. The capcom higher ups probably looked at the piracy numbers and decided to just force everyone to buy a console version. The steam comment made no sense at all however. But we'll see what happens about 4 months from now just like last time.

do they even have to "port" it?  i would imagine SF is developed on PC for arcade reasons. Aren't  arcade machines just PCs with fancy boxes around them? even more so now than in the past. 
 
 I remember before vanilla came out Jeff saying  "it will come out on PC because its developed on PC for arcades to begin with".

When I think about the fighting genre, I don't particularly think of PC platform.

 For cases like these I actually wish that Steam had a "Buy by petition" system. It combines two things PC gamers love. Geting ports of good games and signing up for petition. 
 
The way it could work is that people could put their money down for the game and if they have enough before a certain time the game gets ported and released. It should be a no brainer for them to port SSFIV since they already did it for SFIV and the petition system would ensure that they would be profitable since they can set the amount at which that happens. They would even get free marketing from the PC gamers who would want the port to happen. 

 PC gamers are getting screwed.

@chrissedoff: I remember one of the bigger torrent trackers releasing a statement saying that SF4 was pirated more on consoles than it was for the PC.

" This isn't surprising with all the people that pirate. I honestly don't think I know anyone who bought a PC game in the past few years. Everyone just torrents them.  "

" @xyzygy said:

" This isn't surprising with all the people that pirate. I honestly don't think I know anyone who bought a PC game in the past few years. Everyone just torrents them.  "

You need better friends. "

" hum de dum let's all pretend that pirates don't outnumber the people who pay for games on pc 10 to 1, so we have a real good excuse to get worked up every time this happens. "

Also, Steam is localized into like 19 different languages.. if you can't understand ONE of them, odds are you arn't the PC gaming type.

haha cool number dude   did you know 1 out of a 100 people kick kittens for fun? "

"  @chrissedoff: I remember one of the bigger torrent trackers releasing a statement saying that SF4 was pirated more on consoles than it was for the PC. Yes, it is harder to pirate, and thus the ratio is lower, this means there are more people pirating games on consoles than on PC. It's like whether you think a nation's GDP or Per Capita is more important.  Piracy is a buzzword issue that will never be solved. The PC gaming market is very different from consoles for multiple reasons, yes, piracy being really easy is one of them, but not the only one. You can't take the same approach with selling games on the PC platform as you do with consoles and just expect it to work. But it's easy to blame piracy for when a game doesn't sell on the PC, because it's your excuse to say, "Oh! Well! Obviously my game is great and should have sold, but it didn't! People MUST be playing my/our game (because it's so great, did I mention how great it is?), but they're just not paying for it!"  What offends me and a whole lot of PC gamers on this specific example is the fact that the way the Ono interview was presented, it was implied that he does not want the game to be considered "Free" to certain people. When piracy happens on consoles just as much, if not moreso than the PC (and watch PS3 piracy numbers skyrocket here pretty soon now that PS3 has jailbreaking), it's evident that the PC platform is suddenly going to suffer because of the perception of a problem, rather than an actual problem. "