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Dear Capcom. You’ve made your bed, now lie in it!

I honestly wouldn´t want to be in the shoes of Yoshinori Ono (or Capcom for that matter) right now, because since Capcom launched “Street Fighter V” on the 16th of February (for Windows and PS4). The consumers and the SF fans have been up in arms over the really disappointing launch of SFV. And rightfully so (check out our brutally honest “Street Fighter V” PS4 review!), since Capcom thought that it would be a good idea to release a half-broken game and charge full price for it (60 Euro for a buggy alpha game full of censorship? Thanks, but no thanks Capcom). So I thought that it was pretty weak that it would take Yoshinori this long to apologize for all the bugs and flaws in “Street Fighter V”:

yoshinori ono apologies street fighter v

It´s a little to late for that Ono. As the damage has already been done.

No Ono, that´s NOT how it works. You do not release a half-broken game, charge full price. Then fix the game´s problems later with the help of patches.

I know people who are even trying to return (sell) their SFV copies as we speak…

Sure, one could argue about the fact that it´s a “Better late than never” kind of thing. Even so, Capcom must have known what kind of state SFV was in BEFORE they decided to launch the game (just like in the case with Warner Bros and “Arkham Knight” for PC). I also think that it´s not alright to think that it´s okay to use the “We´ll release our broken game now at full price, and then we will patch up the game on the fly at a later time” launch strategy. And I´m far from the only one that feels like that as well.

The fight over the Street Fighter V scores

That´s also why there has been a lot of rants over SFV´s average grades as of lately, because there is a HUGE difference between the user scores and the critic scores. And not only that, if you take a look at the SFV Steam page. Then you will notice that the list over negative reviews is never-ending. And this has also fueled rumors about corruption among the established Gaming news sites (low user scores Vs high critic scores):

Destructoid – “CHARMING – Not perfect, but it’s easy to ignore the rough spots when faced with so many engaging design decisions and entertaining moments. A memorable game that’s hard not to like and recommend to others.” 8/10

IGN – “Street Fighter 5 is a first-rate competitive fighting game, but disappointingly thin in single-player content.” – 8/10

There is a huge difference between the user and critic SFV scores.

It´s the same deal with the PS4 user Vs critic score.

There are literally tons of user SFV reviews such as this on Steam.

Sure, I may not be able to prove this at this time. However, if you take a look at the SFV grades yourselves. Then you will soon realize that there is something fishy going on here for sure. Some people will of course claim that it´s just a clash between different opinions (user reviews Vs critic reviews, small sites Vs big sites reviews). And yes, I´m aware of the fact that there is pretty much always a difference to be found between critic and user scores. Nevertheless, like I said earlier. There is a too big difference in the overall SFV score for that to make any sense at all. And it´s a little too late for Capcom to run a full damage control now, because people are not stupid (thus the current “I want my money back” and “I´m trying to sell my SFV copy, but no one wants to buy it from me…” situation).

Street Fighter V censorship Vs the PC mod community

And let´s not forget that there have been quite a few scandals before SFV even launched as well (censorship and Capcom´s anti-PC mod mentality to name a few things). You know, in a way. The SFV launch (and all the previous SFV scandals) reminded me a bit about the case with Treehouse and the “Fire Emblem: Fates” scandals (censorship and bad localization). However, the big difference would be that FEF is, in fact, a really good game (the Japanese version). And that cannot be said about SFV at this time. My point would be this. People have spent 60 Euros on a broken edition of SFV. So even if Capcom manages to transform SFV from a mediocre game, into a champion with the help of patches. Will that effort be enough for people to forgive Capcom for the really bad SFV launch? And will they accept Yoshinori Ono´s apologize and give SFV a second chance? That´s the one million-dollar question right there.

One thing is for sure though, the damage has been done (“Street Fighter V” has sold less in Japan during it´s first week then “Street Fighter IV” did during it´s first week in Japan). However, no matter the outcome. The PC mod community has already won the first round against Capcom. And the Gaming community (especially the Steam community) won´t forget the terrible SFV launch over a night.

With that said, what do you guys and girls think about all of this? And do you accept Yoshinori Ono´s apology? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

Source:
Yoshinori Ono
Steam
Twitter

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.