There are many out there like me who have not memorized the moves for Street Fighter games, but rather have button-mashing down to a science. Well, your casual button-mashing ways might finally be acceptable in a Street Fighter competition. Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono has been consistently stating in interviews that they want to broaden the audience for Street Fighter games and find ways to welcome new types of players.
In an interview with Engadget, Ono was asked about how much thought went into esports when developing Street Fighter V. Ono let some details slip about the direction of competitive play in the future, stating,
We want to reset the entire game so that we can reset the playing field and let lots of new people jump in and start competing.
Ono went on to explain that Capcom wants to cater more towards casual gamers within the Street Fighter universe.
Looking toward the future — it's not going to happen this year, but we're looking into creating tournaments geared more toward the casual player.
Plans to include more casual gamers in Street Fighter competitive gaming could include things like parent and child competitions where the parent plays along with the child against other participants.
So while it’s not officially confirmed, it’s safe to say the esports world of Street Fighter might be filled with a whole new generation of gamers, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I know whenever I try to play Street Fighter online, I get whipped only because I have no idea how to do the special signature moves in the time that the other, more experienced player takes to take me out. And like me, there are plenty of Street Fighter fans who only wish they could compete for fun. Generally, casual competitions have been limited to places like video game stores, but the fact that they might be featured directly through Capcom is pretty thrilling and really opens up the esports world to those who formerly thought they weren’t good enough. I think Capcom is taking a brave step is tackling a new audience and willing to open up competitive gaming to a casual audience. Esports has always been for the hardcore, so it it will be interesting to see how the plan unfolds.
Street Fighter V will be releasing on February 16. You can read the whole interview with Yoshinori Ono and Engadget here.
