Street Fighter X Tekken DLC controversy

There’s been a bit of hubbub about last week’s major fighting game release, Street Fighter X Tekken. After some cursory data mining, users found that there was a surprising amount of hidden data on the disc itself. This data turned out to be 12 completely coded characters that hadn’t been included in the character roster nor did they show up in-game at all.

These characters, including the PS3 exclusive characters, are planned to be released in the fall as part of a series of new characters for the game itself. Gamers across the world are furious that Capcom has the nerve to charge people as much as £30 to unlock data that’s already on discs that they have purchased.

Capcom had the following to say on the subject:

“Capcom has confirmed that 12 new fan-favorite characters will be available as downloadable content (DLC) on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC versions of Street Fighter X Tekken later this year. The playable characters will make their debut on the PS Vita system when the game is released this fall, with the console and PC versions receiving them as DLC soon after. The character information and files were intentionally included on retail versions of the PS3 and Xbox 360 game to save hard-drive space and to ensure for a smooth transition when the DLC is available, allowing players who choose not to purchase the content the ability to play against players that did. More specifics regarding pricing, dates and other additional exciting DLC plans for Street Fighter X Tekken will be shared at a later date. As a reminder, the retail version of the game will be the only disc-based version consumers will need to own and all future upgrades will come from post-launch DLC.”

Whilst DLC produced in this manner does tend to incite controversy, Capcom might have expected this. Their community manager, Brett Elson, can be quoted as saying that these pre-prepared characters might stop Capcom from releasing a “Super” version of the game, a la the Street Fighter IV series.

“And while pricing details are still to come, I can at least say it’ll be a great value considering the size of the update — 12 new characters is pretty substantial, after all,” he said.