SFxTekken: Capcoms (not so much an) Update + excessive rant part 2!

And yet it continues! After yesterdays promise that we should be waking up today with fresh news concerning what Capcom are doing about the epically disappointing SFxTekken and its oodles of problems, we instead wake to find a tweet from Seth Killian saying:

So… now the updates are being pushed back until team reviews some details. Looks like even I’m not impervious to being trolled :/

Trolled indeed. Poor you.

Lets hope those details aren’t further DLC milkings, or just saying they cant fix/be bothered to fix it.

Well, if any positives can be gleaned from this, it’s the fact that at least Capcom are willing to actually address us about this properly, and it actually sounds like they might be doing something about it. Probably. We fear getting our hopes up, but we’re surely at a place where Capcom has to take some responsibility for this disaster and do something about it.

Moving on until Capcom are ready to spill their rotting beans, more reveals have surfaced in the form of a further developers blog, which spoke thus:

First of all, we want to thank our fans for all of the support and positive comments we’ve received since Street Fighter X Tekken was released last week. We are extremely proud of the game… it was a huge undertaking for us all and it makes us happy to know that so many players are enjoying our game.

Secondly, we’ve been asked by some players of the Xbox 360 version about the 4-player co-op mode and why it doesn’t work when two players team up (locally) and attempt to play online. Unfortunately, due to time and resource issues, we weren’t able to get that feature into the Xbox 360 version and we apologize to those players who were looking forward to it. Throughout the development process, there are times when new features are added (and we added a lot of them!) and there are also times where we have to make tough decisions regarding things to cut. This was one of those times. This mode is supported in the PlayStation 3 version, however, since we tackled that earlier and found the architecture of their system to be more conducive to implementing it. This is the most content we’ve ever packed into a Street Fighter game, so we hope that there are plenty of other modes and features to keep everyone busy for a long time.

With that said, we have some information regarding new updates for Street Fighter X Tekken coming up soon, so we’ll keep you posted!

That’s it for now. Thank you again for your continued support… keep enjoying the game and providing us with feedback.

See you all again in my next blog!

-Ayano

Interesting. Funny how it’s no longer Microsoft or the architecture of Xbox Live that are at fault. So finally we get a hint of the truth – they ran out of time. Still, it’s funny how they had time to strike up deals with Sony, create platform exclusive characters, and add an incredible amount of paid to unlock DLC in time for the disc to go gold. Maybe they might prioritise key features in the future rather than the things used to rip everyone off. Something tells me that if ‘pair play’ was a paid DLC option, they’d have made darn sure it was good to go at release.

But on top of that, while it’s good to actually start getting answers, it still doesn’t excuse the fact that the omission of the much emphasised feature for the Xbox 360 version WAS NOT REVEALED TO THE PAYING CUSTOMERS! That fact alone is appalling enough in itself regardless of the numerous other problems the game has and just goes to show how underhand Capcom are willing to be.

But we soldier on. For what other news worthy nuggets have we mined from the web this fine day about this whole kerfuffle? Why, there’s a statement from Capcom head honcho and notorious Capcom Unity thread-locker Svensson. Now we don’t expect much from this guy as he’s hugely unprofessional and is the very person who last week incorrectly explained to us all how Xbox Live worked. But let us hear him out once again:

Q: There’s been a recent explosion over Street Fighter X Tekken having downloadable content already on the disc. Was it more of a PR situation where you have to be better explaining to fans upfront what is going on with something like this?

A: It came down to a development process issue more than anything. I wish it had been done differently. I think it just becomes — the rationality of what content costs to make and how you fund that content doesn’t come into play here for the consumer. It’s an emotional issue that I think we need to be sensitive to.

The other part of this is we could have had a better communication strategy around this back at the outset. Left to their own devices, consumers will always jump to the worst possible conclusion. I think what you’ll see in the coming weeks the conclusions that were jumped to were not the correct ones.

Well, you’ve got a heck of a job on your hands, mister. I still find it ludicrous that he is persisting in talking about the DLC as if it’s a separate element of the game. For a start, it’s not DLC. It’s locked content that was created within the time scale of the titles development and completed in time for it to be on the disc but was chosen to be held back. It’s the equivalent of buying GTAIV and having the third island locked until you pay for it. However, the DLC that was created for GTAIV, WAS ADDED AFTER THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORIGINAL GAME! It expanded the game later! They did not hold back content created in the original time frame so people have to pay extra for parts of the game they would have gotten anyway if it weren’t for the possibility of exploiting people through online transactions! Plus, the GTA DLC was actually that – downloadable content!

Whichever way you look at it, it’s certainly going to be most interesting to see how Capcom as a company try to dig themselves out of one of the darkest and groggiest quagmires they have ever found themselves stuck in. The only way to save face would be a statement of the highest order, such as going back on their plans and making a huge gesture to the community. But what’s realistically likely?

They are already selling gems so unlocking them for everyone would be unlikely, and they have already made firm statements on their plans regarding how they handle future unlocks. They have spoken of how they plan to sell the characters on the disc, and they have also detailed a time at which they are intending to make them available – the end of the year, after the PS Vita version comes out. The fact that they almost certainly have a deal with Sony in place regarding holding the characters back until after the launch of the Vita game would probably force this timescale to stand, so what else is there? Well, you would also have to assume that costume packs will be paid for, although they have not said it, but going off of SFIV and Marvel you’d have to guess they had the same in mind in their original plans. I guess making these available for free could be a possibility and a good punt at a ‘sorry’ present. But let’s get real – I’m probably being overly optimistic. At this current time the only ‘DLC’ confirmed to be free are the character edit colours. Or at least they will be when Capcom sees fit to unlock them for us. Yes, you heard me right. As mentioned in our previous article, all the colours are on the disc, but right now we only have the ‘free’ black and white colours open for use. Utterly ridiculous. At a time when other games have full colour wheels open for edits, how can you not want to throw up all over your game?

Well, I guess all we got to do is buckle up and wait to find out what happens, and to see how wrong our conclusions have all been as Svensson implies. However, whether or not we’re as far off the mark as he reckons, he can’t blame us after all we’ve had to put up with. Street Fighter x Tekken just reeks of being the accumulation and fruition of everything Capcom have been gearing themselves towards over the last couple of years. From charging for costume packs in SFIV, to characters already being on the disc in MvC3, and the fact that they are already selling gems in SFxTK while not giving us a specific no-gems game mode, for them to insinuate we are going off the deep end is a ludicrous statement of the highest order.

Still, we wait with anticipation for what Capcom has to say. Over to you. You better make it good.