Street Fighter V is the gift that keeps on kicking fans in the shins, as Capcom has nonchalantly added in-game adverts to the title this week. While there was uproar when the publisher announced this, we’ve been waiting to see what kind of guise they’d actually take – and the results have had us creasing with laughter here at Push Square Towers.
Sometimes, you’ve just got to giggle at how brain-dead these publishers can be. Okay, so the first kind of commercial isn’t really all that bad – you’ll see a ‘Supported By’ message during loading screens, which promotes various bits and pieces of add-on content. It’s no different to the kind of promotional messages you see in sports games, and while it’s not great in a full-priced product, it’s easily ignored.
The other form of advertising, though, is so egregious that it borders on outright barmy. So the publisher has added Capcom Pro Tour emblems to various stages, but it hasn’t stopped there – it’s also slapped them on its iconic cast. This means that the kanji on the back of Akuma’s outfit has now crudely been replaced by a promotional logo, as has the tattoo on Guile’s arm.
Considering these are iconic, timeless characters it’s… Well, it’s disgusting to see them treated in this way. You can turn the advertising off, foregoing a small trickle of additional Fight Money in the process – but that’s not the point. These are among gaming’s most recognisable heroes, and Capcom’s treating them like cheap advertising hoardings.
And for what? We have to imagine that the people playing Street Fighter V are aware of the Capcom Pro Tour, and even if they’re not, is plastering the logo everywhere really going to make them more interested in it? Perhaps the long-term goal for the publisher is to sell this ad space, but the second Pepsi Max starts appearing on M. Bison’s chest is the second that this legendary series dies for good.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 53
This is both hilarious and disgusting.
God help us all if we end up with third party ads further down the line.
I can't help but laugh. It's just too ridiculous.
If you don't want ads then pay for the game!! Oh... wait... It's not free to play? Well done Capcom, you absolutely vile creatures.
Ryu vs Ken.
Sponsored by Andrex.
Seems fitting.
Publishers wanting all the money again. At least give us the DLC fighters for free if your going to do that.
Soon the character's heads are going to be replaced with signs jutting from their torsos advertising character packs and esports.
Man, that's pretty pathetic. Capcom is treating the game like a free-to-play mobile game, plastering ads all over the place.
In my opinion, the objective of these advertises are to be used in tournaments and it going to be interesting to see how this is going to be implemented.
@HungryWolf That's a really good point, I hadn't even thought of that!
That’s pretty dumb. I play this game a lot, not on pro level, but I play arcade and get in some online play. I’m well aware of the Capcom Pro Tour, so I don’t need to see the logo to show up like this. And you have to use fight money to remove it? Did I read that right?
@Deadlyblack I can see it now...
"Ryu, what's your motivation for entering this fighting tournament? A bitter rivalry, perhaps, or your family honour?"
"Nope."
"Then what?"
"I just can't get enough of the smooth taste of Bud Light."
Personally have no issues with ads being in games. However who in their right mind thought to make them so outlandish and garish. They look comically out of place and just plain awful. It's like someone at Capcom just learned how to use Microsoft Paint and started copying and pasting randomly lol.
Somebody needs to take a page from mario kart when creating ads (granted the mario kart ads are fake but they are EVERYWHERE) in games. I get it though. Capcom is really pushing the esports scene...as a FG fan I actually want to see tourney pushes as I personally consider them important but the way this was done was a bit silly.
This game, along with no man sky, is the reason I don't preorder games anymore before reading the reviews. Capcom should just burn this game to the ground and focus on street fighter 6.
Now we need Cup Noodles in Street Fighter V with all the FF XV cast.
I wouldn't mind having pornhub adverts as loading screens... Did I just say this out loud? Oh no, that's ok, I just posted this as a comment. No body will notice.
@RogerRoger Then the Bud Light knight will walk up to Ryu, hand him a cold Bud Light and they'll walk off together into the sunset.
That'll be Ryu's arcade ending in Street Fighter 6.
I thought screenshots of the logos plastered all over the characters were a joke. I still can't believe this is real.
These ads are ENTIRELY OPTIONAL and can be turned on and off at any time... but sure yes, make fun of the only fighting game that actually gives you ways to get post launch content without robbing you and praise Tekken 7 that made us pay for Game Modes and options that were free in previous games.
I don't use the character ones but I keep them on for stages and loading screens, it gives the game a very e-sport vibe and keeps me informed on the various promotions...
@shonenjump86 No, you can turn them on and off in the battle settings and to get them on characters you actually have to REALLY, really want it and go through a lot of hassle by selecting a specific costume as your favourite and then turn the ads on...it's a very uninformative piece of "journalism" you have here, just trying to get clicks.
Oh, I just remembered the Mario Kart Mercedes endorsement. Didn't download the free cars and it kinda made me sick to see that stuff appear out of nowhere. In some games it can add some realism even but mostly I'm against this kind of stuff. If I want to see ads I download pretty much any game from Google Play. Paid games should NEVER have ads. Even promoting your own add-ons like the Horizon DLC on the title screen somewhat breaks the immersion.
Stick Ninja Turtles DLC character in there, for free, sponsored by Dominos, that might make sense. That isn't this though. Garbage.
Im happy i sold this garbage.
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Just keep the adds out of games we pay €60 for it. As for free to play go nuts i never get those anyway. 😉
@Feena You cant get points if you turn them off Jimquistion. 👍
And they kill us with the cosmetic stuff already please.
They already added microtransactions for leveling up in DMC5. They are turning into Activision Blizzard/EA/Ubisoft.
@Feena ah, thanks. I’ll boot up the game later on today and see for myself.
This reads like a bad April Fool's joke, but you just know that Capcom are testing the water with this to see what they can get away with putting into a full price game, likely with a view to selling more lucrative third party ads in the future, and if they do get away with it and it is financially lucrative for them then you can bet that the other AAA publishers will be jumping on that bandwagon and riding it all the way to moneyville, gradually making the ads more and more intrusive and immersion-breaking over time, just like how MTX got worse and worse until we ended up with glorified gambling in full price games!
Street Fighter V has been a bit of a mess since the start, Capcoms fixation on the tournament scene has largely ruined what should have been the best fighting game this generation. Having said that I can't get too angry at this as you can turn it off and it's effectively only advertising itself. Things like Blanka being DLC and no arcade at launch were far worse.
One question, if you buy the deluxe arcade edition or whatever it's called don't you have all the fighters anyway and won't need the fight money? If so I'm pretty curious about the game as apparently the gameplay is actually pretty good
@Flaming_Kaiser Actually you still get points as usual if you turn them off...these ads give you a rather small boost...maybe let somebody who actually plays the game almost everyday explain how the update work before getting all riled up?
@Flaming_Kaiser
Jimquisition was wrong in that statement. Like it says in the article "You can turn the advertising off, foregoing a small trickle of additional Fight Money in the process", if you leave ads on, you get an additional 12FM (really CAPCOM!!!). I recommend reading https://www.vg247.com/2018/12/12/street-fighter-5-in-game-ads/ for more.
@Feena "You can turn the advertising off, foregoing a small trickle of additional Fight Money in the process – but that’s not the point. These are among gaming’s most recognisable heroes, and Capcom’s treating them like cheap advertising hoardings."
@carlos82 the game is good, with arcade edition you would have all the characters from season 1 and 2. You would still need fight money (or just pay) for the season 3 characters (and season 4 that is probably starting next monday). You don't need the ads for fight money.
@ShogunRok 1) it reads like a footnote after the big "let's get people riled up" article and the way it is phrased is not very clear. It can be read as: you need to pay a small amount of fight money to turn the ads off. As a matter of fact one commenter already thought so.
2) To get the ads on the characters you really, really have to want it. You have to go in the battle settings and set your favourite fighter costume to "sponsored", so you won't ever actually see those logos on the characters unless you really wanted to...also: this is only for online matches and doesn't affect any other game mode.
What!? That's it? I don't like fighting games but come on people, this isn't bad at all, like all of you are making it out to be. I was expecting full on commercials from the title, like mobile games or something... I don't know, I just don't see what's getting people so worked up for.
The screen cap above looks so much like a mockup I have to laugh, but it apparently isn't.
eSports, particularly the business side of it, has been discussed a lot in the FGC pretty much since SFV came out. There's been quite a divide over it, so I imagine this is going down well as we speak.....
Personally, even if it's optional, I still think it looks silly. The logos on the outfits are easily the worst aspect of this. I mean, Akuma shilling tournaments during the Raging Demon looks so wrong. I'm just waiting for a fan edit with the CPT emblem during the win animation after that.
I won’t lie, this games has it ups and downs and a rocky launch. But I still love it. @Feena does have point, about buying the characters without actually money. You gotta grind like crazy to get that fight money though, but it’s there. As much as I’m looking forward to the characters in Tekken 7, I can’t exactly buy this with the money you earn in Treasure mode.
@Feena SFV is a good game, but I think this is an unbelievably tone deaf move from Capcom. This project has been mismanaged since day one and this just looks terrible, in my opinion.
@ShogunRok
SFV was always geared to eSport. And this, is another move to capitalize on that regard.
You are right about Akuma's Raging Demon having an advert in the context of the character is silly. But in the context of a tournament like EVO or Capcom Cup? Is an opportunity to get more revenue for those events. In the end, is just a business move.
@HungryWolf You're right, but it's a business move that makes a lot more sense in a free-to-play game.
To me, all this says is that Capcom got the business model completely wrong for Street Fighter V. Clearly it hasn't been making the company the money that it requires (taking things like the Capcom Cup into account).
So in that sense, it's gotta be poor management on Capcom's side. We shouldn't have to get to a point where in-game ads are even an option.
@ShogunRok Not really my point, I know you like the game and that it has been mismanaged but an article like this really get people up in arms for nothing...and btw the game is free to play right now and Capcom Cup Finals are starting this weekend (and the ads surely will make sense in that contest), just put all the informations out there since you are writing about the game. I don't want to sound too critical but in this case it really seems you guys are trying to create controversy instead of giving informations
@Feena I dunno, to me, Sammy's article just comes across as more disappointed in Capcom than anything. It's just rubbish that we're at a point now where a game like Street Fighter has to rely on in-game ads.
@ShogunRok
I think Capcom should have made SFV, from the beginning, a free-to-play game with 8 characters (think DOA5 Core Fighters).
The problem is, at that time, F2P was an ugly word for console gaming, and something that devalues a franchise, specially a renown franchise like SF.
@HungryWolf Agreed, but Capcom went and damaged the franchise anyway by releasing a full price game that was largely deemed "unfinished".
Maybe Capcom should have relaunched SFV as a free-to-play title? I don't really know. It just feels like SFV has been unable to readjust ever since it released. Started off on the wrong foot and Capcom's never quite been able to set it right, and now we're here.
Ultimately I think it's just a huge shame.
@3MonthBeef Haha, it is indeed - afraid I can't take any credit for coining that phrase though...I basically watch too much youtube! 😉
@Flaming_Kaiser a toast to that one, i sold the game when they added the loot boxes but this just takes the packet.
@ShogunRok I dunno, I think they managed to turn the game around pretty well, arcade edition has 87% on Metacritic and I really don't think Capcom has to "rely" on the ads, it's just trying new ways to get money since the game is very e-sport friendly. And really there are many informations on things currently happening in SFV that could have been included in the article. That said I totally think the logos looks stupid but it's not such a big deal...
These look so tacky. It's amazing that Capcom have been doing such a fine job with Monster Hunter lately but yet keep messing up Street Fighter V whenever they get the chance.
No wonder why I haven't bought this mess of a game, I'm surprised this is the same company that give us the masterful game MHW with FREE updates throughout the year
Please tell me that picture is photoshopped...
@Onion It’s Real.
As a die hard sf fan since the sf1 arcade days this just kills me. And for those that say oh u can just turn it off, well thats not entirely true because u will still face opponents who have it turned on and im forced to see their god awful ad adored characters etc.
Plus this could lead into bigger worse long term things.
What im praying for is that this whole thing is JUST for this week leading up to capcom cup since sf is free to play atm. If they only did this the 1 or 2 weeks leading up to cap cup every year than fine but if i have to look at this garbage from now on then just.. wow capcom.
Im confused though, why when looking at SF (or MvsC) does it seem like capcom are a cruddy little indie company with no budget but then u look at resident evil or monster hunter etc and suddenly the games are super polished and of the highest quality? I dont get it.
They've just slapped it anywhere there is room!
@huyi I was the idiot who bought it on release i was such a idiot... 😑
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