Capcom Removing On-Disc DLC From PC Version Of Street Fighter X Tekken

Even though the disc-locked content for Street Fighter X Tekken was supposed to be for compatibility reasons and save gamers hard-disk space, Capcom's SVP Christian Svensson has said that they are removing the DLC from the disc version of Street Fighter X Tekken on PC.

The game is already out and available for the Xbox 360 and PS3. It'll be arriving later this year for the PS Vita along with the 12 additional disc-locked characters already stored on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

Originally, Capcom mentioned that storing completed DLC on the disc was done for compatibility reasons. Finishing the DLC before the game went gold, according to them, enables for an ease-of-access when paying to unlock the content at later date [read here why Capcom potentially can't release the content right now]. It also saves them money from having to upload the content to servers and paying Sony and Microsoft for storage and patching fees.

Well, according to Shoryuken Capcom's senior vice president Christian Svensson has responded to user-submitted questions about the availability of DLC on the European and Asian disc-based versions of Street Fighter X Tekken on PC, saying...

1. Ono recently tweeted that “maybe” the PC version wouldn’t have the DLC on the disc. I would like some clarification on that “maybe”. Will the DLC be on the disc or not?Not. I’m told it will be DLed to the clients when we’re ready to release them.2. When can we expect to know the recommended PC specs for SFxT?Good question. No reason we shouldn’t be able to get those out shortly. At minimum, I’m sure they’ll be on the pre-order pages at digital distribution sites in the next week or so.3. Will there be a benchmark tool?I need to check. The benchmark scores were used in match making in AE, I’d suspect we’re doing something similar on SFxT but truth be told, I’m guessing. I’ll need to speak to Derek to see if they’re using a similar setup in SFxT.4. Will SFxT PC have all of the DLC available that the console version does at launch? Let’s just assume for the sake of this question that no further updates will be released for the console version of SFxT until the PC version comes out, will the swap costumes, extra colors and other features that are currently available on the console version for download be available day 1 on PC, or will we be stuck with the console default DLC (i.e., no DLC) until later on?5. When the 12 DLC characters are released on the console version, will PC get them at the same time as the consoles or will there be a delay?These questions are related… there will be fewer “discrete” drops of DLC updates on PC than on console as effectively each drop is a new patch/update process for us to go through with the PC version. Sometimes content will be first on console, in a few cases, you may see some bits show up first on PC. The details of this we will make more clear post-launch.

I at least have to give props to Svensson for being very community oriented. Most publishers distance themselves from the gaming community and focus instead on just making money, where-as the developers are the ones left to fend for themselves (for better or for worse) with the community.

Props aside, it was quite obvious why Capcom took the time to remove the DLC from the disc because it would be easy for hackers to crack and spread the DLC around with ease on PC.

The problem, however, is that this completely destroys their previous argument about compatibility and hard disk space. 1) They're assuming all PC gamers have large HDDs just like they assumed all console gamers have small HDDs. 2) PC gamers will be forced to download the DLC in updates regardless, for compatibility purposes, so why are they enforcing the on-disc DLC for one group of gamers but not the others?

Anyways, North American gamers won't be able to buy the disc-based version of Street Fighter X Tekken from local retailers because Capcom won't be distributing the game to North American retailers.

And while Capcom is taking time and resources to purposefully remove the DLC from the discs, they still won't be patching in pair-play for the PC version. Very odd business decisions indeed.

Street Fighter X Tekken for PC is due out on May 11th for the PC.