Especially with the recent unveiling of Season 2 and the exciting introduction of longtime fan favorite Akuma, there’s plenty to love about the way Street Fighter 6 is growing these days.
That said, Street Fighter 6 is a fighting game in 2024, which means it has microtransactions practices that leave a good portion of its user base feeling more gouged than good. Head developers Takayuki Nakayama and Shuhei Matsumoto were recently asked by Kotaku whether or not they and their team plan to change these practices at all.
Downloadable content has been a tricky beast across the gaming landscape for the better part of the last two decades now, as striking a healthy balance in an equation that has so many variables and asks players to fork over additional cash beyond the game’s purchase price was never going to be easy.
Fans of the Street Fighter franchise have come to expect DLC characters to cost them a few extra bucks, but have also noticed that the same $30 that got them six-character bundles back in Street Fighter 5 now only gets them four newcomers in Street Fighter 6.
When it comes to not as necessary content, such as specialized skins and accessories for custom avatar creations, players were quickly appalled at the $15 price tags on each of the four Ninja Turtle costumes that dropped back in August, and similarly so at January’s $24 space suit bundle.
Adding to the negative emotions in the atmosphere is the fact that you can’t simply fork over the exact price and get the content you’re aiming for, but instead must purchase SF6’s in-game premium currency (Fighter Coins) which only comes in specific bundles.
Rarely do these bundles add up to the amount one needs, and so you’ll often wind up spending more to get the appropriately sized bundle and then having a few stray Fighter Coins left over after the exchange. While perhaps not a deal breaker that’s going to turn most fans away from SF6 entirely, it is a practice that tends to leave a bad taste in mouths and has proven to be a rub on the SF6 developer/player relationship.
Kotaku asked Director Nakayama and Producer Matsumoto whether or not Capcom is happy with their current approach to SF6’s microtransactions, and for as much dismay as fans have expressed online, it doesn’t sound like they’re sending the same message with their wallets.
“I mean people seem to be very interested in purchasable content especially that associates with the actual characters in the Fighting Ground Mode,” replied the developers. “And we see a lot of interest towards that so it’s something that we will continue looking into and seeing if there’s any new stuff that we can just…but in terms of the system it’s probably going to be as is.”
That’s not exactly the answer many would like to hear on this front, but with as strong a product as Street Fighter 6 has proven to be over its first year (plus the fact that much of the contested content is extremely optional in nature) it’s probably something we’ll stomach.
Chime into the comments below on your thoughts when it comes to SF6’s second season as well as its DLC practices.