Regardless of clever art style or numerous stages of gameplay options, a fighting game is nothing without a diverse roster of playable characters. Throw not one but two fighting games into the mix — like with Street Fighter X Tekken — and you’re left with a developer who, like a Varsity Football coach, is forced to decide which players make the cut.

While we had thought that the roster for Street Fighter X Tekken was pretty well wrapped up, a new image for the game has popped up on the Xbox Live Marketplace that suggests otherwise. The image in question outs M. Bison, ostensibly one of the major villains of the SF franchise, and Ling Xiaoyu, a relatively new addition to the Tekken franchise, as playable characters.

M. Bison seems like a no-brainer for the Street Fighter X Tekken roster given his long running connection to the franchise, in fact it’s more surprising he wasn’t revealed earlier. Ling Xiaoyu on the other hand has grown into not just a representative of the strong female fighters in Tekken, but in video games in general.

There has, however, been no official announcement in regards to these two characters, only a pretty convincing image, which we have included below. With the addition of Bison and Xiaoyu, Street Fighter X Tekken players will be able to select 15 from either franchise, but done up in the Capcom art style.

Street Fighter X Tekken Image (M Bison and Ling Xiaoyu)

Those who purchase the game for Vita, though, will also gain access to Cole from Sony’s inFAMOUS franchise and Toro and Kuro, two popular anthropomorphic animals in Japan.

With the game not slated to release until March of this year, there’s still plenty of time for Capcom to announce new additions to the roster, as well as to confirm Bison and Ling Xiaoyu. As it stands right now the developer is headed in the right direction with a pretty diverse selection of fan favorites.

Who has yet to be announced for the Street Fighter X Tekken roster that you would like to see make the cut? Will Capcom hold off on a more robust roster in favor of post-release DLC?

Street Fighter X Tekken is targeting a March 6, 2012 release for the PS3, Xbox 360, Vita, and PC.

Source: Xbox Live Marketplace (via Joystiq)