No Paid DLC Characters For Tekken, Ever

[Atmos Duality]

So now we're adding Capcom to the list of EEEEEVIIIIIL PUBILISHARRRRRRRRS?

*facenest*

IMO, they seem to be less about being overtly dickish and evil, and more genuinely incompetent.
A company like Activision, Ubisoft or EA would develop and release something like Megaman Legends 3 (which basically hypes itself), they would price hike the shit out of it with DRM, introduce some sort of money-making gimmick (I genuinely pity the generation of kids playing Spyro today, and I pity their parents thrice as much) or load it down with game-altering DRM.

Or just a combination of dick-moves.

Capcom just announces it, stumbles over themselves, and backs out without any logical explanation ("There is not enough demand for the game"...wha? You had everyone's attention in 2010 with the E3 announcement! The fuck?).
Sure, they do the DLC shuffle, but that gets blown out of the water by the number of increasingly crazy stupid schemes they keep trying to pull (two versions of MvC3 in the same year...and it's Mortal Kombat that looked more competent than either. I don't know what the fuck to say. That shouldn't have been possible).

 

[The Rascal King]

I've never owned a Tekken game in my life but this Katushiro Harada is instantly a new hero of mine.

I mean come on, "...they are essential items necessary in the game and we would never sell any of those individually."? I want to buy this beautiful man flowers.

 

[shintakie10]

So now we're adding Capcom to the list of EEEEEVIIIIIL PUBILISHARRRRRRRRS?

*facenest*

Capcom has been pretty horrible for quite a long time, you just don't hear about it as much because they don't have as large of a fanbase (and by extension as many detractors) as EA or Activision.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Gah, fighting game fans are so entitled!

So are people who pay full price for a box of cookies and complain that a bunch of the cookies have been eaten, when they open it.

 

[ace_of_something]

I've always liked Tekken's play style but... I found most of the characters blah and humdrum. So I'm looking forward to tekken cross street fighter. Even moreso since there's less of a chance of me getting fleeced.

 

[Nieroshai]

Now if this only applied to Soul Calibur. I always thought they were made by the same studio, albeit by a branch codenamed "Project Soul."

 

[SageRuffin]

I've always maintained a fighting game's gameplay is a product of said characters, not just their design, but how they control and interact with one another.

That's what was being implied in the first place. Characters are the lifeblood of a fighting game because they're how the player plays the game. They are the gameplay.

That's why the chess metaphor was used; Namco considers withholding characters from Tekken to be just as nonsensical as preventing chess players from being able to use knights or queens.

That's pretty much what he implied in the first place.

Okay, okay. I get it. I guess I just read the article wrong.

I still say actual gameplay mechanics matter more than characters (pet bears, kangaroos, and wooden mannikins who know martial arts? feh, whatever...), but I see what you all are saying.

 

[Wicky_42]

Capcom insists that character data is on the disk to "save hard drive space, and to ensure a smooth transition when DLC is available."

Soooo... to make the transition to downloaded content smooth, it is, in fact, bundled with the physical media? I'm confused as to where the transition is there - or maybe they are confused as to what purchasing a game should mean?

 

[esperandote]

to ensure a smooth transition when DLC is available

You know what would make it even smoother, not locking it or charge for it.

 

[Broady Brio]

Always been Team Tekken. Now I have an actual reason why, rather than just Tekken being the only series of fighting games I own.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Smart guy. Charging for characters in a fighting game would be like charging for bricks in Minecraft. It's what the game is all about.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Harada did mention that future Tekken games might see some vanity item DLC, so bad luck to those of you who don't want to fight characters who look like they've barely survived a catastrophic explosion in a fancy dress costume factory.

And for a moment, I thought Tekken 6 would be the last time I fought a Japanese mob boss wearing a cowboy hat and star sunglasses.

 

[chadachada123]

Namco, you're fucking awesome. First Dark Souls, and now this?

Just...just this:

 

[LtFerret]

Now if this only applied to Soul Calibur.

"You want this game's joke character? Buy it at Best Buy or give us another 5 dollars."

It's despicable and it leaves very little doubt that Namco will let Harada still true to his word

 

[Solo-Wing]

So now we're adding Capcom to the list of EEEEEVIIIIIL PUBILISHARRRRRRRRS?

*facenest*

Your avatar made that all so good. But as Yahtzee himself said:
"Capcom are not bad people. They're just idiots!"

They make good games that play solidly and are generally fun. But in the process of making these games that people enjoy they make stupid decisions. Luckily those decisions do not hamper the fun being had! [sub][sub]Fuck you Ubisoft and your game breaking DRM GAHHHHHHH!!![/sub][/sub]
The DLC on the disk is probably no worse then Day 1 DLC. And at least those who do not buy it can have some fun with it by being able to fight the characters.

 

[Slanzinger]

Waaaait.
They're calling Capcom out on this but it evidently is not a Namco-wide policy... Look at Soul Calibur IV with Darth Vader/Yoda (depending on which console you bought it on, you got one available and the other became DLC) and SCV with Dampierre (Preorder bonus/DLC)

Don't get me wrong, I am glad you are calling them out on this. But you're not so squeaky-clean yourselves. (at least not across all your franchises)

 

[Mike Haggar]

I for one laud this tactic. Capcom has been despicable in their DLC shenanigans and quickie iterations. I was so excited for MvC3 that I pre-ordered nearly a year in advance... only to find out that the roster was about half MvC2 and that if I wanted Shuma and Jill it was like $5 each! To add insult to injury, they released Ultimate (with the sort of roster I expected from the original version) way too soon after and wanted an extra $30 for the "privilege" to play these characters that rightly should have been included in the standard MvC3. While my actions certainly won't make a dent in Capcom's sizable coffers, I immediately sold MvC3, refused to buy Ultimate, and haven't looked back since.

Score one for Namco.

 

[mikev7.0]

He's absolutely right: By making characters exclusive, you hold part of the metagame hostage.
Why? Because when you add anything into a competitive game, you introduce more variability and complexity into its metagame. You introduce the potential for change in the metagame.

Worst case scenario: if any of those characters turned out as being dominant, then it becomes a pay-2-win scenario, which isn't legitimately competitive to say the least.

The only way to ensure an even playing field is to include all the characters.

(And please don't say "Oh, they'll balance it, so it doesn't matter". It does matter, quite a lot actually. Fighting games are among the most difficult games to balance for all manner of reasons; it might take a long time for someone to actually find the most mathematically broken combo or interaction. They are quite complicated to begin with, and the level of player scrutiny goes down to the frame; players that are looking for the Instant-Win Combo with a fine tooth comb.

I cannot think of a single fighting game that was balanced entirely; where all characters are viable picks and counters to other characters. It almost always comes down to a small handful of movesets with the most combos and cancels.)

I take it you haven't heard about the gems yet then? That's about as pay for play as you get.
It would be interesting to see games (at least fighting games) reviewed for their Mathematical balance. (That would be fun to figure out.) I'd really like to see that as I agree with the chess metaphor where fighting games are concerned. I have often referred to fighting games as "Being like chess except the graphics don't suck."

Then again reviews done based on the Mathematical balance and literal value of it's components might not boost sales too much especially where DLC is concerned so we'll never see it. It would also be a metagame nightmare. (although no more so than gems!)

 

[lordlillen]

Namco, you're fucking awesome. First Dark Souls, and now this?

Just...just this:

but the dlc is free.

OT: amazing news and a damn smart system to engourage new sales when the devopers need it the most hope more people use this system.