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I was curious to hear that this game probably wouldnt have made were it not for Sony’s funding.
I was under the impression that SF4 was popular and sold well among its various incarnations/upgrades.
Is Capcom just doing badly financially or was SF4 profits not enough for to warrant an SF5?
I would think the profits lost by not having an Xbone version would be too significant to Capcom to leave them out of the game.
Thoughts?
Capcom screwed up royally with customers with many of their other titles and didn’t pull in profits they were looking for from Marvel 3 and SFxT. Both games that had a lot of customers complain and the BBB even got after them for SFxT and other games’ shenanigans.
With all of that it’s not surprising they needed a boost to get started. Unfortunately…they’re not off to a great start as far as the content/product goes, but hopefully the name STREET FIGHTER will carry them through like it does every other mainstream title.
Unlike SFxT where most of the general public thought the gameplay was bad AND made people feel ripped off, at least people can see this is a game with good gameplay being marred by lack of content. Which pretty much most official reviews state.
Because Capcpom is the Vince McMahon of video game publishers, and instead of taking the obvious slam dunk to success, they’d rather troll and do stupid shit they THINK will be successful…
I.E. Daniel Bryan needing the audience to basically shame WWE into pushing him, versus gamers shaming Capcpom to fix SFxT and the DmC fiasco.
So after nearly a decade of trolling fans of every single franchise they have(Ask a Darkstalkers or a Mega Man fan how they feel about Capcpom, and prepare your ears for all the yelling and expletives), people don’t exactly have a high opinion of Capcpom or their products, leading to lagging sales and profits.
Sony saw an opportunity to step in, get SFV exclusivity and the budding FGC viewership numbers to bolster their lead in the current console race, and offered Capcpom an opportunity that they really can’t afford to pass up these days…
*…and they still found a way to botch the launch…
LOL.*
because why would you spend your own money when you can spend a publishers money? this is how game development works. also when sony throws a gang of cash at you to make it a console exclusive… why not?
a partnership with sony is hugely beneficial to both parties. ps4 is doing extremely well. sony is now invested in the marketing of the game. capcom only has to worry about supporting one console (and pc i know).
SFxT was a fantastic game. I’m really feeling bad for it since it’s been left to die with no online support on Steam.
The below is all based on my own understanding and memory of events, it could have all been a bad flu dream, treat it all lightly
This was discussed quite heavily circa the launch of Ultra.
A few things happened all at once really:
Rumors emerged that Capcom was out of money
Capcom were launching episodic games
Capcom was offering exclusivity on a lot of its franchises
Capcom were developing ANOTHER Street Fighter 4 add-on with a known low budget
Rumors were circling that Ultra was the swansong of the Street Fighter franchise
Rumors were circling that Capcom were going to be absorbed by a bigger company
Microsoft were having their own little fights over exclusivity elsewhere, including on other Capcom titles
Then Sony emerged, cross platform play for SFV was announced, it all looked like a mutual, positive thing, a lot of Xbox butthurt about how they’d lose half their fanbase, which simply isn’t true for a fanbase that built itself around a game, not a console.
Now, with all that said, I believe Capcom had virtually no money to make another SF game. I think Ultra was a fundraiser that Capcom did to both keep SF alive and possibly prove value to Sony/Microsoft, so that they’d buy in on SFV. This worked and went ahead and, even with the Sony partnership, funds for SFV were super low.
For this reason, development was light and focused, based around the “Agile” software principle of get the thing Live as soon as possible to gain interest and reduce the risk of dumping a ton of time into a game that may then get hated and benched (think SFxTekken/Smash Bros Brawl). This would also allow the game to gather revenue to aid future development. This is all really common stuff in MMO development, not so much triple-A’s, hence why everyone’s going ape right now over “paying retail for early access”.
Since the latest Street Fighter games were largely patches and rebalances of a Street Fighter 4 iteration, it made sense to assume that the core audience of late was the Versus community, since those were the people most likely to pitch into a tweaked version of a game they already have (again, Ultra could have been a proof-point for this), so it was agreed to hit the Versus elements of the game with the most budget, focus on the rest later. This lead to location tests alphas and betas really early on in development, each with iterative improvements, like new characters, visuals and features. A final launch of a “finished” end-to-end versus experience was rolled out on Tuesday, allowing this focused part of their audience to part with their cash and fund the casual and nostalgia-hungry fans and their beloved “content” like story modes, arcade modes and plot/competitively redundant characters from the original 8 to make a comeback at a later date.
That all just happened, we’re still seeing an Agile format of, “Kick new stuff out the door every 1-4 weeks” and, despite maybe being a bit misleading in the marketing of it, I think they’ve made the right choices and catered to the right part of their fanbase. Easy for me to say that, as I’m slap bang in the middle of that demographic.
So, with all that in mind, I think the Sony money and whatever they had left over from Ultra all entirely went into what we’re currently playing, the next batch of releases, such as online improvements, lobbies and the next run of new characters all come from a new budget that we, the fans, just provisioned by pre-ordering and launch-buying the game. Continued development thereafter will come from the store and from second-wave sales as the game picks up attention on the competitive scene - all the more reason to get that side developed early and get things ready for the Pro Tour.
I think the only other option for a SFV would have been crowdfunding, which would have caused crippling damage to Capcom’s rep and would force them down the same aggressively cut-back development route, only with no cash at the end for improving the game and adding more features.
I think they had no money, Sony gave them just enough to turn the game over, the whole thing was super lean and we’re seeing the result of a really impressive, hardcore game development campaign. Sadly, that doesn’t sell to the IGN readers, maybe they could have handled that bit better, I’m really happy with it.
You wrote all that… and I can summerize it thusly:
Capcpom been fucking up… They’re out of money.
Sony stepped in, handed them money for SFV exclusivity, but not enough to fund a full release. Capcpom is depending upon its battered wife of a fanbase to keep them afloat while they try to deliver all the promises they made.
Half-assing, thy name is Capcpom.
Objectively it wasn’t at all. Some players liked it, and that’s fine but don’t try to re-write history : SFXT deserved shit and oblivion.
Op, Capcom now is not Capcom of 2000/2005 : they do not have any money anymore and banks all think twice before lending them money. Capcom is mostly despised among gamers, even Capcom fans… I’m going to tell you something else : SFV is actually a low to middle budget game. Characters have far less animation than SFIV, and it’s not costy anymore to make a video game look good thank to UE4 that provide a lot of tool to make a good game with a very small team. They run out of money because of the way they treated players, and imo they do not deserve to still be in the industry.
Sfxt Dlc Fiasco
sfxt box art mega man trolling
cancelling megaman legends 3 and blaming the fans for it
The craptacular resident evil 6,horrible controls and story by even resident evil standards
Asura’s wrath true ending DLC
marvel vs capcom 3 with no spectator mode(now theres a bare bones game)and making fans have to buy UMVC3 months later for it
DMC going out of their way to alienate old fans
Capcom had some of their best years in a while last year, they also spent a ton. Was their any real evidence that capcom was going broke?
I see it as a fight for survival, not a half-assed attempt. I think this was the only way to get a Street Fighter out that didn’t have an Activision logo at the start of it.
I think they made the right choice.
I’ve always found determining value for money based on “content” a bad system. People demand more characters, but only play as Ken/Ryu. People demand modes, but never step out of practice, versus and online.
The old Steam rule of $1 = 1 hours worth of gameplay is much more fitting. Most SF players here will bank 10s, likely 100s of hours into a single mode of a Street Fighter game, that’s a better definition of content by far.
I don’t think there was any evidence, but rumours were rife and Capcom certainly changed its behavior quite drastically. Culd have simply been a response to bad press/commercial failures, could have been money. I think probably a bit of both.
A cursory youtube search of “Capcom going out of business” brings up loads of reports and speculation from 1-2 years ago, it was a hot topic on here around the same time too.
^HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh wait, you’re serious…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry, that was mean… But c’mon, man.
No spectator mode, only 1v1 lobbies, no arcade mode, constant server issues… This is below even barebones.
I wonder at what point people will finally stop defending this terrible company and start taking them to task for their fuck-ups…
Capcom, as most game companies in Japan, has been struggling since the last gen.
Its not only that their previous fighting games didnt become really popular, its much bigger than that. Under Keiji Inafune direction they produced a lot of titles developed by cheap western studios while neglecting their own IPs, they all failed, they lost their most creative branch (Clover Studio, who became Platinum Games).
Dragons Dogma was their only serious attempt to create a solid game in years and while the game was really good it sold way beyond their expectations.
They are in deep shit and not even Sony’s money helped them to release a full Street Fighter in time.
Just look at the financial charts. If you are knowledgable about financial analysis, it won’t take you long to figure they’re pretty much broke and that they’re financial statut isn’t smelling good at all. If anything, it may be Capcom last five years before buying bought if they do not : either capitilize on remasters more (large source of income last year with REmake and DCM4SE) or giving players good titles. Monster Hunter won’t save them every year for a decade.
They didnt but its always safe to do such a move. Sony’s involvement help develop the game faster, without Sony SFV could of ended being a 2018 game.
Hands Po the Mic
Go for it. Tell us what big, mean Capcom owes you.
Nope he’s right. Only video game players are DUMB enough to accept it and keep buying their games when they just deserve to be bought by a company run by other thing that pigs brained ass holes. Only Apple dick riders are as dumb as video game players.
Problem is we don’t wanna play Nintendo games just cuz they’re fucking up.
Capcom was bankrupt, Sony bailed their asses out. I wonder why Sony didn’t buy Capcom outright…
Sony is not doing so well either.
Sure the PS4 is selling like hotcakes but the company on a whole is having problems.