Capcom received a lot of (justified) stick for its terrible idea of locking away DLC content on the retail disc of Street Fighter x Tekken. The company confirmed that it wouldn’t be making the same mistake again in Street Fighter V.
Recently, Game Revolution had a conversation with the game’s producer Matt Dahlgren, discussing various gameplay mechanics and the business aspects of the game. One particular topic that was intriguing was the DLC content and how they are unlocked.
Matt Dahlgren confirmed in the interview that Street Fighter V would be periodically updated with new arenas, characters, and content. All this additional content could be acquired in two ways: either through purchase with real money, or with an in-game currency called ‘Fight Money.’
“…we have a system that rewards players who stay engaged with the product. If you play, you’ll earn in-game currency called ‘Fight Money,’ which you can use to unlock future DLC characters free of charge. So now you have something to look for in the short term, a goal in mind: if you keep playing the game, you can earn your Fight Money, and if you earn enough, you should be able to get that character free of charge.”
However, when asked about the ‘doability’ of this feature – earning enough Fight Money to actually buy something from it, Dahlgren didn’t really have a concrete answer.
“We’re still trying to find the right balance for that. We do want that to be an achievable goal, make it a realistic goal that if players are continuously playing the game, they can get the character when it drops. If for some reason you didn’t have a lot of time on your hands or you weren’t able to earn enough in-game currency, you can use real money to purchase content instantaneously. [Players] can either earn the content, they can choose to not get the character and choose to save their currency for a future one. It allows a lot more freedom and it’s a lot more forgiving.”
If anything can be derived from in-game currencies, it is that often the requirements are almost impossible to be met by an average gamer, which makes the Fight Money seem more like a marketing strategy than something that would actually be applicable.
Hopefully that isn’t the case though with Street Fighter V. We’re expecting Street Fighter V to be released for PC and PlayStation 4 sometime in Spring 2016.
