Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me three times ...?
Ever bought something expensive and found out you needed to buy other parts after your first purchase to make it work either more efficiently or to significantly better your enjoyment of it? Well this isn't exactly a newsflash since DLC has been around for a few years.
Now imagine having the part you needed, locked in some way (say on a single disk folder for a video game) that is easily accessible and the only way to legally "unlock" it was to buy it.
Welcome to Street Fighter X Tekken (SFxT)!
Capcom seems to have to taken the approach of selling the Fighting Game Community (FGC) on half made rosters. The Street Fighter IV series, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and now SFxT share the same model. Sell the fans on semi-complete rosters, next catch the really big fans of the characters on costumes that have no impact on the game, bring some small balance changes, and finally polish it off with the complete roster that they already created before release. Sound business strategy that Capcom keeps repeating, but for what reason you ask?
Because it's working.
Realize that Capcom does this because fans of the series will buy the costumes and anything else small or large in value towards the actual gameplay, regardless of price or even their own interest in the game. It's a weird phenomenon, but there are people who will buy costumes and not continue to play the game, "just because there were new costumes for [insert character here]."
It would actually be interesting if, hypothetically speaking, Capcom sold a new disk for one these titles but with the entire cast featuring 10 unique costumes at regular price. Unique meaning not just different color selections but entirely new outfits. Wonder what the profit would be there?
The main point to get across is that Capcom really shouldn't have continued this policy, especially with such a great game as SFxT. If they were going to add new characters, at least make them after the game has been released or at least try to make the community believe that these were thought of after.
Now that the community does know this was all set up from the beginning and you planned to sell us content that should have came with the game, good luck selling the FGC on 'complete games.' Or selling the FGC on extended series.
By the way Xbox users will probably have to pay $60+ for content that Vita users will pay $40 for. Cool.
Just saying, I can not force you to not buy the content. All I can do is say if you truly want Capcom to stop this cycle, don't buy the content. It's hard to not at least buy the characters since they do actually affect the game play, which is a strong selling point. Hey, you can just wait for Capcom to come out with the Super Arcade Alpha Beta Edition! Old joke, but Capcom's business practices are ancient.
But then that puts you behind the learning curve for those serious gamers. So at what point does the FGC say no?
