If you look at what game sold well and got good reviews which is MKX, it never really was a game that didn’t have its faults even with selling well. Like so ok…MKX sold really well but what did that really do as a whole for the player base?
Like not even the competitive player base, but how many people are still actively playing the game or even plopped down money for the latest Kombat Pack? If you are a PC player you can’t even get the Kombat Pack and it took them a year to make online not feel like underwater. Which like single player, playing online for a fighting game is really big. MKX tried to do online eSports, but with how shoddy the connections were it didn’t really take off like it should have. Only a year in they are addressing this while most competitive players know SFV is gonna have rollback ready out the box with just some things to adjust after launch.
Somebody gets it. If this was some poverty, obscure game yeah sure, this launch would be the nail in the coffin. Luckily this is Street Fighter and it’s pretty much the only fighting game other than KI using the Service DLC model so there will always be something being advertised and new content to purchase or grind for all the time. Prices for the disc/initial download drop, people get in, see all of the things that are coming month to month and pay for whatever costumes or characters they want.
I’m confident the game will do well despite a slow launch. The game isn’t just 60 dollars with no more content or advertising coming. Like Killer Instinct the game will have its struggle because of poor launch, drama, content issues and so on. For the long haul though it has what it needs to draw people back in slowly over time and get them to grind and spend everyday.
People who think STREET FIGHTER is going to die have never seen true poverty. I’ve seen true poverty survive so keep the faith. Everyone gets to come to the reality again that fighting games are a struggle and why very few companies even try to make them these days. That doesn’t mean that struggle won’t bring success later. Street Fighter V still will be THE fighting game with time.
Nearly half year later… And still the sales for PS3 alone has been far better than currently.
And if I read the coment above about MKX not doing much for the pro players… Yeah maybe. But doesn’t matter that the game sales far far better if even with this… And sales is all what matters in this industry. Capcom without Sony wouldn’t have released this game for some time cuz Capcom isn’t doing that well either.
So spin it as much as you want… Neither Sony nor Capcom can be OK with the current sales… Not if the name Street Fighter for casuals is as big and bigger for the pro players as Mortal Kombat.
While all this maybe true, the one and only reason SF5 is doing poor saleswise so far is Capcom’s poor launch practices.
If Street Fighter 5 fails, it will not be because people moved on, or the arcades died, or the lack of returning characters. It won’t be because of SF4, the nostalgia factor, or lack of platforms - It will be because of Capcom and Capcom alone. Their choice of priorities are impacting SF5’s sales, time will tell if they made the right decision.
Steam spy has SFV at over 100k. Plus we can’t forget the digital sales from PSN. Give it about another week or so when all the numbers come in. Digital is far more popular now than it was 8 years ago.
Rule #1. Never buy a season pass for a game that is unproven.
Anyway topic:
All Capcom had to do was be very upfront with their marketing and call it a “pre-release edition” or “competition edition” so that people knew what they were buying.
I’ve been in a lot of streams and there are tons of people in the chat asking “Should I buy this game?”. The constant answer that is given to these players is “not yet wait a couple of months when the game is content complete”. The problem (as mentioned earlier by other people) is that by that time a new game will be there to take peoples money.
It’s unfortunate for SFV as the gameplay feels so good. The truth of it is that the competitive scene won’t be that affected…the only real risk is a lack of “new faces” in that scene. This game could have brought in a lot of new players, but Capcom closed the window on that opportunity by choosing to release this game in it’s current state.
I hope more people buy it and play it…but I can’t be too hopeful. The good thing is, however, with the Steam/PC release the game can be bought for about $40 and the online is free so there is a ton of possibilities for the community to stay at a decent size. Combine that with Steam Sales and we should see a decent new-player burst by Summer.
Who the fuck knows if future updates are coming when sales tank so badly?
Maybe Capcom goes bankrupt and gets bought out by somebody, who the fuck knows?
I saw this coming tbh. Do you remember when SFIV was being released? There was a massive buzz about a new SF game after such a long time. The casuals were all on board to be a part of the nostalgia. SFV doesnt have that. SFV only has the tournament scene of SFIV to market to, and as a marketing ploy to the casuals. Although its a big scene, its NOTHING in gaming industry terms. COD and FIFA is just on another planet in comparison. Capcom is trying really really hard to be a household name, but I always doubted it would happen. Obviously I want them to succeed though.
The nostalgia angle was far more powerful than this.
So will the 7 years of updates and support happen? They may just divest and concentrate on mobile. TBH SFVI is not looking likley now. Capcom is getting hammered for releasing SFV the way they did.
PC will definitely be a big life saver for this game. That’s something they will have over MKX for sure. PC players can buy the game cheaper and are more in tune with service type games than console users.
You forget that for many, many players A third episode never existed in their mind.
SfIV was like the Street Fighter come back, the big jump into the next gen. So, it was a solid hit.
V is a totally different story.Sure, it lacks content, and overall the game needs a lot of polish, but to me is already a surprise that sfv is not a simply copy paste of USFIV.
Capcom actually tried something different, as always, someone will stick with the previous episode but be sure that nowhere we’ll see a street fighter dying.Not in this days.
Until WB kills it after this season. Capcom is all in with SFV. Mediocre first week sales won’t stop them from supporting the game. It’s a AAA title that expect to profit from dlc, why would they abandon ship now when they haven’t even begun to test that model out?
Why? It’s cosmetic shit. Everything that effects gameplay can be bought with FM.
there was an article about how cheap PC gamers literally kill some small indie developers. Dude had to justify charging 20 for a game and PC users cried that it should be cheaper.
Digital is far more important now that it was before, that much is true. I know 8 people that got the game ( including myself) and 7 of them got it digitally.
The numbers are still really bad and i think it is mostly because of the bad word of mouth. Basically what Maxmillian said in his real talk video is what is making SF5 suffering now. They did have their priorities completely lopsided. Casuals should ALWAYS come first. They are the ones that sells the game copies and are the ones that could be the " New blood ".
SF4 09’ers are casuals that joined the game casually first and later became a great members of the FGC.
How are the causals supposed to get in the game ? That is when there is no single player content, no tutorial and no features basically. Capcom failed to induce new players at the time when the game is most talked about ( ie. Release ).
Nice that we will get DLC… Most “casuals” (I hate this word) won’t care about news and updates if they don’t have the game already?
Just remember SF vs Tekken. It actually became far better later on with updates… But the reputation was already ruined.
You can even name other games as for example DmC… Damn the PS3 version was boring and people went on riot cuz of new Dante. The PS4 version with new gameplay mechanics is absolutely stunning… But no one cares anymore for this game just remembering what the talks have ben
Or do you really think just because of a story mode trailer people suddenly will jump on in MASSES? The reviews, which are currently all over the place won’t disappear
I’m not making any assumptions about the sales data until official numbers are released (that which combines PC, digital and retail). When Capcom starts to shit bricks then people should worry. Right now I am taking it as business as usually.
Destiny was literally destroyed everywhere on release, That was one of the most played games of all last year. Don’t overstate the power of a review. I can point to games that are universally praised and don’t sale shit/games that are blasted and sell like hot cakes.
I am kind of confused on what you are trying to get out of the discussion though? Serious question, you are stating that the game is ruined, cool what more do you want if Capcom can literally do nothing right from here on out?
The sales data is lacklusting so far. If you believe that if even JP data isn’t impressive suddenly you will see MASSIVE sales cuz of digital you will be wrong.
And what I want from this discussion. A turn around and maybe ideas, see opening post (which you probably ignored) how Capcom can bring people to this game, cuz it deserves it.
As I said a later rerelease would be an idea… But sadly it would bring shitstorm as well.
You seem to not understand that if SF V won’t sale well, we won’t have a SF for some time. Even after the success of SF IV it needed Sony to bring the game out. Ono himself stated it would take far longer without it.
But let me guess. Who cares as long as the “pro players” have something to play.
I don’t give a shit as long as I can still play with people… I hate casuals and “pro” players alike.
I’ve seen whole franchises utterly destroyed for trying to cater to a market that doesn’t give a shit about your game anyway. Socom is literally dead because they tried to be like call of duty in Socom 4. Before you say it was dying anyway, Socom Confrontation was the most popular first party online game for Sony on PS3.
I would take my 21k people online every night and rape me with DLC to make up for the casuals who won’t buy the game over the utter bullshit that was Socom 4.