[ DEV's ] Where is K9999, was there a copyright issue with him?

[Zaraki Snakenoman]

can someone answer this?

[Miggoh]

AFAIK SNK simply didn't like K9999. There's no real copyright issue with him. Mainly ethical.

[Knight of The Wind]

No real copyright as far as I know but SNK is small now and they can't afford a POTENTIAL lawsuit form the creators of Akira, so it's safer to just reinvent him as a new character.

[sbkMulletMan]

Maybe it was a clever way of saying that even literally naming a character "nameless" is better than "K9999". Or maybe they felt Ryo and Mini-Krueger were "homage" to other characters enough and felt they could use one less.

[RedBatman]

Tetsuo from Akira, same voice actor too.

[Shui]

I believe K9999 came as a result of SNK's alliance with Eolith back in 2001. If I remember correctly, someone at Eolith was friends with the creator of Akira and thus got the approval to make a character as a homage to Tetsuo.

SNK is no longer with Eolith, so instead of touching a gray area, they decided to repurpose K9999 as a more original character, Nameless.

I'd say this is what he shoulda been all along. K9999 was a silly idea but Nameless is pretty damn cool. Same moveset anyway, just better design.

[Daikatan]

just better design

That's subjective.
For me nameless look more generic and not as psycho as k999

[vortex]

They said the door isn't closed on K9999 making a return in the future, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[wizard_[ttv]]

Simply put, they just don't want to use him.