Capcom Adds Ads to Street Fighter 5, Results Are Hilarious and Sad

It is a standard concern for game publishers today - how to continue monetizing their efforts after that initial sale. Prior to mobile gaming publishers and independent developers had to produce additional content in the form of expansion packs to entice fans to give them more money. Now that mobile gaming has proven that gamers are fine with advertising, thanks Angry Birds, we are starting to see the little interruptions proliferate console and PC gaming. The latest victim of this virtual annoyance is Street Fighter 5 by Capcom, a game that many fans happily forked over cold hard cash for.

That is the sticking point for me about this. The fact that this in game advertising is being added AFTER the fact to a game that fans purchased without being told up front that this advertising would be included at a later time.
This feels like double dipping to me.

Sure, there is a minuscule reward given to fans that enable the in game advertising. I know, it is optional but the fact is, this is how it begins.

We are on the precipice of seeing in game advertising transcend mobile gaming, where advertising is used to offset giving players the game for free. This is not going to be good for console or PC gaming.

Advertising in mobile games works because of many factors. For one, the games are often shorter in some way. Most of the time this limitation is set by having a maximum number of turns/lives/chances before you are forced to either buy more or simply do something else. This is a stark difference to console and PC gaming where it is more accepted to pay once and the game is yours. Complete. No limitations imposed by the developer/publisher to get more money out of you.

Okay, while we are still a far cry from that being the norm, Street Fight 5 currently has in game advertising. It is currently non-intrusive little pieces here and there.

Weirdly, those little pieces are places such as replacing Guile’s USA flag tattoo on his arm, or adding arm bands to characters such as Blanka just so they can add advertising. Ads also appear in three Capcom Pro Tour esports based stages.

Yep, right now the ads are not “in your face” like they are in mobile gaming but how long before that changes? How long before you are buying the latest Street Fighter game and in between matches are you greeted with full screen 30 second ads for Betty Crocker cookware or Amazon Alexa? Yep, the ads very rarely have ANYTHING to do with the game they are being displayed in. Get ready for it.

Anyhow, your reward for enabling these ads is 12 Fight Money (FM) per match. Keep in mind, premium costume colors are about 20,000 FM and you quickly see the futility in enabling these things.

A Reddit user posted the above pic of Akuma with advertising enabled. Just imagine the day when you perform that move with Akuma only to see Johnsonville Bratwurst sausages advertised on his back. Or a car manufacturer. How long before Capcom geo targets the advertising so you see a local portable building dealership ads popping up?

The day is coming.

Just imagine the money Capcom could have raked in over the years had they been able to include ads in the Street Fighter franchise starting with the second game. They would be sitting on even more piles of money than they are. That is the goal here - more money.

Source: VG247