Capcom Responds to the Capcom Cup PPV Controversy

Last month, Capcom announced that Capcom Cup 12 will be a littler bit different. Rather than allowing anyone and everyone to watch the tournament, you will have to buy a fairly expensive pay-per-view ticket. If you don't, you can still watch the event, but only a week later, when the VoDs will become public.

The public reaction was naturally extremely hostile. Both pros and spectators pointed out that while the cost is high, the value you get out of this is very little. Many, if not most, would rather just not pay to watch a stream of people playing SF6 in the middle of the night. Not to mention that it would still likely feature just as many break ads as before, and offers nothing special in return for your money.

The director of SF6, Takayuki Nakayama, has addressed this matter on X shortly after by pointing out that the game development department and the esports division are separate groups at Capcom, and the developers had no say in how Capcom Cup 12 situation was handled, but he will try to talk about them about finding a solution.

It seems like Capcom has finally decided to make a move, and addressed the situation in the following tweet.

Translation via Google Translate:

Notice regarding paid tickets for Capcom eSports events> Starting today, we will begin accepting lottery applications for tickets to the "CAPCOM CUP 12" and "Street Fighter League: World Championship 2025" events at the Kokugikan Sumo Hall.

▼For more information▼ https://sf.esports.capcom.com/capcomcup/cc12/

We announced at Tokyo Game Show on September 28 that we would be charging a fee for live viewing of both tournaments. We have received a lot of feedback from fans and are reviewing the details.

We are currently considering adjusting the price for paid live viewing.

We plan to announce the pricing of live viewing tickets, as well as the background and intention behind this, in late October. We appreciate your patience.

We appreciate your continued support of Capcom eSports events.

As nice as it is to see an official response, this ain't it. A mere price adjustment is not going to fix the core sentiment around this decision, or any other issues that people have pointed out. It seems like Capcom is still very much intent on going through with the PPV model, and it seems like we'll soon learn more about why exactly this is the case later this month.