leathernxg

Last month, Capcom decided to do something relatively unheard of in the fighting game community: charge people to watch the Capcom Cup Finals and Street Fighter League: World Championship online.

Unsurprisingly, the pivot to pay-per-view has not gone down very well. With each ticket originally revealed to cost ¥4,000 (approximately $27/£20) separately or ¥6,000 (roughly $40/£30) as a bundle, the decision has generated a fair amount of backlash—in the Western world, anyway.

The general consensus from the replies under the initial X announcement and subsequent Reddit posts was that the move was a poor one—one comment called it an "Insane decision," adding: "This killed my hype for the [Capcom Pro Tour] honestly. I hope the rest of the FGC boycotts this bullshit as well, we are not doing PPV for tournaments now."

Another called the pay-per-view [[link]] model "archaic," pointing out that even long-time PPV utiliser UFC has recently switched away in favour of a monthly subscription following a deal with Paramount. As one Reddit commenter put it: "I thought Capcom organised this circuit as a marketing tool for the game. Makes no sense to charge viewers to watch it. And esports is, unfortunately, still way too niche for that to be profitable."

A couple of weeks later on October 10, Capcom said it was "reviewing pricing and related details," promising to share additional context by the end of the month. Well, we're almost here, and it seems as though it's still not quite ready to settle on a new price point yet. But what it is ready to do is double down on the decision in an attempt to turn its esports tournaments into a more profitable venture.

"The decision to introduce pay-per-view live streaming for Capcom Cup 12 and Street Fighter League: World Championship 2025 stems from our commitment to promoting our esports business in a sustainable [[link]] manner over the medium to long term," a new post on the Capcom Fighters X account reads. "Our goal is to grow these tournaments into internationally competitive events by reinvesting in participating players and teams, our partners, and related business areas."

The post continues: "We sincerely acknowledge the many opinions we have received from everyone and are carefully [[link]] discussing with all relevant parties. As a result, the coordination process is taking some time."

It wraps up by saying that pricing details aren't ready just yet, with Capcom promising "to provide clearer and more accessible updates regarding Capcom esports" in the future. Before, you know, a light bit of marketing promotion by announcing that ticket sales kick off on November 12.

Ultimately, I'm not sure how a pay-per-view model will shake out for Capcom. It'll certainly fare much better in Japan, where this sort of thing is common and where a good chunk of Street Fighter 6's fanbase lies, but I don't think the same can be said for fans in America, Europe, and beyond.

It seems dedicated to trialling the PPV scheme at least this once, though, so I'll be interested to see if it can achieve the growth it's after even while stewing in some pretty bad rep. And whether it'll be back for future tournaments—I guess we'll find out nex