Capcom will extend development periods after Street Fighter 5 launch woes

Street Fighter 5 had an uncomfortable launch, and Capcom has learned its lesson.

Capcom will extend development periods after Street Fighter 5 launch woes

Street Fighter 5 launched with remarkably little single-player content and absolutely abysmal online services, a situation that would be described as laughable if it were in any way funny to those who'd forked out $60 for it.

Although the fighter is in a much better state now, Capcom deservedly took a hammering over it. The good news is this seems to have taught the publisher a lesson.

"Some aspects of Street Fighter 5 needed more polish, such as the lack of content and server issues at launch,” Kenzo Tsujimoto told investors during Capcom's recent financial briefing, as reported by MCV.

"Accordingly, we feel it’s better to give a little more time to development than before, and have made slight adjustments to our portfolio."

Specifically, Capcom wants to "spend a little more time in developing and running a high-quality title that will perform well globally" rather than - whatever it's been doing over the past year.

Tsujimoto warned investors that the publisher may be less profitable than previously forecasted for a few years as a result of this decision. "However we will be firmly strengthening our brands," he added, going on to say that he still expects reasonable growth.

Although I'm pretty confident calling Capcom a bunch of silly-billies on the regs, historically it has done a pretty good job of at least trying to address the issues it says it will address. For example: it seems to have stopped putting paid DLC on discs, something it was resoundingly damned for after Street Fighter x Tekken. Its next major release was Resident Evil 6, which did include on-disc DLC - but it was all free.