Street Fighter 6 Gamers Rage At Capcom For Awful Monetization Tactics
Capcom announced on the the social media network formerly known as Twitter, and now called X, that its "Outfit 3" DLC for all 18 launch characters in Street Fighter 6 is now available. Unfortunately for Capcom, the announcement did not go over so well, resulting in players calling out the publisher for its "dreadful pricing." One user called it "EXTREMELY predatory," a sentiment that repeated itself in the thread. So, what's all the fuss about?
The ire is not over the costumes themselves, or even the fact that Capcom is selling skins on top of the game's base price. It's the pricing model that is riling up fans of the Street Fighter franchise. And specifically, what's at issue is how Capcom prices its Fighter Coins, which is the in-game currency that can be used to buy various digital bits (essentially microtransactions), including the new costumes.
Players can only buy Fighter Coins in certain bundles. Here's how pricing breaks down...
- 2,750 Fighter Coins: $49.99 / £38.99
- 1,250 Fighter Coins: $23.99 / £18.99
- 610 Fighter Coins: $11.99 / £9.99
- 250 Fighter Coins: $4.99 / £3.99
It costs 300 Fighter Coins per skin in the Outfit 3 lineup. That means an investment of 5,400 Fighter Coins to dress up all 18 characters with the new skins, which entails purchasing two of the 2,750 Fighter Coin packs for right around $100, plus several extra dollars for tax.
Cornelius Fudge Cake on X/Twitter offered one of the tamer responses to Capcom's announcement, calling the prices "simply absurd" and urging fellow gamers to "stop paying these ridiculous prices for content if we want future DLC to be reasonably priced.
What players are also finding to be a point of frustration is that in order to buy a single costume, they would have to overspend on a Fighter Coin pack and either buy two of the 250 packs for right around $10, or the 610 pack for around $12. There's no option to pay a reduced amount for the exact amount of Fighter Coins needed for one skin.
Capcom added to the frustration by clarifying in the thread, "Unlike Outfit 2, Outfit 3 is only available for purchase and cannot be unlocked via World Tour, hence the price difference."
Several responses to Capcom's announcement called out the publisher for failing to read the room. The thing is, Capcom is read a room, just not necessarily the one gamers are hoping for—Warner Bros. Games has been similarly criticized for its in-game pricing model for Mortal Kombat 1.
"SF6 Vs MK1: Which company can exploit their fanbase's love by absolutely annihilating their wallets more?!," X/Twitter user @Adam407 wrote.
Despite the outcry, as long as these things continue to pull in obscene amounts of revenue, publishers are not likely to change their ways. It's as shame, too, because otherwise Street Fighter 6 is garnering heaps of praise for its overall gameplay.
