Outrage Sparks as Capcom Announces Pay-Per-View for Capcom Cup 12

Over the weekend, Capcom shared news about the ticket prices for the upcoming Capcom Cup 12. However, alongside that they snuck in an extremely controversial change, Capcom Cup will now use a pay-per-view model.

Those who want to watch the stream live or access the VoD in under a week, will have to pay at least 4,000 JPY, which equates to roughly 27 USD. The full package goes for 6,000 JPY, taking it to 40 USD. Safe to say, this is hardly an appealing offer, and already caused quite a stir in the community.

Some of you will recall a similar incident during 2011 Canada Cup, when Duong tried to run a premium stream for 8 dollars and 95 cents. This caused a massive backlash back then, and the sentiment on paid fighting game streams hasn't changed since.

Notably, one of the major criticisms towards this decision is that it's unlikely to actually add any value to the viewers. You will still likely see ad breaks, as breaks between matches are necessary to get people ready and get things set up. And it's certainly not going to lead to better benefits for the players. We're essentially looking at the same offering as always, but now you're expected to pay for it.

It's not too late for Capcom to go back on this decision, since the ticket sales don't open till November, but if they don't, this could have a pretty disastrous impact on the performance and reception of Capcom Cup and even Street Fighter 6 itself. After all, tournament streams tend to pull community together to get excited and discuss the game, which in turn motivates new players to give the game a try. If you gatekeep this with a fairly outrageous PPV ticket price (or, frankly, anything less than free), then you won't have the same hype around the event.

With that said, it should be noted that the relationship between Street Fighter 6 and its audience is quite different in Japan, where it has become a monumental hit, and the rest of the world. As such, it's hard to say what results this might have. If enough people in Japan are willing to pay for it, Capcom might still consider this a success and ignore the criticism.

As a reminder, this also follows a recent bizarre update about the restreaming rules for Street Fighter League, which only allowed showing the timer with no audio. It's clear that Capcom is aiming to make their esports ventures more profitable, but such a heavy-handed approach they might just achieve the exact opposite effect.