Generally how well do you feel SFV will sell and attract a casual/hardcore fanbase and how well do you think it will perform as competitive eSport? What do you specifically want out of the game that didn't already happen with SFIV?
For me as far as the product goes, I believe it will sell pretty well and get a name out for itself. I'd say realistically it has no chance of selling as much as MKX did as far as hard copies, but may be able to make up it for it with DLC sales. I personally don't have a problem with it not selling as well as MKX since to me it's just like the 2nd place fat kid at the hot dog eating competition. Maybe the MKX kid ate the most hot dogs and got the hot dog eating trophy, but damn that SFV kid ate good too. The main thing is that Capcom will get a lot of sales while giving people options where they need them which will tremendously help with building loyalty back for Capcom. They are doing things that usually only smaller/indie developers do as far as connecting with the players and catering to competitive gamers.
There are some hiccups with the game possibly not having spectator mode for lobbies at launch and no real robust story mode until summer, but I personally do prefer Capcom's approach of making sure we get solid netcode and gameplay first. People should have a good time when they go online and play the game and the game should be solid enough balance wise out the gate that it's as playable as possible. Playability should be as strong as possible at launch because for me, a fighting game is about playing and going head to head with a buddy first. I will always choose games like SFV or KI over MKX due to this. Not big on flash and story that sells at the expense of playability.
Granted I will commend NRS for stepping their shit up and giving people the good netcode they've been looking for.
As far as a competitive eSport goes SFV will obviously shine the best here. It's going to have the most entrants at every tournament even surpassing MKX. Which means that even if MKX makes more product money than it does, SFV will still be the front line tournament game that people enter in the droves to compete and watch. The online being much better over longer and shorter distances than SFIV's means online will be a big factor which is HUGE. That person in Wisconsin or Utah with no scene near them can grind up and get good in online tournaments then bring his skills to a popular major and get huge twitch views. Better yet even get famous purely online through large scale streamed online events with big prize pots. Which then qualify him/her later for more offline stuff.
I definitely see 2016's SFV entrants surpassing 2015's SFIV entrants at Evo and other majors and the bigger focus on eSports will just put things on a higher pedestal. The near equal importance of online play to offline play will get SFV more in line with PC eSports that thrive on heavy online eSport events. Allowing people to always be regularly competing in something huge rather than only month to month if you're sponsored or much less if you're not swimming in money. The only other exception being having a great career with time to spare.
SFV most likely still won't touch stuff like MOBAs and certain FPS' as the lack of a team aspect i think holds it back from being a game that's easier to piggy back on. Hopefully it ends up like the Tennis of eSports where everyone just really gets into a sport where they can see one mind vs the other mind and just the raw visuals of someone beating up someone else.
For me as far as the product goes, I believe it will sell pretty well and get a name out for itself. I'd say realistically it has no chance of selling as much as MKX did as far as hard copies, but may be able to make up it for it with DLC sales. I personally don't have a problem with it not selling as well as MKX since to me it's just like the 2nd place fat kid at the hot dog eating competition. Maybe the MKX kid ate the most hot dogs and got the hot dog eating trophy, but damn that SFV kid ate good too. The main thing is that Capcom will get a lot of sales while giving people options where they need them which will tremendously help with building loyalty back for Capcom. They are doing things that usually only smaller/indie developers do as far as connecting with the players and catering to competitive gamers.
There are some hiccups with the game possibly not having spectator mode for lobbies at launch and no real robust story mode until summer, but I personally do prefer Capcom's approach of making sure we get solid netcode and gameplay first. People should have a good time when they go online and play the game and the game should be solid enough balance wise out the gate that it's as playable as possible. Playability should be as strong as possible at launch because for me, a fighting game is about playing and going head to head with a buddy first. I will always choose games like SFV or KI over MKX due to this. Not big on flash and story that sells at the expense of playability.
Granted I will commend NRS for stepping their shit up and giving people the good netcode they've been looking for.
As far as a competitive eSport goes SFV will obviously shine the best here. It's going to have the most entrants at every tournament even surpassing MKX. Which means that even if MKX makes more product money than it does, SFV will still be the front line tournament game that people enter in the droves to compete and watch. The online being much better over longer and shorter distances than SFIV's means online will be a big factor which is HUGE. That person in Wisconsin or Utah with no scene near them can grind up and get good in online tournaments then bring his skills to a popular major and get huge twitch views. Better yet even get famous purely online through large scale streamed online events with big prize pots. Which then qualify him/her later for more offline stuff.
I definitely see 2016's SFV entrants surpassing 2015's SFIV entrants at Evo and other majors and the bigger focus on eSports will just put things on a higher pedestal. The near equal importance of online play to offline play will get SFV more in line with PC eSports that thrive on heavy online eSport events. Allowing people to always be regularly competing in something huge rather than only month to month if you're sponsored or much less if you're not swimming in money. The only other exception being having a great career with time to spare.
SFV most likely still won't touch stuff like MOBAs and certain FPS' as the lack of a team aspect i think holds it back from being a game that's easier to piggy back on. Hopefully it ends up like the Tennis of eSports where everyone just really gets into a sport where they can see one mind vs the other mind and just the raw visuals of someone beating up someone else.
