You got TV commercials with footage of the FGC. No advertisement of single player modes, story or anything. Just “hey people play this shit with each other next to each other and maybe you could do it too”. This would be crazy talk for a normal fighting game ad and especially other genre ad.
Then you have Capcom giving away a free month subscription to their Capcom Fighters twitch stream with the caption “Want to level up your game” and “Become a World Warrior”. You can even hear the surprised tone in his voice when he sees it. This is what Capcom is trying to do. If you open the case you will see something about the FGC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0xpc-RcGUs
The in game announcer even has vocals to announce all of the Pro Tour majors and world invitations like Evo.
Why would Capcom do this? Why would they forego adding the necessary single player content to have a “complete game” and focus 4 betas almost entirely on securing netcode instead? Capcom knows they still have the biggest turnout and community for fighting games with SF and figures they can use this as a chance to build money outside of the typical “casual sales” game that most other games tend to look for. They are shooting to gather as many people into the FGC first then bridge in single player and other more casual stuff later.
This is funny because it’s basically the first time a video game company has taken ITS OWN INITIATIVE to sell the FGC to people. We’ve always been told on SRK and other places that the community has to sell the community. Now Capcom wants to do this and is foregoing possible day one sales brushing content to the side to try and get it done. Will this work or is this too off the rails too early? Why sacrifice all of this for some niche community?
Can SF be like DAT MADDEN where people bet and fight at the barber shop for bragging rights? New roster/new characters = time to get in DAT SF again. Gotta best your boy with Guile he bout to come out.
I think it’s crazy. While I personally don’t particularly care about it being “barebones” (all I really care about is a solid training mode and online) I think that’s going to hurt it with reviewers and casual customers. Not everybody wants to get into the FGC. There are vastly more casuals that buy these games that just pick it up, run through story/arcade, play around with their friends from time to time, then shelf it, than there are people like us.
I mean sure there are going to be people that get pulled in that otherwise would not have from the “Join the FGC and be a hero!” marketing, but how many people in the first month before they add all the standard stuff are going to read reviews and impressions on sites like gamespot, ign, even neogaf and the like, and be turned away? I mean, they’re trying to sell the FGC to people that expect / are used to a slightly more fully featured product.
I guess we’ll know soon enough how it’s going to shake out.
I don’t buy that DJ, seems a little like wishful thinking to me. The game is as it is, not because there is a twitch leaflet in the box. Its because the content isn’t ready. They didn’t release it as is for us, they did it to release before the end of the financial year? It just so happens that the route they are taking, by updating the game as they are, allows them to update the game with things such as story mode and basic fighting game modes. It could potentially hurt reviews badly. The 4 beta’s don’t really play into the lack of story mode. The network guys work on the net code, not the story and other modes.
I’ve had the game since Wednesday, time in which reviewers will be doing their work. Capcom have been resetting the servers multiple times during that time. All gained content has been lost every time. In a game where there isn’t all that much to do but play online or train, it only shines a light on the lack of features available. Statistics are lost, usernames, gained titles and alt colors. The content thing doesn’t bother me at all, I’m happy its coming but don’t mind so much when. For your average fighting game player, which I don’t think most people here are, there is very little to keep interest up. All of these modes are coming soon, but all I really care about in regards to this thread is that the game sells well. The huge bulk of sales happen around release. Bad reviews could hurt that, and I think we all know Capcom are in the gutter right now. Couldn’t even make the game without Sony’s funding. If SF5 doesn’t hit company expectations it would be awful for the franchise. So basically, same old story, but they’ve given themselves a few extra hurdles to overcome by releasing it as is. That’s scary.
I’m pleased with Capcom’s current direction. I’m feeling optimistic about the future of fighting games and tournaments. These days everything is about social media, twitch, youtube, events, endorsements, esports. This is the future and it is progressive. Nobody is losing out from this. This is good for all of us.
The thing to remember is that, these days, AAA games make about 1/3 to 1/2 of their lifetime revenue from post release content, and that’s for a game with a year of support. Now Street Fighter V is likely looking to make more out of their post content sales, considering that Capcom plans to support it for at least 5 or 6 years.
You have to understand that buying habits have changed, people spend less on new titles, and more on content for games they already own. Johnny420NoScope isn’t going to buy Street Fighter V because he’s already spending money on content for CoD.
If that was the case, then they could still have released it in March and it still would have made it since the 2nd Quarter ends on March 31.
I agree with the opinion that the ‘barebones’ launch is going to hurt initial sales and review scores. It can’t be denied that the game we’re getting on Tuesday is not the full package and not worth $60 (at that point). I think the initial release will get a lot of criticism in the (games) media which will hurt release day/week sales a lot; I don’t think SF5 will be a financial success until many years down the line.
However, Capcom has shown it’s emphasize on the FGC and on long-term support of the game. This is shown through various ways:[list]
[] Ads focusing on the social & multiplayer aspect of the game
[] Constant development and updates through character DLC and patches
[] One disk policy
[] More robust online features such as divisions, dailies and in-game currency
[/list]
The focus on (online) multiplayer through better matchmaking, dailies and fight money will give new and inexperienced players that near instant gratification to play more and become better. Successful multiplayer games nowadays have some sort of character-on-a-stick mechanic to keep the player engaged. Look at LoL, CS:GO, Dota 2 - they all have in-game things to strive for in the forms of cosmetics, unlocks and trophies. These are the things that keep non-pro and non-hardcore people playing; which is exactly what SF needs. Capcom and the FGC have already built up the tournament scene and it can only grow by introducing it to as many as people as possible.
I think SF5’s launch can be best compared to CS:GO. No one was really into CS:GO at launch because it missed a lot of things that made it substantially better than CS:Source. Lo and behold a year or so later; Valve had picked up the slack and really started pushing the game hard with all sorts of quality of life updates and cosmetic incentives. I think (and hope) SF5 will slowly grow in mainstream popularity when the first year of DLC and updates have passed. By then the game will offer a more complete package and bugfixes and QoL changes will hopefully have been added. People pick the game up when it’s on sale and will be pleasantly surprised with a game that they thought had an initial rough launch.
@KneelB4Me Let’s pretend that Capcom spent no money/time on the netcode, did not do any advertising for the FGC, did no Capcom Pro Tours and just let the community sit in shitty netcode and having to promote stuff entirely on its own. Wouldn’t that leave time for them to focus on those single player things then? Why do you think they even bothered pushing the FGC if we’re such a niche thing? Why not just focus COMPLETELY on what sells 5 to 8 million copies in a year? It sounds easy. Just keep pushing the stuff that makes the most initial money. Why make things more complicated and sell something that is unprecedented with fighting games and take that risk?
**Basically why do you think they didn’t just copy what MKX did? ** NRS put out the “perfect” roadmap for making a fighting game sell in 2016. Why would 2 big companies (Capcom/Sony) working in joint be so stupid as to just not follow NRS to a tee and make their millions and millions? Why would a big company spend this much time advertising our peon community even in the game itself?
Even I who loves the competitive aspect of fighting games and really likes SFV over what they did with IV. With all of that I’m still saying “dude…they could have just sold out to the casuals and made their money”. As a business I’m questioning why didn’t they just do what was obvious to make money. I’m glad that they seem to care and it makes the game much more easy to purchase for me, but why care so much? Why even put in the time when we’re supposed to just sell ourselves?
It’s funny that you went from having a generic emoticon avatar to hoog boobs. LOL.
Yes, I like that they are taking this approach. It’s a bit risky, but they’re trying to take something they know they win at FOR FREE when it comes to fighting game eSports and just making it even bigger for themselves. Get the word out there on TV and in the game that this is what we do and that it’s not very difficult to get on the internet or connect to someone on CFN and see what the hell is going on. Play the game daily, do the daily tasks, earn cool shit, watch top players do cool shit to help you do the daily tasks to get cool shit.
It takes something that is normally rather dry and a waste of time for casualist of casual and turns it into something that creates replay value for them.
After thinking about it, I’d say that it makes more sense because this is Street Fighter. Out of all the fighting game franchises out there, there is likely no other one who’s identity is tied so much to the competitive scene and the FGC than Street Fighter. It’s not just the marketing for SFV either, ever since SFIV they’ve been focusing on the competitive side of things when it comes to the franchise. In a way, they’ve cultivated an image of competition around their franchise that identifies it in the same way that Mortal Kombat is known for its blood and gore, and DOA is known for boobs. Other franchises, such as KoF, Tekken, and VF probably do come close, but the size of the SF side of the FGC, plus the fact that alot of things, such as Evo, come from it, have made it much easier for Capcom to do so. We now have a franchise where Evo Moment #37 is remembered at the same level as you would certain key moments, and cut scenes in other games such as Aerith dying, or Samus being revealed as a girl. The fact that it’s become such an iconic moment demonstrates how tied the franchise’s identity has become to the competitive scene.
For me, it’s all about the game.
A company should sell the game, not some twitch channel or pro scene or some tournament to win
I am really happy to see changes to the way the game is played, and i still think SFV is in the right direction, but you can’t attract players promoting tournaments, talking about heroes here, heroes there, champions etc etc, you just scare them. Having a great community playing tournaments is great and helps the longevity of the game, but first you should promote how the game is fun to play, how many choices in the game you can make, how every fight is different because you are fighting differents people with differents playstile.
I imagine people saying “yeah, why not… never played a fighting game online, but with this new SFV i can jump in and having fun!!”. So they go to the store, buy the jewel case, open it and instead of a good crafted manual, with all the moves, maybe some characters background, they’ll find some piece of paper saying “be the champion! The hero! Go to the gym, play SFV all day! We have tournaments!” You can watch them finish the story mode for every character and quit the game.
And even for people who likes and play fighting games at casual level like me, i think the gameplay is the most important thing to promote.
If am confident with my game, i don’t neet people to watch my game, but to play it.
Then i love how capcom supports pro scene and how they want to give it credits, but for me street fighter is still all about… fights, and not tv.
Content Wise, i still think Capcom is doing good. If you like SFV, you play it because the core gameplay is fun, and you keep palying it because it’s fun to learn how to play it, not because you want more story or arcade mode.
It’s simple: because playing video games against other people is not a niche activity in general, anymore. Millions upon millions of people play other games online and I think that it’s a fairly safe bet that some of those people are bored of LoL, Dota, CoD, CS, etc, and are willing to try something new. We’re in a new era where single player isn’t very important, even for casual players, in some types of games. Though, it’s a big mistake imo that they are not making a 4-6 character base game free to play. With a full price release, it’s never going to have a chance to become massive (lol/dota/cs) in some territories
PS.
Another mistake that ties into the free to play argument is that the game is only on PS4 and relatively powerful PCs. If I was in charge and the goal was to massively grow Street Fighter, I would also have an “old engine” release that played identically, but ran on xbox 360, ps3 and weaker PCs. If it runs on the same computers as LoL and Dota2, that’s a massive player base that you could get new players from.
Right and I think that’s what Capcom is trying to promote. Just in the same way that people that don’t even know each other might walk up to a Madden kiosk or a Smash kiosk and mash buttons in those games. It’s fun to just play against someone in SF. That’s what they want to promote. Go back to doing the 92 and play that other guy. Even past the FGC and the tournaments they are also promoting that playing against someone in SF is FUN.
Makes sense. The console market is used to people buying games because the single player content gets them to buy up. Everyone wants epic stories and long grinding in dungeons and caves and what not.
Then again there are other games like CoD that mostly thrive on multiplayer and a SLEW of PC games where people are going HAM fighting against each other in all skill levels. Then you have mobile games where some 45 year old business man could be playing against other people in Clash of Clans or Mobile Strike which has the freaking Terminator advertising it on TV. I barely watch TV and I’ve already seen Arnold promote the game. Promote attacking other people with strikes.
DAT MADDEN has been the classic. I was on a cruise vacation with a friend and and there was an ESPN sports bar and I had no idea he played Madden. There happened to be a kiosk where you choose different ESPN games. Of course the first thing he said was “YO LETS PLAY DAT MADDEN!!!” Not, let’s play managerial campaign, or all star mode, or head coach mode or get suspended and jailed for a month then come back out on top and kiss your hot model wife mode…he wanted to play DAT MADDEN against me. Of course I said sure why not even though I haven’t played Madden in 10 years and didn’t even know how to play it then.
Of course we’re going back and forth cuz he’s rusty and I’m just using general game intellect to choose a play and make a pass or run the ball. Just having a good time shooting shit and making touchdowns and stuff. Before you know it at least 7 other young adults come running up to the machine like “eyy yooo my Patriots can’t be beat in this game, lemme get in there”. Then the other dude is like “nah son, my Broncos baby”. Then before you know it everyone’s getting super rowdy and getting in games of Madden with everyone else at the bar looking at us like “damn, those guys are going in”.
Maybe that’s what it is. Capcom sees SF can be something like that too.
Yeah they could have tapped into the last gen/toaster market, but I say it’s worth the risk just going in with newer hardware. Consoles and PC products will eventually get cheaper and you still cover a wide amount of PCs if they can stick to the low/required settings. In a couple years the low/required settings to play SFV on PC should be pretty accessible.
Sure, it’s a risk, but I didn’t mean to imply that I think that serious competitive play will be huge. Serious competitive play is always a small part of any big competitive game, but that doesn’t mean that casuals mainly want to play single player. Imagine that you get into chess. Do you want to play against the computer, or do you want to play against another human at your skill level? Some may prefer to only play the AI, but if given the option, a lot of people would probably find it more exciting to play real people. That rush you get from beating real people (even if you are both objectively bad at the game) can’t be found in single player.
This is just a sidenote, but chess is probably very similar to the FGC in that you have casuals that only play online, people that play more seriously but still only online, and then the most hardcore that go to real tournaments.
Yes there is the idea of “casual competitive”. Like the guys that crowd around the PS4 to play Madden at the ESPN bar. Casuals like to crowd around and hit buttons at each other too. Maybe a few of them were real veteran Madden guys, but there’s no guarantee that any of them were pro ass Madden Bus dudes getting driven around the country to play Madden.
Then you have the FGC. Seems SFV is trying to promote both. Bring back the old 90’s “it’s fun to play against your friend or new stranger rival” and “people do it all of the time offline at events that might be around you”.
Yeah and that’s why I think the netcode is so emphasized. If you are one of these guys that lives in Bumsville, Tennessee or Boondocks, Nebraska and you wanna get good, there’s always the solid netcode that allows you to compete against some of the greats in regular online events. IF you get good and start winning enough, Capcom may fly you out to something or you may just simply make enough money from the online winnings to drive/fly yourself out to a big event and try your shot.
The system is set in place so that it’s possible for that guy in the middle of nowhere to try and be that guy. It won’t be so much about top player from established arcade scene from the 90’s.
You gotta head up north, versus in pompano beach, flippers I hear is going to be popping again for 5. PM me @RawSteelUT and I can give you a few places I’ve found in the area.
I think its very important for Capcom to clarify that SFV is a PLATFORM that will grow over time.
At the moment SFV is lacking alot of features that many casual players expect to be there when they drop $60 for a game; this could backfire. A lot of players may just drop the game in a week or two because it doesn’t have basic stuff, like a 8-player lobby, and pop in another game that does.
Hopefully SFV opens up with an explanation as to what SFV is, and a news-feed splash page of what to expect in the coming months.
