This is a question I had from way back, because they never touched on it. The beta had some stages unlockable through FM, but it wasn’t a sure thing that there wouldn’t be any Zenny-only stages. So it’s good to hear that they’ll be treated just like character DLC.
"Can you tell me more about what type of DLC is being considered after release aside from new characters and costumes, such as new stages, new modes or anything that might be of interest?
Our post launch content is based on characters, stages and costumes. Some costumes will be earnable only with Fight Money, and some costumes will be only purchasable with Zenny, which is our real money currency. Characters and stages will be purchasable with Fight Money or Zenny.
We also have our cinematic story expansion scheduled for release in June as a free update. This will be truly an epic drop of content, and it’s the story mode that our fans have been asking for. With over an hour of cinematic content alone, not including any gameplay, this will bring the Street Fighter world to life like never before.
The development team doesn’t stop working on upgrading the base service either, and we already have additional modes in development, planned to be released for free. I can’t spill the details on these yet, but I can say we have very ambitious plans for Street Fighter V."
China being full of stuff (expansion, noodles, bus cutscene) with all other being zero interaction does’nt make sense under a stylistical pov, even for them
Also some literally scream theyr presence, see waterfall side tombs
Imho after beating the “cinematic” mode released june, it will be possible unlock cinematic version of each stages
This will give them not only excuse to suck some money but also a lil bit of extra time to add stage-content
It’s not like everything that’s availabe for FM/Zenny is gonna be only gotten with FM by players. There’s gonna be tons of players that aren’t tight with their wallets and also don’t spend enough time doing daily challenges or logging in enough in general to keep up with the influx of content. That’s part of the reason the main idea is to keep content coming in at a nonstop pace, to make it more likely you don’t have enough FM when that character/stage/costume you want comes around. So there’s a better chance you dip into your wallet here and there. They’ll also have some Zenny-only costumes, and possibly other type of stuff that may be Zenny-only. With the PS4 userbase so strong, and lots of the Xbox 360 kids having switched over to PS4 this generation, there’s gonna be tons of them that don’t think twice and just dish out for the Season Pass or 1-off items here and there. That’s how they make their $$$$.
Definitely agree with @Cestus regarding the stage extras. The noodlehouse wont be the only expansion stage, I bet they just put the rest on the backburner to get the major stuff out, or it’s coming in the Alex udate patch. Either way, for the future, we’re gonna get some more stage stuff and for once, if it’s good enough, I wouldn’t mind paying.