Capcom will go ahead with its plans to paywall Capcom Cup 12 and its accompanying Street Fighter League: World Championship 2025.
The annual events will be adopting a pay-per-view model, meaning that if fans want to watch the official streams, they'll need to cough up.
Naturally, the announcement of such a model went down incredibly badly with Street Fighter 6 enthusiasts, to the point where Capcom had to address the backlash in a statement.
Many believed that the company might have walked its decision back — but that ain't happening.
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As per a new post from the official Capcom Fighters account on social media, the pay-per-view plans will remain in place, although it sounds like the pricing of virtual tickets may be rejigged.
Capcom states:
"The decision to introduce Pay-Per-View live streaming for CAPCOM CUP 12 and Street Fighter League: World Championship 2025 stems from our commitment to promoting our eSports business in a sustainable manner over the medium to long term.
Our goal is to grow these tournaments into internationally competitive events by reinvesting in participating players and teams, our partners, and related business areas.
We sincerely acknowledge the many opinions we have received from everyone and are carefully discussing the matter with all relevant parties. As a result, the coordination process is taking some time."
So, in essence, the publisher acknowledges that not everyone's happy with this approach. But it isn't backing down, and basically says that this model should allow the company to expand its esports operations going forward. Hmmm.
The thing is, Capcom's Street Fighter tournaments have been popular for years. Capcom Cup is one of the biggest events on the fighting game calendar, and so questions will still be asked of why the company feels the need to go down this road.
What's your take on all this? Would you ever pay to watch a Street Fighter tournament? Drop your combo in the comments section below.
Would you pay to watch the Capcom Cup finals? (1,625 votes)
- Yes, I'd honestly pay for it
- No, I draw the line at paying
- Are you serious? I wouldn't watch it to begin with