Current Fighting Game Publishers Suck

#1

This has been getting to me, that regardless of the quality of design and development of at least the primary version these days, we have to deal with some of the absolute worst publishing companies in the business this side of Activision and Microsoft Game Studios. It’s kind of bad in Japan, and it’s much worse in America.

Capcom - They’re generally one of the more soulless corporate game companies out there in general these days, trying (or at least claiming to force console sales) to skip out on an arcade version of Super, relying completely on blatant and often unsuccessful market pandering and cheesy DLC like costumes, and steadfastly refusing to patch anything but the bare minimum on their XBLA releases. Then take a look at the North American release for SSFIV, where we got terrible boxart, and were completely gypped out of any of the extras available with the Japanese release like the combo DVD or the anime.

Arc System Works - bad DLC everywhere. Not even talking about the CS characters, but the colour palettes, announcer voices, the Raven unlock in GG2, etc.
Aksys - Once again, BBCS has none of the LE content available in both Japan and Europe, 4 page black and white manual, crappy, poorly checked localization, they don’t even know about the region restrictions of their version, and they can’t distribute to save their ass, particularly leaving much of Canada practically a BlazBlue-free zone with communities running 5 or 6 players for 1 copy 9 days out from release. Oh, and this horror.
Exclusive BlazBlue: Continuum Shift New Character Makoto Trailer Video from GameVideos

Sega - lol Sega

Namco Bandai - well, they’re Bandai, so duh. I don’t think SCIV even needs to be touched on, but the Tekken 6 console version was two things: late and half-assed. Crappy graphics, crappy menus, crappy loading times, crappy training mode, crappy offline implementation, super crappy netcode at launch, mediocre netcode after patch, and overall a clear indication they didn’t give a damn with as much money as the arcade version is raking in.

SNK Playmore - KoF98UM XBLA. 'Nuff said.

It really does nothing for the genre when you’re practically required to take it up the ass just to play it. It’s particularly disconcerting when you consider that around a decade or so ago, most of these could have been considered some of the most dedicated, fan serving companies out there (a couple still are but are just horrendously incompetent, to be fair). Some of the console ports sucked, but the consoles generally weren’t up to it at the time.

The SSFIV release was just barely competent enough for the series to carry it, but beyond that if fighting games are really supposed to be popular in America again, some damned improvement is needed. Most new games are being left to die if or when they get over here.

#2

:confused:

Don’t support them then if they’re so bad as you think they are.

#3

I think it’s just most Japanese companies are completely myopic or just have plain given up on marketing FGs outside of Japan and Asian arcades.
Most of them either don’t know or don’t care about the things necessary (console features, online features, netcode that works outside of Japan) to market a successful fighting game in North America.
Again, many people have pointed out how far behind NA’s network is compared to Japan, which is part of the problem there. Another is the mindset of the Japanese that FGs are meant to be played head-to-head in a public social setting. They don’t understand that there are people who buy FGs and spend hundreds of hours playing through Story Mode or Training Mode by themselves at home, because the Japanese players don’t do that.

Out of all the companies, I think only Capcom really understands the NA market well, but their problem is the opposite–it’s not that they don’t care about the console/NA market, it’s that they don’t give a crap about FGs anymore.

#4

i dont see how the Arc’s DLC chars are a bad thing

#5

I’m just waiting for them to release Sol Badguy for 15 bucks.

#6

Current Fighting Game Discussion threads suck.

#7

/Thread.

#8

i bet that you want GG#R Sol dont you

#9

Components that obviously alter gameplay aren’t especially good, especially so soon after release… If it’s handled well it’s not terrible though… Plus they’re insanely overpriced in this case:rollseyes:

What I don’t get is why people bitch about… the frivolous DLC… I mean, who cares if someone wants to spend a few bucks on a new announcer or color scheme? Or unlock something that they’re too lazy/crappy enough to unlock on their own? Has no effect on actual gameplay, which is good.

#10

Derp

#11

Yeah I really wish they were like those big hearted guys at EA and Activision

#12

I don’t think anyone’s more souless than Bamco at the moment when it comes to fighting games. At least on the money side. Hell it’s not even their fighting games that stand out but rather anything they do in this current Gen. (look at Katamari, Tales of series, Eternal Sonata, SCIV.) I think T6 was when they took enough of the bitching everyone did for a quick nickel and dime through DLC.

Capcom at least started listening to the fans. Even if it’s more casual fans than hardcore. At least it’s not completely going in one ear and out the other. But it’s pretty clear that Capcom’s going to hold their hand out for the babies while the more serious players just have to suck it up or just fade away. Simple business outlook really.

Sega…I dunno of them. Maybe when they realize money is money and release VF5:FS to the console and stateside. This is the same company that hasn’t made a good game of their mascot since Dreamcast (and even that’s stretching it.) It’s taking a indie developer to garner hype for their fans.

SNK’s too busy worrying about everyone that isn’t America or Mexico. Seeing we’ve pirated the hell out of their games since day 1. Though it’s pretty sad when your american supporter of the game that’s already being panned has to pester them to fix the netcode…which still did little to nothing and already took the 360 side about 5 months to drop (which at that point the game was far from alive.) 13 looks good but we have to see how SNK treats this console release.

Aksys I don’t mind too much. Blazblue isn’t the greatest game but at least it’s something. I really don’t agree on $8 character unlock keys. Especially when it’s dropped a week after the game hits and more are planned. Not a really good look. This is where I’m somewhat fine with Namco dropping Vader/Yoda for 4 bucks. Still not cool since they’re unlock keys but it doesn’t feel like a complete ripoff. Aksys won’t do a color edit mode for this game cause they know people are going to buy the additional colors. There’s that business outlook again.

I don’t see it as any company sucking, but rather, Developers aren’t catering to the core gamers anymore since EVERYONE and their grandmother plays games now. You can’t really put bread on the table if MvC3 was just MvC2 with a SF4 engine. Especially now that the casual crowd knows of the crazy shit that goes on in MvC2 and we have access to online gaming. You’d be turning away your new hardcore gamers (aka casual gamers).

#13

Some people in this community are straight up insane.

We’re getting more major fighting game releases than we’ve seen in a decade, and people respond to that by saying “fighting game publishers suck”.

NO I TINK YOO SUK INSTED!

Honestly, though, when exactly did fighting game companies EVER regularly cater to the “hardcore audience” anyways?

Look at MvC2, a game which is viewed with such esteem around here. The game was and is 120% fan service. The “hardcore audience” wasn’t even a blip on Capcom’s radar when they made that game. Yet, for some reason the community has adopted it, forgiven it’s casual roots, kissed it’s boo-boos, and deemed it an honorary “hardcore game”. That wasn’t Capcom’s doing.

IMO the only times Capcom truly catered primarily to “hardcores” was:

  1. when they ditched most of the SF2 roster in the SF3 series and, with the exception of Chun, CONTINUED to ditch them through 3S. Clearly, they had other things on their mind than the casual SF fanbase for that series.

  2. Capcom Fighting Jam. A no frills, no flash, no glamour game that focused entirely on the gameplay. Clearly geared towards the hardcore FG audience…which ironically shunned it. Lol, and people wonder why SF4 tries to caters to a wider audience…

For most of the other SF/Capcom fighting games, the “hardcore” elements were discovered by the community, sometimes to the surprise(dismay) of Capcom themselves. Same is true for many other developers. VF, Tekken, and SC became million selling franchises because of their cool graphics and casual appeal. The “hardcore” element has always been secondary.

#14

That kind of leaves me without anything to play.

Which sounds disturbingly accurate.

The BlazBlue color schemes are bad DLC because it’s something retarded that was free in previous games (AC+ has how many colours?). Not evil DLC on their own, but when they decided some fucking colour palettes wouldn’t carry over between revisions, well, holy shit man.

I see more loveless Capcom games and less Virtua Fighter outside of Japan compared to immediately prior. DoA and Soul Calibur also seem to have imploded on themselves for whatever that counts. There’s a slight rebirth from developers updating 2D graphics to the new hardware generation, but that’s to be expected eventually.

#15

Capcom’s one of the least soulless “big” gaming companies really. Almost every one of their executives have been with the company since before Street Fighter II came out. They haven’t been gutted or wiped out in a merger like SEGA or Namco have. They’ve been pretty consistent since the 80s. The guy that made the original SF as well as Fatal Fury and KOF was even the executive producer of SF IV. So they either aren’t soulless or they’ve been soulless the whole time. Which is it?

#16

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Start from 1:44------------THEN PROCEED TO STFU.

It’s the consumers fault.
It’s the people’s fault.

Don’t blame the companies. Blame yourself, and evryone who dont know know good games when they see one. Capcom, Namco, Sega, Microsoft, Blizzard, Infinity Ward, and all other businesses are giving you what you wanted. All of you wanted crap…so you guys got it? So make better threads…

Now stop complaning, spend your money on better things, like I dont know…on prostitutes? message explodes in 5.

#17

Oh? I heard the download size for Makoto was a bit on the huge side to be a simple unlock key and most people are saying that she’s not on the disk :o

#18

This is pretty much how I feel, don’t care how much horse armour or “you could unlock this playing the games but you can have it now if you have more money than sense” keys a publisher releases as long as they keep their hands off the core gameplay content like characters, that is a line which shouldn’t be crossed, even locked fluff like costumes on the disk, whilst being pretty much daylight robbery, is better than that.

(Hell wasn’t one of the initial draws of fighting games that they were cheap anyway)

#19

Neither. It’s more like they sold it.
When was the last time they publised an all new fighting game?
They’re even re-publishing previous games in the SF series.

About (BB) DLC: http://shoryuken.com/f2/dlc-characters-yay-nay-243942/

#20

If your a fighting game fan, its understandable but all you need to know is that DOA is done and away with, not much else now.