With the release of Capcom’s upcoming Street Fighter V drawing ever closer, more and more details of the game come to light. Most recent and noteworthy to hit public ears was the set of changes to be made to the DLC distribution model, revealed and outlined by Capcom community manager Peter Rosas on the official PlayStation blog. Right off the bat, three points of the content strategy are outlined:

1. The initial release is the only disc you will ever need to own

2. All balance and system adjustments will be available for free

3. All post-launch gameplay related content will be earnable for free by playing the game

Rosas goes on to say that,

…Street Fighter V will be the first iteration in the franchise where it is possible for dedicated players to earn all gameplay related content (such as characters) for free, simply by playing the game. Long gone are the days of forced Super and Ultra upgrades! Enjoy free balance updates as soon as they become available, and find and choose the post-launch characters that you want to get.

Fans will remember the painful content update packages that Capcom used in an attempt to keep Street Fighter IV fresh and new as time passed. The original Street Fighter IV launched in 2009, February for consoles and July for PCs, but had three updates over the years in the form of new versions of the game. Super Street Fighter IV was released April, 2010 followed by Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition only eight months later, December, 2010. After four years of collecting feedback from competitive and casual players alike, Capcom released Ultra Street Fighter IV in 2014, June 3rd for the console upgrade for owners of the predecessor, August 5th for the full retail console version, and August 8th for both PC versions. 

The kicker was that each of these updates were required in order to play Street Fighter IV online. Any players that didn’t immediately purchase the updates were stuck playing alone until they did, and players that left the game and returned later on were punished for not keeping up to date and a paywall is erected between the game and these players, hurting Capcom in both scenarios.

This fresh new DLC strategy doesn’t have every detail ironed out quite yet, but the important mechanics mentioned above are very much set in stone. Purchasing content in-game will involve two varieties of currency to be implemented. The first variety, Fight Money, will be the currency earned in-game by simply playing the game. Exactly what the cost of the content will be or how long Capcom feels is necessary for players to grind out Fight Money has yet to be decided or announced. The second variety is Zenny and will only be acquired through real-money purchases. Once again, the exchange rate on Zenny has yet to be decided upon.

Despite the absence of specific costs and numerical values, the news brings a sigh of relief to the competitive and hardcore players responsible for the series’ lasting popularity. Capcom is certainly beginning to lean toward a player-first philosophy, and the consumer base welcomes the change with open arms.