Some information was recently brought to my attention, and it aggravated me enough that I feel I have to bring it up here. By now most everyone should know that Street Fighter X Tekken was released. I was fairly excited by this initially (although I was planning on waiting for Tekken X Street Fighter personally). THEN I watched a video review by Angry Joe. For those of you who don’t know who that is, Angry Joe does video reviews of games, and I am a long-time watcher/advocate of his. I don’t always agree with what he has to say, but his reasoning is sound and his words are informative. Well, you can imagine my surprise (although not really) when I heard that Capcom had gone ahead and put data and content on the SFxT disk but were not granting access to any of it. In fact, if anyone wants to have access to that information, they will have to pay more money to “download” it…download something that’s already on the disk.

For years now, I’ve felt like Capcom has been screwing their consumers over. The last two Capcom games I purchased were Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Super Street Fight 4. I never knew that when I got these games that Capcom had intended to release more of them. In this digital age, I fully expected them to release DLC patches and addons like most other games do. I felt cheated when they released the Ultimate edition of MvC3. I remember my brother felt cheated when he bought SF4, and then I came along afterwards and bought Super SF4. Then I was cheated again when they came out with the Arcade edition! I didn’t understand it. Why weren’t these all done through DLC? We’ve seen games add characters, we’ve seen changes being made to game engines. So why do they keep releasing new disks without intending to support the old ones? What is Capcom’s excuse? The truth is: they have none.

I remember as a child walking into the arcade. I remember that Street Fighter II was one of the first fighting games I was ever introduced to. I wasn’t at the arcade a lot, so it was really awesome when I would go back and see a new version: Champion Edition, Turbo, Super, etc. I watched the game grow, expand and develop into what turned out to be one of my most favorite fighting games of all time. But back in the days when arcades thrived, this type of practice was acceptable and somewhat expected. To be honest, I don’t remember any other mainstream arcade game releasing as many new editions as often as Capcom did with the Street Fighter II series. But not many people had the home version. In fact, I think the only one I ever owned initially was Super Street Fighter for the Sega Genesis, long before the days of DLC and high speed internet. So I didn’t mind it when the arcades replaced the old versions with a newer one. Either way, it was the same $0.25 every time. But now the digital age is here; we have the technology to make gaming life better. So why does it feel like Capcom is stuck in the past? Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Street Fighter 4 have both seen multiple releases, just like in the arcades of old.

Now, I know what a lot of people are thinking and have already voiced in response to this: the fact that when you buy the game, all you’re doing is purchasing the right to play it, not the content of the disk and game itself. You don’t technically own any of the data, because the data is owned by the development company (in this case: Capcom), and they have the right to control their content. Yes, that’s absolutely correct. I’m not trying to say that Capcom is doing anything illegal, but in my opinion what they’re doing is highly immoral. As a consumer, I fully expect that I am gaining access to 100% of the content on the disk. If I have to unlock some of it through in-game achievements or feats, fine, I’m ok with that. But don’t give me a disk with data on it that I have to pay MORE money to unlock. If it’s on the disk, it should have been included in the purchase. If it wasn’t ready and the data was incomplete, don’t put it in the disk. If you intended for me to pay for it later and add it to my game, then don’t put it on the disk! Release it later as DLC. Capcom claims that they put the locked data on the disk as a convenience factor, saying that it would save the customer time by not having to download it. Well, if I’m not downloading it, then it’s not DLC! It’s locked content that you’re saying I have to pay to unlock; call it what it is! Think of it this way: do you think Skyrim would have sold or done as well as it had if the consumers had to pay additional money for half of the spells, weapons, armor, or even companions that they actually gave you for free? Especially if all of that was already on the disk? Personally, I wouldn’t have touched it. What do you think?

Now before I say anything else, I want to make something clear: I am not trying to start a protest, nor do I expect anyone to follow my example. I am a fan of making informed decisions, and an advocate of sharing useful information. That being said, I do not plan to purchase any games developed by Capcom. I feel as though I’ve given them enough of my money and time, and that their business practices do not merit either one beyond what I have already given. If you agree with my opinion, that’s great! Maybe you’ll think about boycotting Capcom as well. As always though, I expect people to make up their own minds, and I know full well that many people will disagree with me and choose to support Capcom. That’s all well and good, I bear you no ill will, and I truly hope your experience is and will continue to be better than mine. That being said, all hail Assassin’s Creed.

Shade

(If you’d like to view Angry Joe’s video and listen to his words, which I do encourage because there is information in there that I didn’t cover, you can find it here: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/aj/as/34538-wtf-capcom-angry-rant )