Remember when you had to beat the arcade/ story mode to unlocks characters. Those where the good times.

These dlc pricing models are killing any interest I have for one of my favorite game genres.

The problem with DLC these days is for each era, DLC feels less like an expansion of the game & more like an part of the game that was taken out of the base game & sold separately: - Early Era: You had Fighting Games coming out with different iterations they put in arcades & consoles. I'm actually going to give this era a pass since not only was it a time where video games were experimental, but it was also a time before games could be patched & most of the games felt like completed full games. - Incomplete/On-Disc DLC Era: You had many games coming out as incomplete whether it lacked content or was a buggy mess. To add to it, you had companies immediately announcing DLC for said incomplete games, some of which were already on the disc you bought. - Loot Box Era: You're basically paying for a chance to get the item you want in what was essentially gambling (Surprise Mechanics). - In-Game/Mobile Currency Era: In-Game Currency was nothing new. As much as I rag on SFV, it handled its DLC decently. But this day & age has taken it to the max. High-Budget game companies are pretty much doing what mobile Free-To-Play games are doing, but unlike those where it was free, you're still paying full-priced for the game. You're not even paying for the DLC anymore. You're paying for the currency to get the DLC, & often times that currency will be slightly under the amount you wanted.

One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to fighting games is the incessant need to intentionally cut & eventually charge for returning characters.

In game currency only makes sense if you can win it in the game. If you have to spend real money to have some, it's just a scam...

When you pay more in microtransactions than the base game,something is really wrong! Its like buying a game twice

I remember paying $50-$60 for a complete game and unlocking new fighters by beating it. Those times are long gone.

$6 for a costume is not fine. They can charge 99 cents a costume and still make millions in profits. It's just greed.

The sad thing is Capcom has yet to fix/comment on the issue. Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into another SFxTEKKEN debacle.

They really succeeded bringing the arcade experience back home. Feels like I’m pumping quarters in a machine again 😂

I hate when people say "it's just cosmetics"... like that justifies anything. Games are about expression and there's a big reason why cosmetic options exist there. Even though SF6 is content packed, it's really shitty to see them putting such a high price tag and scummy business practice in the single most lacking part of the game: customization options for the main cast.

6 bucks for a costume does NOT sound fine and if people think that something is wrong

I just think the problem everything shouldn't just be DLC nowadays that's why a lot of people getting bored with fighting games because back when everything was unlockable it was fun or sometimes it was annoying to get some characters. But overall it is still gave us something to do if we got bored of fighting

Yeah I'm not supporting any of SF6's business practices going forward until they've made some significant change

I am SO glad you are covering this. I was just browsing through my fighting game catalog and shaking my head looking all the characters I will NOT be playing as with all the gouging DLC prices of Season 1, Season 2, Season 3 passes, Character Passes, Team Passes and so fourth. I’ve accepted having the base weak roster and nothing more to my favorite fighters such as Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, Granblu, MK and so fourth. It’s out of control.

Never thought I’d see the day when MK charged the fan base for fatalities lol

The way the dlc has been implemented has been a big fuck you to the fans. The tmnt was way overpriced for an avatar only item (honestly didn’t even look that great) and charging 300 vs 250 for a costume is just mind blowing bad. The fighting pass is the only thing that seems fair bc if you complete it you recoup all of your fighter coins, but outside of the arcade games I find very little of value in the fight pass

Sure, the misshandling of pricing in MK1 by NRS has been received 'better' cause they have gone back and changed stuff, but IMO the pricing is still too steep for a fully priced game and that's really the issue.

I used to love collecting fighting games. There was something weird, unique and quirky about them that I can't explain. But since the DLC/Season Pass Exploitation Craze started, collecting them have become prohibitively expensive and not worthwhile. I get it, and this DLC/Season practice seemed to have brought back fighters into prominence, well some anyways. But now they have become just another Live Service trap not worth pursuing anymore. The only one I usually keep an eye out for is the Mortal Kombat Ultimate Komplete For Realsies This Time Edition. And that's only because of the Story mode.

They dont teach kids the value or perspective of money anymore.

Tekken selling frame data is insane.

The thing is these current DLC practices makes me remember back in the 360/PS3 era and somehow those past dlcs look reasonable

Six dollars for a costume ISN'T fine when you paid full price the game. Three dollars each, and a $40 bundle for all of them is acceptable.

“6 bucks for a premium costume in 2023 does sound fine” I could pay 6 bucks and get a full character for that price in T7.

I do not want to pay free to play prices for a full priced game. Already feel scammed by buying the ultimate bundle that did not include the alt costume AND COLORS for the characters.

A couple months ago they priced these worthless avatar pins you could barely see at SEVEN DOLLARS.

Premium in-game currency will always be scamming tactic these days

Well said with the Oregon Trail analogy; I honestly don't even want any of the new costumes, but the whole ordeal just sours me on giving them any more money in general.

The WB Games backtrack on the fatality DLC price was a setup. They started with a knowingly egregious cost and then backtracked to seem like the “good guys”. Now some people are happy paying $3.33 for a fatality. A core part of the game that was historically included in the base cost. It’s a GREAT ploy.

They expect you to pay $5 for a costume and $8 for a single character... give me a break.. dlc are suppose to be addons and should not cost 15% or 25% of the complete game price.

I refuse to buy anything that requires the use of FC. My balance has been 0 since launce and will remain that way. I actually wouldn't mind purchasing some outfit 3 if it was with actual cash.

The 90s to early 2000s: In fighting games you get new characters by playing arcade or sometimes using cheat codes. There were upgraded installments with additional characters, but at least it wasn't crazy expensive. Today: You spend 80 dollars for a fighting game and you still have to pay 100 more for more characters, costumes and stages. Yeah...... I wanna go back to the 90s and early 2000s.

My assumption is that the numbers show they profit more off of whales that are gonna buy all the skins at an exorbitant price than charging a reasonable price for more sales. I think the divide between people who aren't gonna buy any microtransactions at all and those that are gonna buy all of them doesn't have much bleedover. There just aren't enough people that will buy only a certain portion of the DLC so this system is more profitable but it leaves those of us that will occasionally buy a skin for a dollar or 2 completetly kicked out of the market. So they get the backlash from that.

Sure, you may only play one or two characters, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy seeing new looks for the rest. Their absence makes the experience feel less "complete" to me. As much as I want to shell out to put Zangief in a suit, I'm going to wait and hope for a bundle so people coming over for meetups can use their preferred skins. It's not just TOs or even super competitive people that would benefit from it.

Does a single cosmetic skin offer 10% of the value of the whole game? Of course not. So $6 for a cosmetic in 2023 is not “fine.” It’s ludicrous. Just because we’ve gotten used to being abused by “live service” games doesn’t mean it’s ok. Would 10 skins offer the same value as the entire base game? Would 20? No? Then it’s not “ok,” it’s just Capcom saying “We know you’ll accept lower value in return for your money now that you’ve purchased the whole game.”

KOF DLC has been pretty solid. You start with a huge cast, they keep adding favorites that didn't make it, dlc comes with free stuff and the game keeps being updated.

I'm so baffled with how out of touch the marketing department is here. If I werr charitable I would say they did it on purpose in NRS case. The backlash was expected so the pivot itself was the sale: "Look you're getting 3 for the price of one" Capcom has no excuse. They are always dollar first which to an extent is fine but in this case being less stupid would have earned them so much and its not even that hard

6:07 Six bucks for a costume doesn't sound fine to me. In Smash Ultimate, six bucks is the price of a Challenger Pack containing a playable character and a stage, and Mii costumes cost only 75 cents each.

how is 6 bucks acceptable for 1 costume????????

One point that is completely glossed over is these are prices in full priced titles. $10-15 premium costumes only fly with people because the game is free, so it is seen as something akin to gladly overpaying or donating extra in support and gratitude for the fun you've been provided at no cost. If you are offering the same sort of pricing model in a title that already has a $60-70 price to get in the door it is a very very different situation. One a few occasions I have paid $20 for a Rocket League goal or car skin. In a fully price title however the only DLC I will ever purchase is if it is more gameplay, or in this case characters. There is also the fact that in SFV you could both grind the free currency for all DLC, and there was 0 predatory currency pricing.

SF6’s current bs is just hilariously inexcusable. Selling one set of cosmetics out of many more to come for 108$ is just on another level.

in all honesty not gonna support this. And premium currency should be legally band from everything. Put a pricetag on it wirh reallife currency or eff off

Dont offer $1m CapCup winner prize if you cant afford it and have to charge obscene prices for just some costumes. Its a really bad look. Capcom will ignore it and will do the same again.

"...reach developer ears" I'm sure the complaints are reaching the developers, but it's the the people who choose the pricing that need to listen and respond to the feedback.

I want to add that the worst issue is not the price of the dlc but lack of new gameplay content, games that do this frequently adds new game mods and gameplay for people to have fun. We get the worst part of a "live service" model without the good

I'd love to buy a few, but in my country, 12 dollars is WAY too much money 💀 (Argentina).

Remember in SF4 where you could get a bundle of multiple great costumes for $5? And now they want us to pay almost tthe cost of a character per costume? Ridiculous

the street fighter costume arguments leave out completionist, some of us like to have all available costumes in a game we like. its not about a main or rarely used, its more fun to have more options

Yep, Fighting game costumes are for me something different then a skin for my character in a free 2 play shooter,, I want mostly all of them and Capcom is not giving me a reasonable option for that.

WTF IS THE POINT OF DRIVE TICKETS IVE BEEN SAVING THEM FOR NOTHING

All these companies trying to copy the Fortnite business model that shit doesn’t work for fighting games where unlocking cosmetics should usally be apart of the gameplay loop and give you a reason to play the game and actually earn something instead they wanna charge us for recolors of the same 2 skins

I remeeber when we used to get free stuff from just playing the game. And beating the story gave you a whole bunch of stuff, especially locked characters. Now we have to pay for everything. For MK, Characters that shouldve been main roster, are dlc, like Shang, Quan Chi, Kameleon, Ermac, like bro we literally fought them in the Story!!! And the dragon crystals are so hard and time consuming to recieve, and let alone in small amounts. Heck theres not really any free way of getting them, besides leveling your characters and playing the story mode. And the prices of the things in the store are ludicrous! 12$ for a fatality! 1000 dragon crystals for an announcer!!! Who is paying 10 dollars for someone to read off charcters and stages! And Capcom is even worse, the prices are way too high, barely any way to get any fighter coins. And the base roster for SF6 is small and many dlc charcters should've been base roster as well. Sure its a bit bigger than SFV, but at least you can work for more characters in SFV. Modern fighting games just pulled an Overwatch 2 on us and managed to do it even worse. We paid for a game, and didnt get barely anything for free in return. And heck at least Overwatch is changing up, by replacing the greedy man Bobby. And now we are slowly seeing a change where we get more free stuff. But as for the fighting games, Im glad we got new titles but my goodness give us what WE PAID FOR!!!😭

I grew up playing fighting games, but now I'm a broke college student. The truth is fighting games have gotten unreasonably expensive; in order to get the full competitive experience, you have to buy in early, and purchase every dlc character. Spending this much money any time I want to play a fighting game is just ridiculous. In Mortal Kombat 9, there were four dlc characters total. Now NRS releases characters in packs of four. You can try to get by without purchasing dlc characters, but in that case have fun getting stomped every time you run into them in online matches. Properly learning a fighting game means labbing characters, but dlc characters you don't own can't be taken into practice mode.

unfortunately these arent mistakes and are decisions made to increase profits hopefully if theres enough outroar companies realise its not worth it but if that doesnt happen we will have to keep puting up with this or show we arent interested

Y'all could just join the Tekken community. Free costumes (unlocked by playing the game). Free colors (the audacity to even ask for money for this) free accessories. We at Tekken are eating good let me tell you.

The costumes are great but you don't see people using them that much. It seems a lot of folks just think it's not worth it. Personally I agree, but I might be tempted by a bundle at some point.

As much as I like SF6, their pricing of their DLC is ridiculous. The game itself is already pricey, and even more so with their character pass. The pricing of the smaller things like the outfits and the fighters pass also adds salt to the injury. It would be better better to price a lot of their minor DLC content because the new outfits totaling to over 100 is straight up wrong.

I love the positive thinking but dlc ain’t failing. I am sure they are making a fuckton of money.

I remember in SF4 you had to beat the arcade and you would unlock characters, I miss those days

People always make fun of DOA5 for having a shit ton of costume dlc, but they were usually a couple dollars and you could unlock up to 10 costumes per character by just play their arcade route. Of course they would go to trash their reputation in DOA6, but DOA 5 should have been the gold standard.

This was such a good video and funnily enough I made an essay recently for my 3rd semester of college on the monetization issues in modern fighting games because the topic was an essay where we informed the audience about a problem within a community we identify ourselves in. Despite us being in a revival of the genre if they keep up with this that revival could end quickly.

Nice video, i do think it’s worth pointing out NRS has not really changed course while this video seems to (unintentionally) paint it that way. Yes they lowered the price on the holiday fatalities but they continue to charge 10 dollars for 1 skin. To compare, just 2 years ago in MK11 they sold a movie themed skin pack for Sonya, Johnny, Sonya with the likeness of the actors along with their voicework with a more fair price of like 15 dollars. Mk fans used to get a lot more value out of their purchase compared to the shitshow NRS is running now i’m not buying anything of their cosmetics dlc until something changes

One thing about dlc fighters, when you release 1 at a time, online fights are full of them and mirror matches common

6$ for a costume is a joke... anyway, I deactivated all the character costume in the opponent costume options... so long for your cool costume...

Really feels like they're abusing their communities good will. And will back fire hard at some point. There was a moment in time where fighting games basically died, and I'm affraid it might happen again if they keep forcing this much monetization.

That Oregon trail analogy was wild but I’m here for it pop

I just don't understand how Capcom put so much good faith behind the game to then over monetize. The problem becomes most non fans will wait till the ultimate edition is on sale years down the line.

The biggest problem with prices like this is that they are charging this on top of a already full priced paid game

I'd rather have big character updates like Super SF4 (10 new characters) or Arcade Edition (4 new characters). Less updates, more substance.

Imagine if Capcom did the following each time you buy two costumes the remaining character costumes drop by $1 in price. If you purchase half the costumes the remaining are now 1$ each. I bet you they will make a lot more money this way.

You got colour variations for free back-in-the-day; paying for them now doesn't make sense. Paying a nominal amount for a new costume I can understand, but I'm passing on SF6's current pricing structure; the costumes are way too expensive.

this measured approach is way too anti-consumer these companies shouldnt be selling funny money, they shouldnt be selling critical balance elements like characters in the first place, shouldnt have game passes in a premium game, and so on and so on. but because it's become "expected" i guess it's fine? it's normal so dont question it? this is how these companies work, they do something egregious, get pushback, dial back that egregious thing a tiny bit, then things quiet down and we get to be nickle-and-dimed in fun new ways. call this shit out

Capcom should continue skin unlocks through WORLD TOUR 🌏 Im still grinding

I'm SO glad I've stuck with indie fighting games like Phantom breaker omnia complete game none of this dlc BS but yall aint ready to talk about that

We have certainly failed if you even _dare_ to think that paying six bucks for a damn costume is acceptable.

I wanna be able to use DLC that I haven't purchased in training mode. Is that too much to ask?

Not $10 it was $12. F MK1 and its price gouging BS. It would hurt less if they released a finished game but they didn’t. It was half assed and then they upcharged for basic stuff. STILL NO CROSSPLAY!?! TMNT had licensing costs…a fatality doesn’t. The price is still absolutely stupid but more understandable.

the worst is how these outfit 3 costumes arent even that good to begin with lol

Nice intro/transition🔥💯

I was incredibeky excited for sf6, so luch so i preordered (one day before which was my birthday lmao) the best edition for like 93 dollars. I got my money's worth but fuck the battle pass, fuck fighter coins, fuck your extra microtransactions capcom.

that oregon trail anaolgy was prety spot on with the cureent state of gaming in general. miss me with 70 dollars to low. capcom

Capcom needs to lower the prices for costumes 3! It's usury! Even half the price would be expensive, but THIS is just ridiculous!

I miss unlocking stuff without having to pay for it

There are going to be people that are going to try to defend it - "Its my choice if I want to buy the costumes." There used to be a time that we had to unlock the costumes just by playing. So what this tells me that they are going to start locking out more items in the future. Maybe Netherrealm will lock away fatalities. Or they'll charge you to play online on top of already paying for online play on PSN or Xbox live. This will price out the PC players. Trust me, theyre (Capcom) thinking about it. And the games are great, but these EA style monetization's are preditory. "$5 bucks for a skin? Ok." Well now you have to do a currency exchange for a package. $10 bucks will net you 12 points. Well, i dont want 12 points, i just want that one costume. No, i have to spend more money and let my balance linger there for a while. Also, they didnt sell a bundle. I would buy the bundles when they were on discount. It looks like Capcom did away with that. MK1 was kind of slimey to lock away Shang tsung on a preorder. Its bad news all around.

The christmas sale base game for guilty gear costed $20. The game with all the DLC costed $74 after sale and the game had the audacity to tell me I would be saving $140 worth of DLC money if I bought the "ultimate edition". Like bruh, how is 3~4 extra characters and 2-3 new maps making the base game worth twice its price? The core gameplay loop is the same and the only thing that is enjoyable is ranked, and even then ranked is filled with problems players are complaining about. I can't possibly imagine how a game could cost 2x money by adding new characters when games like Valorant and League of legends add new characters for free of charge.

The SF6 outfit prices are a bit high, but I expected it. It's definitely the F2P-style currency and coin bundles that are the issue. I still haven't bought any outfits, but if they let me just pay money for them, or buy exactly as many coins as I need, that will probably change.

I am here to represent the old school gaming generation. We dont claim you and 6 bucks for a costume is not fine at all! 30 Bucks for a hypothetical bundle is still not fine. Not even if it includes all 2nd outfits. What is also not fine is Capcom knowingly screwing over the modding community to break their customization mods. They do not harm the game at all. They dont hinder performance, most of them dont harm Capcoms so called reputation and they have no influence at all on your opponents side. F*** Capcom! If i could still claim a refund i would pull the trigger on it right now!!

They only release half a game intentionally so they can trickle out the rest of the full game for a price each few months.

Here’s a crazy idea I pay zero dollars cuz I paid over 100 goddamn dollars on the game so everything should be in game unlockable content

Well said. I'm interested in cosmetic DLC's but only if I think it's a fair deal. Needless to say, I won't be enabling this greedy practise.

This is one of the reasons why I plan on buying SF6 6 years later or when the complete edition is released. I cannot spend money on every character individually on the roster.

Flying Dragon was a fighting game that not only had secret characters to unlock but secret super moves as well. It was awesome. It even had its own KID/Chibi type mode and Adult Warriors mode

I will never buy Fighter Coins, period. But I like costumes. If I can't buy a bundle on steam for a reasonable price in real money, I'm done. The whole experience is tainted for me. After nearly 700 play time I uninstalled. I'm done short of Capcom coming back contrite, hat in hand.

Hardly new ground. As each game passes, it seems like the studios up the ante on what they can put a price tag on. All for DLC and add ons, but when a game is sold above normal retail value, and by the time the dlc packs are done coming out, will be almost twice the games retail value just for the core dlc content alone, then expected to pay for things like fatalities and skins too? It's not new its seriously just getting greedy

I considered for a moment thar Capcom's angle was that people would only want 1 or 2 costumes but I couldn't get there. First because this is only the 3rd costume option for these characters, and also because I only play a couple characters but I still would prefer to have all of them (which honestly might not be as true if there wasn't only 2 costumes per character in the base game). But to me the whole problem is solved if there's a way to earn the currency in-game. (I'm not counting the fighter pass which costs FC to unlock to begin with)

In defense of mortal kombat: at least it’s optional seasonal content, unlike some games (like mounts in MMOs) where the paid content is way cooler than the content you get by just playing the game. The Halloween fatality is cool yeah but some of the non paid fatalities are as cool as that one (like Liu Kang’s default fatality which is the one from the trailer). Probably this comment will age like milk but for now that’s the ONLY thing I can defend, I’m a 90s kid so I surely know old school bad practices (new cartridge every revision of the game) as well as awesome practices that we all miss nowadays (like the kodes to unlock characters, even to play galaga) Edit: I meant in defense of fatalities, to avoid any confusion

Have us Unlock Characters through arcade mode. In the case of SF6 the ninja turtles shredder and splinter all could’ve been actual character additions. With added story Halloween comes around release Darkstalker characters. DLCs in fighting games and in games in general aren’t even expansions of a complete game. They’re poorly done money grabs often to fix a buggy game or to fill a bare bones game.

That intro was GODLIKE!!!

its really not rocket science that Capcom could offer us so many different ways to make this make sense and they are simply choosing to not GAF. they could bundle multiples together, price each individually and allow you to earn with drive tickets too, bundle all of them together, reduce the cost of each by 100 fighter points or something SF4 did DLC the best. You could buy character sets you wanted, or buy them all together and it was like $20 and THATS what it STILL should be. Tired of people thinking because "its 2023" higher prices are acceptable. Imagine thinking that pushing a digital download somehow has higher costs now compared to years ago. It used to BE HARDER to push games because they had to make discs and uploading updates was HARDER than it used to be. Shits easier for them now, and its getting harder for US for no reason. Capcom is just as shitty now as they were during SF6. They gave us the game and literally ran off and left us. bull.

to be honest this is disgusting. all these aditions should be offered free of charge, and serve as a calling card for those that still didn't buy the game. it is certainly an overinflated business model, that can even be considered an anti-consumer pratice if some legislation of certain countries are to be followed to the cold letter. the truth is that while YES, there is more content than ever before in these games nowadays,the cost of geting them is too high for it to be worthwhile, and not only the price gouging but the in game ads for DLCs can trigger psychological issues with people that are certainly problematic to say the least. they will push the envelope to the limit and will be clamped down hard by a government one of these days, and as much as i hate government intervention in these matters, it certainly is NOT unwaranted and unnacounted for, and they really had it coming if it ends up happening. *IMO* : capcom had much more money to win if they just offered these additions for free. i guarantee more people would pay the price of the game and it would cover the costs of these aditions/server maintenance for a long healthy time (5 years+). i do believe that they will get in some real hot water and big legal trouble if these pratices are pushed far enough and at that moment, all i have to say is: they had it coming for them.