Capcom's Campaign for Casuals: Can SFV win back the mainstream?

Capcom isn’t likely to swallow their pride and do what needs to be done to fix this game.

I don’t care if they issue a public apology or not. Fixing the game would be enough of an apology for me.

That said, they still have a long way to go.

Invent a new WELL thought casual mode (not Omega Mode). Stuff like the Beach Ball mode in Tekken 3, the invisible bodies of Soul Calibur 2 or the mines and electrified walls of World Heroes 2. Even if broken or silly from a competitive perspective, casuals thrive on this for the giggles. One funny screwup involving a random mine into a juggle super could provide them with lots lf laughs and giving them anecdote to remember for ages and to tell to everybody. Best of all, it creates a space where can be casuals while leaving free space to breathe where the competitive ones can stay competitive.

Smash Bros Melee is a good example in that regard. All the new items characters and interactive stages left casuals players room to explore while the competitve minded people reserved themselves for no items Final Destination. Trying to mix both audiences under a single shared experience just brings pain to everybody. Instead of promoting the game by a “even you can beat Daigo” policy that involves dumbing down the game to levels that won’t satisfy them anyway, show them something that lets them them feel they are choosing the more fun way to play while they may watch from the safety of the stream the pros that “somehow find fun among all that spamming of mean projectiles, combos and throws”.

NO

And the developers are gone now.

I’m not sure you can draw in lots of casuals anymore. The the game is six months old already, people have moved on. A “best of” or “game of the year” release might spark some interest but for SFV to be successful in needs a steady playerbase that is going to invest in the game (costumes, characters) months or years from now, not someone who plays arcade mode today and Call of Duty tomorrow.

I think MKX might be an interesting case to look at. NRS lost a lot of credit (to say the least) among PC players because they dropped the PC port of their game, but after they announced the new port they won a lot of people back. Even on launch MKXL barely had half the players SFV had with the launch of Urien, it’s still a lot more than usual.

So here’s some things that Capcom might do in a single big update:

  • a deep netcode overhaul that would improve the stability and finally solve the one-sided lag issue (that was never officially acknowledged by Capcom)
  • Arcade mode and some other single player stuff for the casuals
  • discounts on DLCs and premium costume bundles. Season pass NEVER went on sale and all costumes and stages have always the same price. Instead of having people spending only 4 or 8 bucks for a few costumes they could have them spend 10 or 20 for 4-8 outfits. They really need to erase that image of greedy fuckers if they want people to actually give more money to them.
  • hire other people who can do PR, because haunts really feels pretty alone there

Oh and I agree with javert, I’d fucking pay for a Street Fighter Ball mode. (But don’t tell them)

@OceanMachine

both had nearly the same playercount on release?!
http://steamcharts.com/app/307780
http://steamcharts.com/app/310950

and right now mkx has even more.

Do you guys think Capcom have it in them to give SF5 a single big update though? A lot of what is being proposed here entails some sort of financial risk that Capcom has to take and not fuck up while taking.

I think such a risk is warranted because Street Fighter is one of their flagship franchises, and they can’t afford it having a bad reputation. This is why whatever they do, they need to get on the good side of reviews when a relaunch of sort occurs.

Whatever they do, I don’t think they should ever push out a renamed SF5 title. It’s too much of a risk to be misunderstood as the general public will likely say that Capcom lied once again even if they actually didn’t (since you will still need 1 disc). But I don’t trust people to not misinterpret their behavior.

They also need to revisit the season pass deal a bit. I think it should entail a discount of sorts on all releases for that season in addition to giving characters.

DLC is where the money is and ensuring that the thousands of players are happy and keep paying for years to come is better than trying to attract a resistant and enigmatic segment of the market.

http://i.imgur.com/DM4dwr7.png

http://i.imgur.com/bKuIcyx.png

your point?
people came back becasue of the recent mkxl update patch.
before that they abandoned the game because of the mkxl update fuck up by nr.

A new single player mode that is actually brilliant and fun would go ways to making SFV come back to the casuals. If they can come up with a mode that is fun to play every day for 20 minutes, they have nailed it. Whether it’s some kind of boss rush mode, sidescrolling beat em up, whatever.

Of course, easier said than done.

Also a 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3 mode would be cool too.

It was just an example, cool guy. Not to mention it’s far more interesting than most of the challenges they have out now.

A dramatic battle mode where each fight has unique conditions and unique opponents would do wonders.

World Tour/Championship Mode would be a great alternative for online play because it is single player oriented and not related to league points.

Reinventing character story modes into an arcade mode would also be a good idea.

If you notice it, it’s something that i considered in my “what i will do” list

It’s the biggest low-cost i thought

Copying the list:

[list]
[*]ARCADE Mode.
This is low cost. Notice how i said to don’t use anime intro/ending (wich will mean pay a studio) or CG.
With Bengus designing intro/endings, Arcade is just program a sequence of random fights and then rival/Boss… no big deal, and as image of the product the benefit far surpass the cost.
Most pricy stuff may be program bonus stages, but honestly fuck them (greedy capcom), somewhere you have to spend

[*]SEASON 2 Characters.
This is something they’re going to do anyway, what i suggested is just that i will change the order of theyr return to make Season2 in particular full of marketing-powerful characters.

[*]2ND Critical Arts.
Kinda same argument of characters… we know that at some point 2nd CA will arrive (and likely they have some already done), suggestion is to use them as tools to sell now that are still in time to increase a bit the total sold

[*]COLOR EDIT Mode.
As said iirc SFV colors are already made in a way highly compatible with a Color Edit mode, most they have to do is just create the interface for users.
And aside being another low cost addition that can increase the overal product value for casuals, as i said it can be a chance to $ell colors

[*]FIX UGLY SHIT AND HALF-ASS MAD STUFF.[/list]
Well this as start is something they should do anyway, the franchise deserve better than Ken/Alex crap faces and clipping… but aside that, it will be a little gesture that show they give actual fucks about overall quality
It will be an indirect improvement of the value if you want
Also, let’s be real… a decent 3D modeller will fix most of little ugly things in a couple of days

Not saying it will be free or super cheap, but using brain they could do a big update (specially for casual eyes) with a reasonably low cost

I understand. I just don’t like the idea of having to waste time fighting the AI of this game to get FM (survival already is a torture for me). “Grab someone 10 times” may look pathetic, but at least is something both veterans (online matches) and casuals (vs CPU) can accomplish, and some missions can actually help new players to improve (like that one that requires you to perform a AA 10 times). Maybe, they can create more interesting missions following this philosophy, like: “Deal x amount of damage after a crush counter” or “put your opponent in the corner after x seconds of the beggining of the round”.

The point is, I provided correct information on the very point you were contesting based on the very site you were looking at, so your reply was useless.

It’s not about whether they fuck up or not, it’s about how much.
With SFV alone they shattered my whole faith in the company, the reverse engineering of the capcom.sys provided more joy than the game itself. I don’t even know how it’s possible to screw something up that hard after a failed launch like that. It’s like they’re having a competition, which department can produce the biggest blunder? The artists had a head start with Ken’s face, but the online service (hi@ rage quit) and security guys (signed root0 driver for everyone? pshhhht) stepped up their game. Let’s hope some economics-prodigy-management-genius won’t try to take the crown.

Just give us something. Please.

Like someone said earlier. SF4 is this generations SF2 and SFV is this generations SF3. A solid game that was enjoyed by the competitive scene but bombed commercially due to poor business decisions. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. That ship has sailed into an iceberg, and sunk. Only way to get another shot at the casual market is to acknowledge the fuck up that was the launch, a huge update that gives arcade mode and other single player content like maybe that Alpha 3 world tour mode. DO NOT call it Super, Hyper Arcade Edition or anything like that. And they MAYBE might have a shot.

This is it. This really is it. It is the singular message that Capcom has to focus, hone, and hammer into the minds of the market. If Capcom succeeds in projecting this message and actually living up to it. The franchise will be resuscitated, and the second dark age will be kept at bay surely.

Yes they can relaunch, the casuals are literally waiting for “Super edition” update which will warrant fresh reviews. Casuals don’t get the memos like the FGC that Capcom changed the release model.

[list]
[] They fucked themselves because when you look at SFIV the roster is massive, I have to main Sim and barely like any characters in SFV none of my mains made the cut or are Zangief. Too much Ono waifu fetish shit in this game because he listened to the hard cores.
[
] Stop milking the season pass/DLC shit, fighting games don’t have enough content to warrant it in the first place.
[/list]

No casual knows about the 8 frame problem or thinks SFV is bad, they never bought it in the first place because all the reviews called it a Beta, they are waiting for Super SFV.

Capcom keeps trying to turn the games in to a perpetual micro transaction cash flow, see SxT… it’s not going to happen.

Get the S2 content done, launch it all at once to existing customers and Re-brand the game SSFV, Fresh reviews then the sales will come.