SSFIV Arcade Edition staying arcade exclusive?

Andriasang has an interesting bit of news today, concerning Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition – apparently Capcom has decided to keep the AE content and balancing in arcades and will not be bringing it to consoles as DLC. This comes straight from the man at the helm of Street Fighter, Yoshinori Ono and it would seem to settle everything. But as I have read on different forums while looking into this story, some fans consider this to be a “trolling” comment just to get the fans worked up about it.

I do admit that I don’t have a lot of faith in what Capcom is saying right now because they have changed their minds on these things before but there is this possibility to consider – remember those Versus kits we talked about in January, the ones that would finally bring 2 player matches to one cabinet AND include an English translation? Those are slated for a release in March, and it seems that a lot of sources discussing this news are overlooking this fact. I already ordered one for my own arcade and I’m patiently waiting for it to arrive and I’ve heard of others who are doing the same. Could the existence of these kits be pushing Capcom in a different direction? As someone who has already spent a nice chunk of money in securing one, it’s nice news to know that we might have more time to enjoy some exclusive content for the arcade edition. I say that since Capcom could always change their tune but if they decide to stick with their guns on this, then that will make us operators happy.

In regards to the unbalancing that is introduced by Yun and Yang however, that’s not news as it’s been apparent since the beginning that they had some nice advantages. The question is whether or not that has made a big difference as people have played the game. I’ll have to try them out when my kit arrives, it should be interesting to see.

UPDATE: Taking a look at Yoshinori’s Twitter stream it’s not very reassuring for us arcade operators. As Arcade Belgium put it in their Twitter stream in regards to the demands of people who are Tweeting Ono : “You say “arcades are dead” but you don’t give them a chance”. Well put. I’ve noticed that people who claim arcades are dead don’t know a thing about this industry and the reality of how it works. They are quick to jump on the “arcades are dead” bandwagon while demanding that game developers not keep anything exclusive to our medium.

[Also see EDGE]

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5 comments

Simon February 24, 2011 at 4:38 pm

Hi,

What’s the pricing point for a new SFIV AE “Versus” English kit ? Can you order them direct from Capcom of do you have to go through a distributor ?

Thanks,
Simon

Bill February 24, 2011 at 7:27 pm

Wow, hope this news holds true. We also ordered the 2 player kit, should be here in a few weeks. We passed on the original offer of needing two kits to upgrade our SF4’s. Keeping this an arcade exclusive would help restore some of my faith in the buying of fighting games. Fighters have been rough for us the last couple years, the players vanish the day of the home release.

editor February 25, 2011 at 9:49 am

Just wanted to try and put a lid on a lot of the gossip doing the rounds that the SSFIVAE version will not come out in US arcades. No statement has been made by Taito that they will treat the international sale offer any differently for the US – most of us will get more information on US pricing at AmuseExpo next week.

Attempts from any Capcom US ‘claimed’ representatives that the game will not be released in US arcades is untrue and based on a internal rift over making official statements – dont get sucked in – just wait on Arcade Heroes to give the final official word after the show.

A quick word for console fanboys – you just keep on making claims that the arcade scene is dead – proves how much of a hole you guys are really in!

Craig February 25, 2011 at 1:59 pm

Why would you believe AE would ever be arcade only, do some math.

Super Street Fighter 4 has sold over 1.5 million units worldwide, vanilla has sold over 3 million. How many arcades are there left in America? 200? How many of those are actually going to fork over the cash for an expensive AE upgrade, 50?

So here’s the real question, why would you leave it on arcade when you can take the same code, compile it for console and I guarantee snag at least half of the Super Street Fighter sales in the first week. That’s not even counting any extra costumes they add to AE to monetize the game even more.

I feel for you arcade owners I really do, but all you’re going to get is a grace period of arcade exclusiveness to allow you to make a chunk of your money back. It’s definetly coming to console, unless Capcom decided they hate money.

arcadehero February 25, 2011 at 2:22 pm

I never said I believed that AE would be arcade only. The thought is intriguing where Mr. Ono was saying it in one place but as I assumed, he quickly backtracked on that. He obviously could care less about his credibility.

But let’s discuss something you said. There are many more arcades in the US alone than 200. Where did you come up with that number? Thin air? Does ANYONE who believes that arcades are dead in America ever bother to do some checking into it? I spent about a minute looking around the internet and this is what I came up with: Aurcade.com lists 762 locations alone and it has an incomplete list. ArcadeFly.com has nearly 2000 locations on their site, and even that is incomplete. In Play Meter Magazine’s recent State of the Industry report, they list 2,700 Arcade, 110,000 Street and 1,900 FEC locations for a total of 114,600 locations with arcade equipment on hand. I would not be surprised if that number is also incomplete as they miss people – I’m pretty sure my own location isn’t counted on that list as I’ve never been contacted by them. No it’s not helpful that we have incomplete lists but as you can see by looking through a few sources of information, there are many more locations out there than people assume exist.

So if we want to talk math, those are some numbers that the entire idea behind “arcades are dead” chant need to face up to. I guarantee that many, many locations would gladly hop onto the SSFIV AE bandwagon given the chance. The new Versus kit can do just that – get the game at a lower price and on one cabinet, saving money. Capcom could make a good killing off of arcade sales if they wanted to. Capcom’s inconsistency with their dealings is something that hurts their sales. Operators don’t want to be burned on buying a fighter but we constantly are and thus many stay away from the investment.

And here’s the problem too: “all you’re going to get is a grace period of arcade exclusiveness to allow you to make a chunk of your money back” That’s a terrible way to do business and good arcade companies realize that. Fighters will forever remain a subclass in arcades if we’re only “allowed” to make a chunk of our money back on them. We want games that will give us great ROI – where it will not only pay itself off as quickly as possible but make us some money too. I’ve got a family to feed and it would be nice to hire multiple employees. I can’t do that if the money isn’t coming in where I have to compete with a console release of a game I have sitting in my arcade. Sure the loyal players will stick with it but many will stay home at that point, it’s been proven time and time again.