oh everyone understands that capcom’s goal is to make a profit.
but at the end of the day i care more about the community and the scene than i do about capcom’s finances.
is there risk for capcom to lose money on the arcade release? absolutely.
i can totally understand if capcom doesn’t want to do this.
but is it better for the scene and community if capcom does release arcade version? absolutely.
don’t get me wrong. i don’t want capcom to lose money (i bought 360, ps3, and pc version just to support them).
but the very real risk of this game dying in Asia if there’s no arcade release outweighs my concern for capcom not getting quite as big of a profit.
i’m curious why so many people in here like you seem to care more about capcom’s profit margin than they do about the community.
I don’t think anyone in here gives a flying psychotic fuck about Capcom’s profit margin.
At least not on a personal financial level.
Some people are merely making the obvious observation that Capcom’s profits are directly involved in whatever finacial endeavors Capcom chooses to pursue. They are first and foremost a business. Whatever they do not view as profitable monetarily for themselves as a business, they shall not engage in - no matter how much other people, who are not financially involved/culpable/Capcom employees/stockholders might wish for them to.
I’d love for Capcom to pepper the entire globe with SSF4 machines. I’d like to be able to pull into a gas station in Mexico and find a SSF4 machine waiting there for me ply my non-Mexican grip-style on.
But it ain’t gonna happen.
Accepting this is the first step in figuring out how to keep the scene going everywhere.
And while it may SEEM like the lack of an arcade version isn’t going to be a detriment to the majority of people who buy SSF4 (the casual players), it WILL indeed become a detriment later on in the future.
Again, this will most likely cause a ripple effect, for the worse.
It will become a detriment to the community soon enough. When I say the “community”, I mean the hardcore players, the players that REALLY care about the game. Not the scrubs/casual players that play for fun.
Later on in the future, it will become a detriment to the casual players. Worst case scenario is that Capcom doesn’t produce future SF titles due to how poor SF did in Japan. Consoles are pretty much dead there, so if Capcom thinks that if they make SSF4 a console-only release that it might boost up console sales in Japan, I don’t think so. Why? Because most Japanese gamers/top SF players know arcade is the only way to go, so the majority play there.
It’s THEIR fault for not understanding.
If someone sees something that worked, it worked for a reason. The problem is that the player doesn’t understand why it worked.
There is no one to blame but the player themselves.
If someone sees something that worked, there is no reason to innovate. Like lets say someone doesn’t know how to counter jump-ins if they’re using Ryu (referred to as “Player A”). (This is ONE HELL of a basic example but bear with me).
So let’s say that Player A wants to find out how to counter jump-ins in ST. He finds match videos of top players using Ryu. After watching numerous videos, he notices that Shoryukens are a great way to counter jump-ins.
Now, Player A has seen something that has worked. Shoryukens are the best way to counter jump-ins. Having said that, is it necessary for Player A to innovate and find another way to counter jump-ins? No, but it wouldn’t hurt. Like there are other ways to counter jump-ins, like c. HP or LK Tatsu, but why bother trying to innovate and take the time to see if they actually work if you are just going to use a LP/HP Shoryuken 99% of the time.
i said i care MORE about the community than capcom’s finances.
i did not say i don’t care at all about capcom’s finances at all (obviously because if they go under, then they’re not going to make games anyway)
i’ve already made several posts concerning how their possible short term higher profits (due to no arcade release) may end up being much less than the long term loss caused by the sf4 franchise dying in the Asian market.
if the game dies in asia, they lose future possible console sales in that demographic. (ssf4 should sell fine, but what about any future sf4 related titles beyond ssf4?)
financial risk and actual loss is not even the same thing.
as i’ve stated previously, why are people assuming that capcom lost money on the arcade release?
why are they assuming that they will lose money on the arcade release of ssf4?
(we can all agree that there is risk of loss, but why do people here talk like they are absolutely sure it will result in an actual loss?)
That’s all well and good, but would you have NOT bought the game if you hadn’t watched any vids of it in action? I’m talking about not buying the game ever, because you would surely have seen some vids of it in action on console at least.
Sabin:
Capcom could easily have done that hype thing with an incomplete console version of the game. It’s not as though they needed an arcade rig specifically to do that.
And I also think you grossly overestimate the global community when it comes to hype. While it no doubt helped, I can assure you that it was indeed Capcom’s “slick marketing” that did the majority of the job. I’m also pretty sure that if even the top players hated the game, it still would have sold as well as it did. The top players’ influence on actual game sales is negligible (hell, if anything, I would think it would be a negative factor, depending).
Concerning the JPN scene: No one has put forth any reasons why the west as a whole should care about what Japan does that doesn’t boil down to “Japan is da best at everything, and if they aren’t the best at SSFIV then it won’t count”, which is rubbish. The only people who are affected by this are the people who still have access to arcades that actually have the game, which is a minute fraction of the SFIV player base on the whole, and thus no one aside from them should or will care.
deci:
> but at the end of the day i care more about the community and the scene than i do about capcom’s finances.
It’s thinking like that that will kill SF for good. If you want SF to thrive, you have to care about Capcom’s finances.
have you guys read any of my posts about this issue?
like maybe the one linked in the very first post in this thread?
or how about my last post before this one?
obviously i understand it. i’m the one who was trying to say a bad move financially for capcom will result in them not making new street fighters in the first place.
i’m trying to say arcade release will be better for them and the sf franchise financially in the long run.
I’m 100% for a SSF4 release in Japan and I know the urgency of it…
I’ve been around long enough to know what happens when the Japanese doesn’t play a game we like.
However, if there is no SSF4 arcade release…
We move forward and try to enjoy what we can out of it.
If you want to quit cause the Japanese(or whoever has an Arcade Only Community) don’t play, thats up to you.
That is fucking ridiculous. The sole determining factor of whether there is a new SF game or not is how well it does in the States, you know, the largest gaming market in the world.
Nobody is arguing that Japan should not have an arcade release, but people seriously need to stop acting like the fate of the SF series depends on it.
Also nobody is arguing that an arcade release wouldn’t be helpful to the scene, but in the big picture it is not that important.
Huh? The only reason I even knew about SF2 was from playing it in the arcades/7-11 everyday. The biggest reason I was so excited from SF4 (aside from the obvious) was seeing crap videos of people like Daigo and Ino doing cool shit. It’s only my experience, but I know I’m not alone in this thinking. I think you’re the one who is mistaken here.
Uhh I think people are pretty accepting of this. Noone is asking for what you just requested man.
If that’s the case, why didn’t they? Why would they ship a bunch of expensive sf4 cabinets around the world as opposed to showcasing a incomplete console version (just guessing here, but it would have at least had the arcade cast in it at the time?) probably cause it wasnt ready/optimized, we have no way to really know for sure. But the fact of the matter is, they didnt.
casuals create the game’s ecosystem and community to a certain degree.
top players/ex pros/organizers keep it alive and going and help sustain the community in a number of ways after the initial marketing hype dies down
im sure you understand this as well.
we all know capcom did not necessarily cater to top players in sf4’s release (cause that is financial suicide,) but they have made it clear time and time again that they do not ignore that sector of the market either outright.
if top players influence was indeed “negligible”, i have one phrase for you, gamestop nationals? im guessing that was indeed a money losing proposition.
why would they fly daigo all the way out to usa (despite the fact that he didnt even win japan nationals? same for korea - although poongko did win?) why did top 16 get a bye to semis at evo, even?
none the less, it got a fair amount of mainstream press despite the flaws with the national tournament, and once again, it harnessed the power of top players (which you claim are kinda negligible when it comes to sales) to maintain the sf4 hype train
while i might overestimate the influence that top players do have on the game, i think you underestimate it as well
Here’s a non dickriding answer for you: It keeps the ecosystem of the game stronger (even if it doesnt make as much money as the console version). We’ve already gotten past the part that Japan’s console sales are negligible compared to the West. Capcom even mentioning “we’re listening to your requests about arcade release” on their Japanese blog is at least worth mentioning.
i dont think many people in this thread are going to quit because the japanese dont play it. im gonna be back in america soon, i know ill be playing ssf4.
noone wants to see the community divided again though. im glad youre on the same page tho at least!
Yes, and making Arcade inaccessible to Japanese is the best way to generate revenue and customer relations.
There are thousands of franchise that sell 1/10 of what SF4 sold, they are still going strong. Richer corporation never ended up giving better products to consumers, its competition that matter.
What would be great for SF community? SSF4 failed hardcore compare to Blazblue/tekken/etc so Capcom will finally pay more attention to fans.