Street Fighter 5 Will Have Free Updates Instead of Super and Ultra Editions

Capcom have claimed that Street Fighter 5 is going to mark a huge change in the direction of the series, with no Ultra or Super editions of the game being planned for release.

In a blog post on the official PlayStation site, Capcom community manager Peter Rosas outlined the developer’s plans for the game post-launch, stating that “the initial release is the only disc you will ever need to own,” “all balance and system adjustments will be available for free” and “all post-launch gameplay related content will be earnable for free by playing the game.”

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This means that the Ultra, Super and other editions of Street Fighter games of old will not make an appearance following the release of Street Fighter 5 in March 2016, but Capcom have also gone one step further by revealing that all  of the game’s characters can be unlocked simply by playing the game. Rosas explained the reason for the change, saying: “Looking back on the Street Fighter 4 series, we had always released bundles of content all at once, like with Super Street Fighter 4 and Ultra Street Fighter 4. While these one-time updates did revive interest in the series every few years, it was difficult to keep players engaged for long periods of time unless they were competitive.”

He continued: “This also punished players who took a break from playing the game, because if they wanted to start again in a few years, they would be forced to purchase an upgrade to join the existing player pool who had already moved on to a new version. On top of that, this old method also forced players to purchase all of the new content, even if only a few characters may have appealed to them.”

Rosas also confirmed that the DLC can also be purchased, with players either able to purchase or earn Street Fighter 5‘s in-game currency that can then be used to unlock content. Of course, Capcom could make this currency difficult to obtain, therefore pushing more people into the paid udpates, but even so this certainly sounds like a much more appealing (and far less cash-grabbing) approach than the company has previously adopted, with the need for disc-based updates such as Ultra Street Fighter 4 having been eradicated thanks to DLC. One of the major complaints in regards to the Street Fighter series was Capcom’s insistence on releasing these frequent paid updates despite it being possible for them to simply release them via each platform’s online store, and finally the company is addressing that issue.

While it may be quite difficult to believe that Capcom is going to abstain from releasing a Super or Ultra Street Fighter 5, and fans of the series would be right to remain skeptical at how Capcom handles its in-game economy, we’ll have to wait until next March to find out whether or not this is a change that will actually benefit the series, and make it less taxing on players’ wallets.

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