-As some of you may or may not have heard, after finally running out of words to put before the title and releasing almost the same game over and over again, Capcom has announced the next new numbered game in their ever legendary fighting game series – Street Fighter 5.
-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, it’s exclusive to PS4… Oh, and for PC too. For some reason, some people tends to forget to mention that it’s coming to PC too. Pretty weird, huh?
-Soooooooo, fuck you, Xbox One owners? Okay, okay, hold on… Let’s stop for a moment and try to think about this for a while before we go and fetch the pitchforks and torches, alright?
-So, what the hell is going on here? Why did Capcom just up and made their new game an exclusive title for the PS4 and PC, forgetting all about poor Microsoft? Well, the first thought that comes to my mind when I first heard the news is the fact that the Xbone isn’t doing so hot of a job back in the Land of the Rising Sun, so much so to the point that the CEO in Microsoft Japan’s Division had to step down from the failure. So maybe this could be attributed to the fact that Capcom doesn’t want to waste resources on a game that most Japanese people wouldn’t purchase.
-But wait! Surely they must’ve known that Street Fighter is a world-famous series that transcends across all the borders of the world. Surely they must’ve known that there must be those who’s a fan of Street Fighter and owns an Xbox One in other countries! So if they’re planning to make a worldwide release of Street Fighter 5, it would be more profitable to just make it all out on every single console, right? Surely Capcom cared about its Western audiences right? Right? Uh… right? Can, uh… someone confirm that, please?
-Anyway, so, what really happened? What went through everyone’s minds? Some said that it’s because Microsoft refused the cross-play service, something new they wanted to do with the new Street Fighter where players get to fight with others across different platforms. So is it because Microsoft doesn’t want its players to play and mingle with those filthy Playstation players and the self-inflated PC Master Race? I’m not really sure about this because there’s little information going around about it so I started sleuthing a bit.
-After doing a bit of digging around, I’ve discovered that the possible reason this happened is simple. It’s all because of money, but probably not the way you’re thinking. For you see, Yoshinori Ono, the cool dude who produced some of the Street Fighter games (basically like Sakurai and Smash Bros.), admitted in a really old interview that for some reason, Capcom ain’t giving him the money and budget for him to make the next numbered game. What the hell, Capcom? I thought this shit was famous?! But apparently, Capcom admitted that they probably won’t have the resources to make a new numbered Street Fighter until somewhere like 2018…
-So because of this, Sony saw an opportunity. They needed a new exclusive and they saw a chance for them to compete against Microsoft’s Killer Instinct so they just swooped in for the kill. Sony helped out Capcom, providing the budget necessary for Ono to make the new game and then, give any necessary resources to assist in the game’s development. Does this situation remind you of anything in particular? That’s right! This is exactly the same thing that happened between Nintendo and Bayonetta 2. Now this, I feel, is more likely what happened because something like this already happened beforehand. Could Capcom made the new Street Fighter 5 all by themselves? Maybe, we don’t know what’s really going on with them. But one thing is for sure, Sony is just the goddamn speed boost, that’s all. Aaaaaah, Business… Well, Bayonetta 2 is still an amazing game tho.
-Frankly, I’m really not as angry as I should’ve been since Street Fighter 5 may or may not have existed as early as this without Sony’s help. Bottom line is: This is just business at work here. But this is obviously still pretty frustrating. I can understand that some Xbox Owners are seriously peeved right now and I can see why. Their favourite series just ran away to another console and they have to shell out more money just to get a chance to play it. We can only hope that this ends up being a timed exclusive, in a similar vein to Rise of the Tomb Raider (still a dumb fucking name tho) so that Xbox One owners can at least have a sliver of hope to hold on to and just wait for the game to finally come to their hands sooner or later. But since Bayonetta 2 isn’t coming out for other consoles anytime soon, it’s really hard to tell what’s gonna happen next. But all in all, this is just an unfortunate thing to happen to all the dudes and dudettes out there who owns an Xbox One. You all have my condolences…
-Oh well! Have you heard about Killer Instinct? It’s a pretty cool game or so I’ve heard. You should try checking it out. And while you’re at it, tell me what are your thoughts on this little fiasco, random reader. Are you really furious as hell or are you just mildly frustrated? What do you think about exclusives in general and when is it really ‘okay’ to make a game as an exclusive?
Glorified Rants 