I thought of something. These companies tend to make these games appeal to casuals, due to the fact that they cost so much money to make(especially with all the fancy 3d gfx and such now), they tend to try real hard to lure everyone in besides the hardcore players, to try and make more money than simply breaking even. Instead of letting a game be a niche game, they try to appeal to EVERYONE, just to get more money.
Why not do what Kojima did with that new MGS game? Just make deals with companies to let them have advertising put cleverly into the game? You get their support, they get yours, you all make money. Best of all, with how these deals work and advertising, you could make a niche hardcore fighter, and not need to try and dumb the game down for casuals or “appeal to everyone”, since you got your money bases covered. And if you still wanna appeal to casuals, just add shit like a story mode for one player, and lots of extras like new outfits and shit like that.
Like this, say they make SF5. Capcom can do deals with:
McDonalds
Axe
Monster/Red Bull
Versace
so on. Ingame you’d see stages, and some would have shit showing off the logos, for instance, a city stage with you fighting on a rooftop, and you see billboard ads for these companies and their products in the background. Nothing that distracts gamers or fucks with the game, just one of those “hey look at that” type things. Maybe even have custom outfits for characters with some things from the companies, like giving Guy a Monster energy drink themed outfit(like black with neon green stripes and shit), or Ken some Versace shades, or maybe Cody a hoodie from Rocafella or something. That way you can have that in the game, without it fucking things up. Plus, it would make sense, I mean you’d expect to see ads and stuff in a city stage in SF, and why wouldn’t someone like ken or Cody dress real fly in the hottest gear?
Hell, the options screen can even have some logos or something just to have them in there too.