Capcom Unveils "Final" Street Fighter IV Update

[Earnest Cavalli]

Capcom Unveils "Final" Street Fighter IV Update

Break out the fighting sticks and oil up your thumbs, Capcom has one last version of Street Fighter IV in the works.

In June, Capcom released Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, an update which added four new characters (bringing the game's total to 39), a host of balance changes, new online modes and a certain teenage duo that would quickly enrage fans with their god-like fighting skills. At the time, Capcom fighting game guru Seth Killian claimed that it would be the final update for the three-year-old Street Fighter IV [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-12-arcade-edition-ends-street-fighter-iv].

That is no longer the case.

During this weekend's EVO fighting game tournament in Las Vegas, Capcom announced Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Version 2012. Not much is known about the update, though Capcom hinted at numerous balance changes for the title.

Unsurprisingly, fans are hoping SSFIV:AE2012 will bring with it a few new characters -- I've got my fingers crossed for bouncy grappler R. Mika, African Capoeirista Elena, or the Street Fighter debut of a certain Metro City mayor -- but so far nothing has been officially announced.

What Capcom has officially stated however, is that this is the final Street Fighter IV update. Seriously. For reals this time.

Capcom wouldn't lie about a thing like that, right?

As with Arcade Edition, the update will debut in Japanese arcades, before making the jump to America, and then to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and (presumably) PC versions of the game. Again, there has been no word on when this might happen -- I'm guessing sometime in 2012 -- nor what sort of pricing structure the update might see once it's available for home consumption.

With so much uncertainty regarding this update, now is the perfect time to speculate wildly on what it might include. Have a favorite character you'd love to see in the game's pseudo-sumi-e art style? Have an idea for a stage you want to punch people through? Have a plot in mind for how Capcom might rebalance this fighter yet again?

Don't bother pointing out that Yun is wildly overpowered. At this point it's a universal constant, like gravity or Chun-Li's massive thighs.

Update: I've got good news and bad news. According to Seth Killian's Twitter [http://twitter.com/#!/sethkillian/status/97443789567823872], the update is a free rebalancing patch, coming later this year. To wit:

Ssfiv ae balance patch coming in fall or winter, will be free!

Free is a great price, but that kills much of the hope for new fighters.

At least until Capcom needs to make some quick scratch and reveals the next update, anyway.

Source: Street Fighter IV Japan [http://www.capcom.co.jp/sf4/]

Permalink

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Well, as long as it's also available as DLC, so I'm not forced to buy another disk...

Fine by me.

 

[Nightfalke]

Wait. There are arcades still in America?

 

[Irridium]

Huh, this comes after I hear Journey's joke about Capcom and Street Fighter.

Mega Super Ultra Capcom Doesn't Give A Fuck Street Fighter IV: Arcade Mega Sex Power Edition....... 3D

Seems more like a prophesy instead of a joke.

Didn't Capcom say they weren't going to keep releasing multiple versions of the same game a while back?

 

[Evilsanta]

Well, as long as it's also available as DLC, so I'm not forced to buy another disk...

Fine by me.

I agree, As long as it is available as DLC so I won't need to get another disc.

EDIT: So it is just an update. Don't scare me like that Capcom.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Well, if it's free, I don't have a problem with it.

I'm just tired of Capcom selling the same blasted game ad nausem

 

[Rad Party God]

Well, it's Street Fighter and it's Capcom, I don't know why people are so upset by having the upteenth version of this game by now.
Let's do a recount:

Spoiler: Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Hyper Street Fighter II: The Annyversary Edition
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Spoiler: Street Fighter III

Street Fighter III: New Generation
Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight For The Future
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike Online Edition

And that's only considering SF2 and SF3, without counting Darkstalkers (or Vampire Savior), their many VS revisions (wich at one point lead to Marvel vs Capcom), the Street Fighter EX series, SF Alpha series... I guess you get the point.

 

[samwise970]

Wait, are we sure that his twitter post is talking about the same thing?

It is very likely that there could be both a balancing patch and a new version to buy later.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Huh, this comes after I hear Journey's joke about Capcom and Street Fighter.

Mega Super Ultra Capcom Doesn't Give A Fuck Street Fighter IV: Arcade Mega Sex Power Edition....... 3D

Seems more like a prophesy instead of a joke.

Didn't Capcom say they weren't going to keep releasing multiple versions of the same game a while back?

What they have essentially done is made this disks for people without internet access, and for those getting into SF4 late. Arcade Edition was the last one. But all are done on the base Super Street Fighter IV disc and mechanics.

You won't NEED another disc, since this will likely be available as *PAID* DLC.

 

[The Great JT]

WE DEMAND MIKE HAGGAR!!

 

[Paragon Fury]

You know, if you didn't make a shittly balanced game in the first place you wouldn't have had to do this Capcom.

 

[Scrythe]

Will we finally get challenge modes for the overpriced four new characters?

 

[insanelich]

Yeah. This will be the final update for SFIV until Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Turbo.

 

[Shirokurou]

A patch for free? Wow! That's like every patch since now...

 

[rancher of monsters]

R.Mika, Elena *drools* don't even get my hopes up like that.

 

[Caliostro]

Well, it's Street Fighter and it's Capcom, I don't know why people are so upset by having the upteenth version of this game by now.
Let's do a recount:

Spoiler: Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Hyper Street Fighter II: The Annyversary Edition
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Spoiler: Street Fighter III

Street Fighter III: New Generation
Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight For The Future
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike Online Edition

And that's only considering SF2 and SF3, without counting Darkstalkers (or Vampire Savior), their many VS revisions (wich at one point lead to Marvel vs Capcom), the Street Fighter EX series, SF Alpha series... I guess you get the point.

You know, I'm pretty tired of that piss poor argument.

Couple things worth mentioning that you (and people following that argument) seem to forget:

1 - Street Fighter II was the game that created fighting games as they exist today. That seems like "pulling rank", but what I really mean is that back in 1991 "patches", let alone "DLC" (or, for that matter, widespread reliable internet connections) didn't fucking exist. If you REALLY wanted to change something, say - fine tunning the balance, you'd need to release a new game.

Now, when we consider that, again, SFII INVENTED the fighting genre as we know it today, starting with combo systems, which started as an unintentional glitch, and giving the player different choices of completely different characters (instead of different skins of the same character), you can probably guess a lot of fine tuning and new ideas were actually thrown around.

On top of that every consequent game wasn't just fine tuning the combos. Champion edition, for instances, added 4 new character, graphical improvements, significant balance and gameplay improvements, while Hyper fighting was released due to community requests for faster gameplay. Yes, they actually released a new game because the community asked for it. What bastards.

Later versions of the game added Super and EX moves, which became staples of the SF series and of fighting games in general.

In other words: Give SFII a break. In a time where patching things was nearly impossible they invented the fighting game genre step by step.

2 - Street Fighter III had 3 versions. It had a completely new story, new characters, new gameplay, new basically everything. It had 2 "updated" versions - Second Impact and Third Strike. Both of them not only fixed balance and gameplay issues immensely (remember, no patches or DLC), but added several new fighters, stages, graphical overalls, etc, etc. While Second impact was somewhat premature (released within a year of New Generations), Third Strike was a major overhaul that only came out 2 years later.

3 - Grouping the other games with games like Anniversary edition, HD remix, or Online Edition is ignorant at best. These aren't quick sequel cash ins, they're revivals of old classics, like pretty much every company ever does. They came around several years and technological jumps after the originals and are directed at fans and collectors. Here's the ironic part - Unlike most companies Capcom didn't simply slam an HD filter on their old versions and call it a day, they built HEAVILY upon them. Improved balance (in SFII's case), better graphics, online gameplay that never existed in the original (in SFIII:OE's case), even new modes and fan requested improvements were made.

Now, I'm not saying Capcom didn't take the chance to milk it, they are a business, but I want you to consider really hard that in a world where companies like EA and Activision live of releasing the same fucking games every year (Here's looking at you CoD series and pretty much everything EA Sports does), even on a day and age when such behavior is obsolete, you're mindlessly ragging on a company that actually listened to it's fanbase, built the fighting game genre as it is today, kept trying to improve their games, and actually gives old fans new content with revival versions.

Look at SF4. SSF4 was released a year after SF4, which admittedly is a bit premature (despite being the standard in the industry today). On the other hand it introduced 10 new characters, rebalanced gameplay, new features requested by the community, new modes, several improvements, your typical fine tunning... etc. Is it really that bad a sequel? In a world where there's little to no discernible difference between games in a standard yearly sequel except graphics, is it really so abhorrent to accept a new game that introduces 10 new playable characters (that's roughly 40% extra gameplay) + a ton of significant improvements on the old version?

Arcade Edition, on the other hand, is DLC. And before you criticize a 15 bucks DLC pack with 4 new character (that's roughly 11% more gameplay) and a metric fuckton of fan requested improvements (like the MASSIVE replay system overhaul), consider 15 bucks is the price of your average CoD map pack... Or one of those Mounts in WoW...

So now they figured they messed up the balance with AE, tried something different and it didn't work, and they're fixing it for free... and people are STILL ragging on them. Why? Is it really better to just change the graphics of the exact same game, raise the number in the title and sell it as a completely new sequel?

Or do we just love to hate Capcom because it's trendy now or something?
/rant.

 

[InsaneMaggot]

Pff, i don't care capcom. You stopped producing breath of fire games and treat the megaman franchise like an unwanted child. you're dead to me, even with shiny new updates for ssf4.

 

[uguito-93]

God the acronym gets more ridiculous with each release. SFIV, ok. SSFIV, fair enough. SSFIV:AC, pushing it. SSFIV:AC2012, your game title is now a license plate

 

[gundamrx101]

So we get another version of Street Fighter, which they promised wouldn;t come out and they cancel Megaman Legends 3? Wow Capcom, you are quickly losing my future investments