The Street Fighter series has been a staple fighting game in the genre ever since the massively popular Street Fighter 2 hit arcades in the early 90s. Fast-forward to 2020 and as Street Fighter 5 is nearing the end of its competitive life, the series will likely soon be looking forward to the next iteration of the iconic franchise.
Several players assumed once Kage was announced in 2018 that he would be the last character added to Street Fighter 5, as he was the first character announced outside of a new season pass announcement. Despite more characters being announced and released throughout 2019, competitors and fans are beginning to wonder how far Capcom is willing to take Street Fighter 5 before the franchise's next iteration. With Champion Edition finally out, here's why this may be the last we see of Street Fighter 5 before the next game.
Immediate Controversy
When Street Fighter 5 was initially released, the game was met with criticism from game critics and fighting game players alike, though for different reasons. Critics panned the game for its severe lack of content, even going as far as stating Street Fighter 5 was unfinished. At launch, the game did not have an arcade mode or main story mode for the single-player content, only bite-sized character-driven stories with three fights per character until the credits rolled.
Many of these requested modes were added later on, but it meant players had to wait before that content could arrive. Even when Capcom added these modes to the base game, many complained about the lack of substance and replayability. Street Fighter 5's story mode was only 1-2 hours long, in comparison to games like Mortal Kombat X and Injustice: Gods Among Us which had surprisingly robust single player campaigns.
There were also multiplayer issues that irked players as well. Throughout the beta and the first few weeks of the game, online multiplayer was plagued by server issues that either booted players out entirely or resulted in severe lag during matches. The server instability even forced Capcom to take them down on launch day for maintenance in order to get them back up and running at all. There are plenty of triple-A games that experience server issues in their beginning days, but it's especially impactful on fighting games that rely heavily on connection stability for multiplayer to be even remotely playable. Even recently, when a fan-made mod fixed Street Fighter 5's netcode issues, Capcom patched over it and rendered the mod useless.
What was most important for Street Fighter 5 during the early days was that the game was mechanically praised. Balance-wise, critics and players alike all seemed to agree that the game was able to strike a balance between inviting for newcomers and satisfying for FGC veterans. While some of the games' flaws were pointed out throughout its life span, such as the prominent rage-quitting issues and balance issues like throw-loops and anti-air jabs, the meat of the game didn't disappoint.
Overall, Street Fighter 5 had a pretty rocky start. By no means did this poor start kill the game, but it severely hindered the game's momentum right out of the gate.
Viewership and Participation Dwindling
Like any other fighting game that falls out of relevancy over time, Street Fighter 5 has seen its tournament viewership and participation decrease significantly in the past year. As fighting games from franchises old and new have come out, Street Fighter 5 has evolved along with them in miniscule ways. Pair this with Street Fighter 5's weak initial sales numbers, and it doesn't bode well for the ubiquitous fighting game franchise. Because of this, much of Street Fighter's viewership at big tournaments was supplanted by games like Mortal Kombat 11, Tekken 7, or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2019.
At 2019's EVO, the world's largest annual fighting game tournament series, Street Fighter 5's viewership peaked at around 160,000 viewers and around 130,000 concurrent viewers. Compare that to Street Fighter 5 at EVO 2018 hitting over 200,000 peak and concurrent viewers. That marks an approximate 20 percent decrease in viewership, a significant decrease between seasons. Even more glaring is the difference in competitors for Street Fighter 5 from 2018-2019, with 2,498 to 1,951 entrants respectively.
In comparison Tekken 7 had an overall viewership improvement by around 15 percent (Approximately 181,00 to 214,000 viewers). It'll be interesting to see how Street Fighter 5 fares at EVO 2020, since last year the game lost its coveted headliner spot to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Losing over 500 entrants year-to-year is a big drop for a fighting game, even if the game has made a lot of improvements.
Champion Edition is a Proper Sendoff
In the early days, Capcom promised it would address Street Fighter 5's lack of content issue moving forward. With now three major iterations of Street Fighter 5 being released, Champion Edition is the perfect cap to the game at the right time. Capcom made several improvements to the game by introducing a variety of new abilities like V-Skills and V-Triggers, balance changes to divisive mechanics like throw loops or anti-air jabs, and the addition of several unique characters like Abigail and G. With the next-generation of consoles on its way by the end of 2020, Capcom will likely shift its development focus over to the next numbered entry in the franchise.
That's not to say Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition is some kind of cash grab, as it actually is a great deal for new and existing players. Champion Edition comes with all 40 characters and (almost) every cosmetic item and stage. Many of the mechanical issues that plagued the game's initial seasons were rectified in both Arcade Edition and further balanced in Champion Edition. Players get access to all of the single player content that's since been added to the base game, such as Arcade Edition's Arcade mode, the monthly special challenge fights, as well as the free full story mode expansion that was released. For casual players, this would be the proper way to get into Street Fighter 5 if they haven't already.
That being said, since the inclusion of Seth marks Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition's final character addition, it means there likely won't be any forthcoming content coming to the game. Players and fans are likely going to start hearing teases about the next game in the coming years, but Street Fighter 5 is very likely reaching its end. Competitive activities like the Capcom Pro Tour will likely continue until the announcement of the next game, but without any additional character passes announced like before, the game will sunset soon as the next Street Fighter approaches.
Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition is available now on PC and PS4.