At the currently ongoing EVO 2015, Capcom made some shocking revelations during their panel about the upcoming Street Fighter V which should have fans extremely pleased. The company that is known for releasing three more iterations of the same game (Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Ultra Street Fighter IV) announced that all the extra playable characters and content added post-launch will be free. In layman’s terms, the original disk will be the only thing you need to own for the duration of the titles lifetime.

Here are the highlights of the presentation:

• The initial release is the only disc you will need to own.
• All balance and system adjustments will be available for free.
• All post-launch gameplay related content will be earnable by playing the game.
• Street Fighter V will launch with a core roster of 16 playable characters.
• Will feature 4 brand new fighters to the Street Fighter universe.
• Plan to continuously add new characters to the roster post-launch.
• Every post-launch character is erasable for free via gameplay!

I for one applaud the company for taking this consumer-friendly approach. We need more of this in an industry that continuously chooses to nickel and dime people for every last piece of DLC. Hopefully this becomes a trend now, since CD Projekt Red took a similar approach where they released 16 pieces of free DLC.

Here’s a bit more clarification from the company:

That’s right; Street Fighter V will be the first iteration in the franchise where it is possible for dedicated players to earn all gameplay related content (such as characters) for FREE, simply by playing the game.  Long gone are the days of forced Super and Ultra upgrades! Enjoy free balance updates as soon as they become available, and find and choose the post-launch characters that you want to get.

Some were hoping that an “Ultra” or “Super” version would one day hit the Xbox One with all the extras included in the package, but it looks like they are ridding themselves of the necessary redundancy. Plus, Sony and Capcom are both adamant that the title will be a pure exclusive and not just timed. But, only time will tell. It’s hard to trust what is said with such murky terminology being used these days, ala Rise of The Tomb Raider.

Also, there was plenty of thought that went into this decision:

Looking back on the Street Fighter IV series, we had always released bundles of content all at once, like with Super Street Fighter IV and Ultra Street Fighter IV. While these one-time updates did revive interest in the series every few years, it was difficult to keep players engaged for long periods of time unless they were competitive. This also punished players who took a break from playing the game, because if they wanted to start again in a few years, they would be forced to purchase an upgrade to join the existing player pool who had already moved on to a new version. On top of that, this old method also forced players to purchase all of the new content, even if only a few characters may have appealed to them.

Does this reinvigorate your love of the fighter? Let us know in the comments section below.

HT: Capcom