Street Fighter IV to Get Costumed Up

[modeps]

http://evavhost.com/i/news/sf4_new.jpg

According to Famitsu, it looks as though upcoming brawler Street Fighter IV will be getting a bunch of little downloadable costume packs on a weekly basis starting at the launch of the game. This is all for Japan, but expect to see something similar for the EU and NA markets. Via Giant Bomb (http://www.giantbomb.com/news/street-fighter-iv-costume-shenanigans/894/):

According to the Japanese magazine, the packs will be rolled out on a weekly basis starting next week, which is when the game ships to Japanese stores. There will be five weekly packs, each running 400 yen on the PS3 or 320 points on the 360... which actually works out to around 473 yen right now.

Price discrepancy aside, the real kicker is that after five weeks of costumes--taking us up to March 12--there's an "All-in-Pack" listed for 1200 yen/1,000 MS points on April 30. Assuming that this pack contains the costumes found in all the previous packs, players who decide they can live without the costumes on a weekly basis get a significant discount. Shouldn't the die-hard players who demand maximum clothesosity in their fighting games get the discount instead of getting hit up for a few bucks every week for over a month?

I'd rather just be able to earn costumes in game.

EDIT: Costume packs confirmed for SF4 in NA:

Additionally, we are announcing the DLC alternate costume expansion packs for Street Fighter IV to customize your fighters. Each DLC pack offers an alternate costume for you favorite Street Fighter IV character. The packs are grouped by themes and will be available for 320 MS points for Xbox 360 or $3.99 on PlayStation 3 post launch.


2/17 – Brawler Pack DLC Pack will include alternate costumes for: Zangeif, E.Honda, Rufus, El Furete, and Abel.

2/24 – Femme Fatale Pack will include alternate costumes for: Chun-Li, Cammy, Sakura, Rose, and C.Viper.

3/3/09 – Shoruken Pack will include alternate costumes for: Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Gouken, and Dan.

3/10/09 – Shadowloo Pack will include alternate costumes for: Seth, M.Bison, Sagat, Balrog, and Vega.

3/17/09 – Classic Pack will include alternate costumes for: Guile, Dhalsim, Fei-Long, Blanka, and Gen.

[walkstheplanes]

From a PC Gamer's perspective, how can anyone justify buying skins?

[Wyrm]

Charging for costumes in fucking Street Fighter? Why not charge for extra characters or something?

If they make money on this, I have no faith in my fellow man.

[modeps]

Charging for costumes in fucking Street Fighter? Why not charge for extra characters or something?

If they make money on this, I have no faith in my fellow man.

They've been on record stating that they will not be offering new characters via DLC. I'm wondering though if the customization system found in the Arcade units will not be fully present in the home edition.

[Wyrm]

They've been on record stating that they will not be offering new characters via DLC. I'm wondering though if the customization system found in the Arcade units will not be fully present in the home edition.

I would think that if you're going to nickel and dime your customers, you'd at least want to give them something of actual value, but hey, I'm not a doctor.

[Demo_Boy]

sooooo question....

If I buy the Pink Ryu outfit, then play online against someone whom did not buy it, do they see me in pink>?

How does that work if they never downloaded the DLC?
...Unless the costumes are already in the game from the start and they are just unlocking it via licensing....

I remember a time when the cost of DLC was subsidizing the time of the work to do it. Now the work to do DLC is being subsidized by the price of the game and the cost to buy it is just gravy off the top for the developer.

[Everblight]

sooooo question....

If I buy the Pink Ryu outfit, then play online against someone whom did not buy it, do they see me in pink>?

How does that work if they never downloaded the DLC?
...Unless the costumes are already in the game from the start and they are just unlocking it via licensing....

I remember a time when the cost of DLC was subsidizing the time of the work to do it. Now the work to do DLC is being subsidized by the price of the game and the cost to buy it is just gravy off the top for the developer.

Alternate colors are in the game by default. No DLC necessary. The DLC costumes are actually tweaks to the models which have their own set of alternate colors. As most of these costumes are already done and in the arcade version of the game I'd presume that they are on the disc and you are just paying to unlock them. Yes its blatant money grabbing, but one can take solace in the fact that none of this effects gameplay at all. You only have to buy this stuff if you want it.

[Ozena]

Those are some friggin' expensive duds. And they better not be the same as the ones in the Collector's Edition.

[FreezaSama]

I'd rather just be able to earn costumes in game.

Of course you would. So would I. But Capcom can't squeeze more money out of you that way. I'm just going to forgo the extra costumes. I'm tired of this shit where they intentionally leave existing content out of a game just so they can charge you for it.

[Everblight]

Those are some friggin' expensive duds. And they better not be the same as the ones in the Collector's Edition.

CE gets you codes redeemable for any 5 of the DLC costumes.

[Chimpbot]

sooooo question....

If I buy the Pink Ryu outfit, then play online against someone whom did not buy it, do they see me in pink>?

How does that work if they never downloaded the DLC?
...Unless the costumes are already in the game from the start and they are just unlocking it via licensing....

If they released stuff that wasn't present on the disk, they would release a title update that would provide you with the files necessary to view said costumes if you were playing against someone who had purchased them. This is why there's a new patch for LittleBigPlanet every few weeks; they're providing the necessary files to make the newest costumes viewable by everyone playing the game online.

[Sensei-X]

After the Megaman 9 DLC I don't see why anyone who hasn't been in a coma for the last year is mildly surprised at this. That being said, you get a lot more content in the home version versus the arcade version and last I checked Capcom hadn't yet resorted to sending armed assault teams to gamer's homes to make them buy the DLC at gunpoint. So there nothing to see here, please move along.

[DSSJ]

I think it'll be for the hardcore SF fans only.

Can't see why anybody else would pay money for this after Soul Calibour IV's full blown character editor.

[modeps]

Costume packs confirmed for SF4 in NA:

Additionally, we are announcing the DLC alternate costume expansion packs for Street Fighter IV to customize your fighters. Each DLC pack offers an alternate costume for you favorite Street Fighter IV character. The packs are grouped by themes and will be available for 320 MS points for Xbox 360 or $3.99 on PlayStation 3 post launch.


2/17 – Brawler Pack DLC Pack will include alternate costumes for: Zangeif, E.Honda, Rufus, El Furete, and Abel.

2/24 – Femme Fatale Pack will include alternate costumes for: Chun-Li, Cammy, Sakura, Rose, and C.Viper.

3/3/09 – Shoruken Pack will include alternate costumes for: Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Gouken, and Dan.

3/10/09 – Shadowloo Pack will include alternate costumes for: Seth, M.Bison, Sagat, Balrog, and Vega.

3/17/09 – Classic Pack will include alternate costumes for: Guile, Dhalsim, Fei-Long, Blanka, and Gen.