History is something we’re meant to learn from. If we don’t, we’re going to keep repeating the mistakes of the past, and who wants that? Unfortunately, when it comes to video games, plenty of developers make mistakes that need to do better in their next iteration or else doom themselves and the franchise. For Capcom, it’s pretty easy to point out Street Fighter V as one of their biggest mistakes. The title followed the hit 4th title and could’ve expanded the series to new heights. But instead, they took shortcuts, lots of them, and as a result, the franchise suffered.
The irony of those statements can be seen in the tweet that the official handle for the franchise posted to celebrate its 7th anniversary. It looks at only the positive elements of the game versus what truly happened with it:
It is technically accurate that it was a good fighting game in its “final form,” but it didn’t start out that way. When the original title dropped in 2016, it was known as a “bare bones” and “lean” fighting game by many fans and critics. It had a small roster of fighters to play, minimal modes to do battle in, and it didn’t have a story mode.
It was only through DLC and free updates that many of the franchise’s established features appeared. Moreover, when the game launched, they said they wouldn’t release multiple versions as they had done with past entries. But when the backlash for the title hit, they had no choice but to improve the game, then release not one but two different versions of the same title.
As for the DLC packs, those weren’t as beloved as the tweet makes it seem. Many didn’t like the price of getting these fighters, especially since some of them should’ve been in the game from the start.
Street Fighter V wasn’t a failure in the end, but it walked up to that line and made people wonder if this was the end of the line.
In fact, when Street Fighter 6 was in the early stages of development, the team fought against the higher-ups at Capcom to ensure that everything they wanted to put into the game at launch was there. They wanted to make up for what happened and bring players the most complete game possible.
So perhaps they did learn from history. We’ll see how well when the next game launches in June.
