"X-Men vs. Street Fighter" debuted in Japan in September 1996 for the CP System II arcade board, and was released worldwide later on in 1996. The game received a port to the Sega Saturn in Japan on November 27, 1997. The port was the first game announced to support the Saturn's 4MB RAM cartridge. It utilized the cartridge peripheral, which was packaged alongside the game, to deliver an arcade-perfect conversion. Though Capcom USA said the game would eventually come out in the U.S., it was never officially released in North America due to the Saturn's low sales numbers in the North American market. An imported version was sold at certain Electronics Boutique locations. Sega had initially intended to release the game in Europe bundled with the expansion cartridge; however, these plans were eventually shelved.