Street Fighter V's DLC Can Be Earned Or Bought

Capcom is heading in an interesting new direction with Street Fighter V's DLC, allowing players to earn characters and other additional content by simply playing the game. If you'd rather unlock things with a quickness, though, there will still be a for-pay plan in place, too.

Clarified through the Capcom blog after being announced during this weekend's fighting-game-palooza, EVO 2015, it looks like players won't need to fork over a bunch of money to enjoy the additional content coming to Street Fighter V post-launch.

The post highlights three main changes coming to the Street Fighter V formula, taking a huge departure from what's become the fighting game norm in the past decade or so. Nowadays, many fighting games are annualized, with a slightly new version of the same game coming out with a couple new modes and fighters, maybe some rebalances and additional tweaks, and that's it. After each version launches, a new collection of DLC usually hits the virtual marketplace. A year or so later, another new version of the game comes out boasting all of that previous DLC and, again, some annual tweaks. Then the whole process repeats over and over again.

Apparently Capcom has either decided that a new business model was in order or they've started listening to disgruntled fans, because the PlayStation 4/PC exclusive Street Fighter V will be throwing all of that nonsense out the window. Here's a rundown of the three key changes, taken directly from Capcom:

• The Initial release is the only disc you will ever need to own.
• All balance and system adjustments will be available for free.
• All post-launch gameplay related content will be earnable for free by playing the game.

Yep, that pretty much addresses all of those concerns. And since we're usually quick to call out publishers/developers for making boneheaded moves, I think it's important we utilize those same practices in giving credit where it's due. Good job, Capcom. This is an unexpected, fan-friendly move that should help keep the Street Fighter V community united in a single location.

“Long gone are the days of the forced Super and Ultra upgrades,” reads the post. “Enjoy free balance updates as soon as they become available and find and choose the post-launch characters that you want to get.”

At launch, it looks like Street Fighter V will offer 16 combatants, four of which are brand new to the series. Additional characters will be added to the roster on a “continuous basis,” which you'll be able to earn simply by playing the game a lot if you don't want to fork over money.

Similar to the free-to-play market, this will all be driven by two sets of currency. Fight Money can be earned by playing Street Fighter V's various modes and then spent on whatever you want. Otherwise, you can drop some real cash on Zenny, which can be used to unlock that same content.

So, what do you think, readers? Are we happy with Capcom's new direction with the Street Fighter series?