Capcom goes eSports - Street Fighter V's "the only disc you'll ever have to buy"

[Lionpaw]

Check it out here.

Capcom has revealed that Street Fighter V will look to bring its eSports community out of the shadows when it releases next year.

The eSports community is something that has slowly become a global phenomenon. It rakes in around $252 million a year in global revenue and has approximately 113 million hardcore fans worldwide. Therefore, the games of the future have a responsibility to cater to this audience.

In an interview with MCV, Capcom’s EMEA brand manager Brian Ayers discussed just how next year’s reinvented Street Fighter hopes to capture its eSports community.

“The ambitions with Street Fighter V were to make the game approachable and accessible again,” he said. “We really hope that Street Fighter V can bring in a newer, younger audience. Perhaps more of an eSports audience, as well. Street Fighter is actually one of the first eSports titles out there, but it’s relatively underground compared to the likes of Dota 2 and League of Legends.”

In order to bring the Street Fighter series onto the main eSports stage, Ayers believes it’s important to first cut out the series’ re-releases in order to create a level playing field for competitors.

The past decade has seen an entire host of Street Fighter spin-offs, including ‘Ultra’ and ‘Super’ editions of Street Fighter IV. These can often lead to confusion as fans find themselves picking which edition suits their play style best.

“You won’t get Super Street Fighter V or Ultra Street Fighter V. It will just be that core release, which will hopefully make it more accessible so people aren't questioning which version they have to buy.”

Ayers also explained that Street Fighter V’s core release game will “essentially be the only disc you’ll ever need to buy.” The base game will be expanded upon as time goes on, with new characters, features and any updates the community feels are needed.

As well as limiting confusion amongst players as to which instalment they should purchase, this decision will also help to make sure that, as of next year, there’ll be one universal base from which to experience Street Fighter.

Creating a base such as this should allow the Street Fighter community to come together and battle one another across one version of the game. Put simply, it sounds like the perfect way to cater to the ever-increasing number of eSports competitors and spectators.

Street Fighter V is scheduled to release on February 16 next year, for PlayStation 4 and PC.
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So what do you think? It will also be cross-platform which I think is an interesting decision. Playing against PS4 players on my PC sounds cool.

[dope_danny]

While i am tempted to post a Slowpoke image since they announced this a long, long time ago it wasnt surprising even then. Capcoms lost a lot of money with huge critical flops like Resident Evil 6 and have been in a mad dash this year to find new strategies to fix it. The biggest one they touted to shareholders was how Monster Hunter 4 Ultimates free year of dlc was a big hit that kept it selling to the point it passed over a million units in the west alone. Now they put out street fighter and never have to pay to design, bug fix, print, ship and biggest of all: advertise another version of SFV ever. They print the discs once and the rest is all online unlocks, no player ever feels the need to "hold off till the ultra version" and no player ever gets left behind with an old 'redundant' version.

I think it comes from a money saving, and kind of face saving place, on capcoms part but in the long run i think its a good thing for ips like Street Fighter and Monster Hunter.

Theres been some complaints when it was first unveiled months ago that "make it all free if you earn in game tokens or charge to get it all now" was "chasing that league of legends esports money" but the really hardcore evo crowd will be playing enough to unlock it for free anyway. If whales buy it, pay to unlock it all day one and capcom makes bank while the rest of us get it for free i see it was a win win.

[SL1200]

I haven't played it in a long time. The arcade version of street fighter 2 is my all time favorite fighting game.

[Mechazod]

I have no problem with this as long as they occasionally, when re-printing the game, include the current, new content in the base game already available.

[dope_danny]

I have no problem with this as long as they occasionally, when re-printing the game, include the current, new content in the base game already available.

By the sounds of it this is exactly what they WONT do. To save costs they release once and everything in future is digital updates of small packets eg fighters, skins, namebar icons and so on. You unlock it by playing the game and earning their ingame currency, lets say 'bisondollars', and over time you earn everything by playing and never pay another dime. OR you pay real money to unlock it like a season pass.

Either way there will only ever be one Street Fighter V disc and if you want juri you play and earn enough coins to unlock her or pay real money for the 'season 1' character pack.

[Tidezen]

I do hope this game takes off... SFII was one of the biggest games of my teenage years, and this'll be the first time in ten years that I've played an SF game. BECAUSE IT'S ON PC! So stoked about that. Heck, now that I'm going to be buying a gamepad anyway, I might have to get into Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat again too, then I can relive ALL the fighting games of my youth. Now, if they'd just make a new Soul Calibur...my fighting game life would be complete.

As for e-sports, I don't watch any Starcraft or MOBAs. But I do set aside a weekend each summer to watch the EVO fighting game championships. I think fighting games are the most natural as an esport, because it's an actual sport in real life. It might be a good time for them to take off, since MMA became big recently.

[Tech614]

I do hope this game takes off... SFII was one of the biggest games of my teenage years, and this'll be the first time in ten years that I've played an SF game. BECAUSE IT'S ON PC!

SF4 was on PC...

[Lionpaw]

The hype is real:

http://shoryuken.com/2015/12/01/stre...n-december-17/

[Tidezen]

SF4 was on PC...

Yeah, I totally missed the boat on that one. But back then I was still in the middle of my WoW addiction, so I wasn't paying any attention to other games.

[Hraklea]

I see potential for SF5 to increase the FGC community (SF4 was excessively complicated and pretty much ressurrected fighting games), but it will never be as big as LoL.

[Usagi Senshi]

Yeah, I totally missed the boat on that one. But back then I was still in the middle of my WoW addiction, so I wasn't paying any attention to other games.

Yeah, I stopped playing Capcom vs SNK 2, DoA Ultimate, Guilty Gear XX, KoF 2003, Capcom Fighting Evolution, and SNK vs Capcom online matches shortly after WoW launched. Wish I hadn't lost my edge and I stopped doing local small time tourneys (I used an Xbox/PS2 custom made stick at the time with a gunmetal Metal Slug girls theme).

I did buy SF4 though and beat all of the story bits on the 360 version back in early 2009 but my steam version is left unplayed. I will be taking a healthy shot at SF5 online though. I even have another stick (360 Soul Calibur V stick) I slightly modified with a circular gate and new buttons. I currently use it for most 2D games on Steam.

[Lionpaw]

but it will never be as big as LoL.

Why don't you think so?

[Tidezen]

...

Yeah, one disadvantage fighting games have is being 1v1. With team-based games you can at least go in and be carried by your teammates while you're learning the ropes.

With fighting games, you really want to play versus the AI for a bit while you learn what to do. For someone like me that's actually fun, but I know a lot of people want to fight other players right off the bat. I also know a lot of us got into fighting games in the first place by playing with friends in RL, sitting on the couch. It's much easier to learn in that environment, playing a single person in multiple matches, because you'll start to pick up patterns and habits. Learning to read what your opponent's doing is far easier when you're not going against someone totally different every time.

Now that fighting games all have online play, having a rich, deep matchmaking system is essential to keep newcomers from being blown away at first. Fortunately, the SF community is one of the most helpful ones around--partly because it's much smaller than LoL or similar games--the community really wants new people to come in and learn. Partly because the game has such a long and storied history (Street Fighter turns 30 in 2017), so you've got an entire generation of players willing to help bring new blood in. Hell, players my age even have kids who are old enough to get into it.

I think you're right in that it will never be a big as MOBAs, for the reasons you stated. But I do think fighting games could see a lot of growth in the coming years.

[Usagi Senshi]

Nope, I was always playing against people in the arcade or online (Xbox 2003) as everyone I knew couldn't play a 2D fighting game at all and I usually pounded them.

Still don't see the appeal of mobas as they play like crappier version of a Diablo game but as if you're running atop a gum covered arena. Plus I hate having to earn my skills back each match even if its fast. Now if they were all fast paced like Smite+ fightning game mechanics or something like Powerstone, that would make them more amazing and fun to me.