You’re Punished For Turning Them Off
Capcom will be introducing game ads in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition starting on December 11th. Players will ads for costumes, bundles and the Pro Tour on loading screens and certain stages. Players will be able to turn this feature off, but doing so will cause them to miss out on extra Fight Money and sponsored materials.
Actual sports do this all the time, but it’s possible to watch actual sports for free. Playing video games comes with an entry fee baked into the experience. It’s almost impossible to avoid, which makes this advertisement choice a bit of a baffling one.
In fact, it’s hard to see this as anything but a PR blunder. People are already paying full price for your games, as well as buying characters and other content. None of this is all that cheap, either. People are fine paying AAA prices for games, but there’s an expectation that this comes with certain perks. Ads are one of those things people associate with free to play content, not full price AAA games. Either Capcom is hurting for money, or they’re trying to reproduce that real, big stadium sports feel. Either way, the decision is in poor taste.