Hey everyone. I don't know if you're all as into the Fighting Game scene as I am, but this addresses more than just fighting games in general. We are all aware of these fancy 'Online Passes' that companies create to give you discounts on Downloadable Content. Most of the time, this is fine, because some DLC is off the disk. What this is about is the bigger brother of Downloadable Content: Disk-Locked Content. In a game called Street Fighter x Tekken there are 55 characters on the disk (52 on the XBox). That's a respectable number right? Wrong. In reality, you're paying for 38 characters that are available from the get-go. No, they aren't unlockable, and no, there is no way to get them except for one method. Paying 20 dollars for access to the other 14 characters that are locked out but on the disk. Here is the deal: You pay: 60 USD for the original disk that has 38 characters. You also pay: 20 USD to get 14 additional characters THAT ARE ON THE DISK. You also pay (Except this is the truly optional one, because it DOES NOT AFFECT GAMEPLAY): ~60 USD for all of the Alternate Costumes. That brings us to a grand total of 140 USD. Over 50% of that cost IS STUFF THAT IS LOCKED OUT UNLESS YOU BUY IT. Now you may be saying/thinking 'Well it's optional right? Surely there is a method in which I can only get the 2 or 3 people I want to have on my team...' Well, no. There is no separate buy. In order to get the people you WANT to play (In my case, Cody, Elena, Dudley, and Bryan Fury) you have to buy ALL 14 in ONE PACK for 20 USD. In an Official Statement from Capcom, they state that 'They are on the disk to preserve hard-drive space--' Hold it right there. They are on the disk. There should be no need to conserve hard-drive space because we BOUGHT the disk and as the owner of that disk, we are entitled to -all- of it's content from the very start. The characters we are being denied access to are: Cody, Guy, Elena, Dudley, Sakura, Blanka, Christie, Lei-Wulong, JACK-X, Bryan Fury, Lars Alexanderson, and Alisa Bosconovitch, INCLUDING the so-called 'PS3 Exclusive' Megaman and Pac-Man (I know, don't ask me why Capcom put them into the game.) You may also be saying 'So what? They don't affect gameplay at all.' Well, actually, they do. If it was something trivial like a DLC car from Forza Motorsport or something like that, then it'd be alright, because most of the time, DLC cars are inferior to other cars in the game. However, Fighting Games are a completely different scenario. These are actual -characters- that affect match-ups, tournaments, and gameplay styles. If you go into SFxT's Resource Reference sheet that is encoded into the disk, you will see a line of code before all of the lines in the locked characters names. This line of code is entitled simply UNLOCK. ALL Frame Data, ALL Hitboxes and ALL moves have already been added to their movesets and they are COMPLETED. So why are they excluding characters that are completed from us? Simple. The answer is Greed. Capcom knows that people will pay for characters that they want, but instead of giving it to them from the very start, they lock the characters and charge us for them specifically for one reason: To make money. Street Fighter x Tekken has already sold over 1 million units. This equates to around 60 million USD. Now if you equate the amount of people who have XBox Live and PSN that would download this content, that adds about another 5 to 10 million dollars. This is a successful number in and of itself, but the fact is: We are paying for content that is already on the disk, and we are paying 20 dollars to unlock something that is key to the game's very esscence. It's not just this game too. Companies like Infinity Ward and EA are in the process of doing it right now. They are putting content that is created and completed onto the disk and forcing you to unlock it via payment. It is unacceptable and I find this practice to be wrong and outright money-grubbing. A company may need to make money, but this isn't the way to do it. [video=youtube;9dtFbpDb0Q8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dtFbpDb0Q8&feature=related[/video]
I see nothing wrong with it. Disk-Locked Content is practically the same as DLC, but Capcom just decided to make it a one-buy-get-everything situation. Lots of things are like this.
Except for the fact that we shouldn't have to pay extra for something that's on the disk. It's like if you go to buy a DVD but you have to pay 5 dollars extra to see the ending.
Actually, Capcom is deliberating making Ryu their official mascot since Inafune left. Inafune approved Bad Box Art Megaman to be in the game, hence why he's in.
So basically, they are making DLCs more hacker-friendly? Black and White 2 did this too, except for them, it was that they had the same discs for the regular and collector's edition, except the installer in the latter unlocked an extra creature thing. Result? People cracked the unlock thing. So all you need to do is check what sets the lock/unlock and figure out how to flip it as opposed to actually pirate the content. Thus, having actually bought the content, you are doing nothing illegal. You are simply changing the game files, which is, as long as you do not sell or otherwise profit from it, legal. Derp.
Exactly. People can now hack DLC. Now, this can either be a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective.
Bad for them, they lose money and respect. Good for consumers, or rather, unscrupulous consumers such as I. Then again, hacking this on Xbox might be hard without having like, Linux on it.
Very interesting Saikyo. Talk about a sneaky method to gain money by simply locking away content and then to say that its Downloadable-content.
I'm not much into fighting games, but I've seen this happen a lot and it grates on me like crazy. There's no excuse for it. It is plain and simply pure greed on the dev's part. Come up with something after the game comes out? Cool, release it as DLC. Complete the game but make me pay to even be able to get everything? Really?
Here is the official statement from Ca$hcom 'Justifying' On-Disk DLC. Capcom has defended and explained its decision to pop upcoming Street Fighter x Tekken DLC on disc. Fans reacted angrily yesterday after it emerged that the 12 characters thought to be exclusive to the PS Vita version of the crossover fighting game were in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, due out this Friday - but locked. Yesterday Capcom issued a statement to Eurogamer explaining the decision - and confirmed the 12 characters will eventually be released for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 owners after the launch of the Vita version in the autumn. "Capcom has confirmed that 12 new fan-favourite characters will be available as downloadable content (DLC) on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC versions of Street Fighter X Tekken later this year," Capcom said. "The playable characters will make their debut on the PS Vita system when the game is released this autumn, with the console and PC versions receiving them as DLC soon after. "The character information and files were intentionally included on retail versions of the PS3 and Xbox 360 game to save hard drive space and to ensure for a smooth transition when the DLC is available, allowing players who choose not to purchase the content the ability to play against players that did. "More specifics regarding pricing, dates and other additional exciting DLC plans for Street Fighter x Tekken will be shared at a later date. As a reminder, the retail version of the game will be the only disc-based version consumers will need to own and all future upgrades will come from post-launch DLC. "The new characters fighting their way onto Street Fighter X Tekken are... from the Street Fighter side... Blanka, Cody, Dudley, Elena, Guy and Sakura will be playable and from Tekken... Alisa Bosconovitch, Bryan Fury, Christie Monteiro, Jack, Lars Alexandersson and Lei Wulong will all be available." Online community manager Brett Elston went into more detail on Capcom Unity - and insisted the game fans get at launch has plenty to keep them going. "By including these 12 characters on the disc, the idea was to ensure easy compatibility between players who do and do not choose to download the characters when they arrive as DLC," Elston said. "For example, not buying costumes in the Street Fighter IV series means you will not see the costumes when playing another person who did buy them; on-disc characters avoid this issue and allow everyone to participate in the update without additional patches or hiccups. The update also saves on file size - instead of a massive download, there will be a much smaller unlock that brings the new content to the surface. "This move also furthers our desire to avoid a 'Super' version of the game down the road. Everything you need to enjoy this game for months (and years) to come will be accessed by the retail disc available this week. When the DLC update does come, it will inject new life and excitement into the game by unleashing 12 new fighters into the wild. "SFxT has a ton of content on day one, then later this year we reenergize the whole thing with a hefty DLC update, without the need for a second disc. And while pricing details are still to come, I can at least say it'll be a great value considering the size of the update - 12 new characters is pretty substantial, after all. "I understand the reaction, but SFxT is a damn fun game with a ton of content right out of the gate and more stuff - all designed to keep this fresh - to come."
Capcom is known to do this for almost every game they have made. Then it goes off saying that the DLC will inject new life to the game. But if you were to compare that idea to a game like the super smash bros. series which I clearly know have all their characters for each game with no DLC. They're still well played to this day. Not to mention that modders and hackers go off makeing their own characters with no additional cost. Sure you get new characters but wouldn't you get even more if you were to put those characters in its sequel? Making it have more value. Don't mean to complain this much but it is interesting to dicuss and know about this.
People on Shoryuken.com and Eventhubs.com are already making jokes about 'Super Hyper Turbo Street Fighter x Tekken Arcade Edition 2014'. They said that Super street Fighter 4 would not have another disk based release... but then... ARCADE EDITION~ I've never trusted Ca$hcom, but this is starting to get out of hand.
