The recent inclusion of in-game ads in Street Fighter 5 has gotten some not so positive feedback thus far, worrying long-time fans. Capcom has responded to the complaints, though the developers didn’t say much in their response.
Sponsored Content was added last week where in-game ads started to show in certain stages. Thus far, it’s really nothing of concern—ads shown during gameplay revolve around the game itself, such as hyping up the Capcom Pro Tour, costumes, bundles and the like.
But some worry that the in-game ads could soon lead Capcom to putting in advertisements that have nothing to do with the game. It’s also concerning that Capcom is putting in ads for a game people paid full retail price for as opposed to a free-to-play title where it may be more expected. Sponsored content such as this could lead to a new trend for developers who will look for any way to earn some extra profit.
Yoshinori Ono, the executive producer of the Street Fighter series, posted a response on the series’ Twitter account. It doesn’t seem to say much other than they are taking feedback on the matter.
— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) December 17, 2018
While the inclusion of ads seems bothersome, you might never have to see them at all in Street Fighter 5—you can always turn them off by going into the game’s settings. There is an incentive to keeping the ads in, of course, as players who keep them enabled earn more Fight Money, the game’s currency.
The inclusion of in-game ads is the latest example of companies looking to find ways to get consumers to spend money beyond just buying the game itself. Recent games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 and NBA 2K18 were both guilty of going too far with the amount of microtransactions found in what were intended to be full retail releases.
Not all AAA games have microtransactions. Capcom’s upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake, for example, won’t have any despite a misleading ESRB rating.
