Capcom President Thinks You Didn't Like PPV Because You Were Sleeping

Recently Famitsu spoke with Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto. Following company's 43rd anniversary, the interview reflects on Capcom's past, and how it managed to secure such a strong position in the industry, with majority of their recent releases really hitting it off.

Among the discussions surrounding Capcom's business strategy and important titles, they also touched a bit on Street Fighter 6. In particular, the esports side of the game, where Tsujimoto had some truly puzzling things to say.

To start things off, he talks about the usual publisher practice of losing money on tournaments, but then recouping those losses through game sales, with tournaments essentially acting as a marketing tool that fosters the community and pro scene while also getting more eyes on the game.

Standard as it is, Tsujimoto thinks that's not good enough, and esports should be made into a "viable business" like real sports. According to him, the fighting game esport scene that started from quite literally nothing, will not grow unless it's promoted like big time professional baseball and soccer matches.

This leads into a conversation about their paid stream plans for Capcom Cup. Apparently it sold really well domestically, but not so much anywhere else. Tsujimoto's explanation for this? It's hard for people to watch a real time stream of a Japanese event when it's the middle of the night.

No doubt there is logic to that, but it's extremely tone deaf to presume this to be the real reason when social media was exploding with criticism around the time Capcom Cup aired. People simply have no interest in paying for fighting game competition that they usually watch for free. Even if Capcom Cup is a big deal, high level matches happen all the time, and there's no rush to watch the event live when it's going to be up on YouTube later on.

The few who absolutely wanted to catch a glimpse were still watching it through pirated streams, and what they saw is production that is not any better (and occasionally much worse) than tournaments they watch for free.

Tsujimoto seems to think that this can be fixed by holding the even in NA, but it's a massive sign of disconnect or ignorance that he doesn't acknowledge the real issues.

Especially hilarious to see that this was followed up by comments about the design of Street Fighter 6 characters. Tsujimoto had requested that the team avoids sexual depictions, and thought that fans would accept existing characters if they age naturally. Does that come through in the game? Not at all. Street Fighter 6 DLC bikini outfits are as hot as ever, and the base roster is filled with attractive, and overtly (even if tastefully) sexualized characters. Not to mention, the only characters that really show age are the ones that were already generally old, like Sagat, Dhalsim, and Bison. Some would mention Chun-Li, but I challenge you to find a single mark of old age on her face. Just as men age through not shaving for a week, female characters typically "age" through their wardrobe, make-up, and hairstyle choices.

Tsujimoto says that much of Street Fighter 6 was designed with consideration for "what makes a suitable esports title," but his sensibilities and those of the Street Fighter team are probably quite far apart.