Street Fighter 5 needed more polish, Capcom says

Capcom says it has learned some valuable lessons from Street Fighter 5's barebones and shaky online launch, and the company will alter its approach to developing games in an effort to make them "high-quality" for global audiences.

In a recent earnings presentation (PDF), Capcom said it modified its operating income projections based on a number of factors, including that the company wants to dedicate more time to development. Street Fighter 5 was mentioned as one of Capcom's recent titles that may have suffered due to its lack of "polish," the company said.

"[It]'s best to spend a little more time in developing and running a high-quality title that will perform well globally," Capcom said in a briefing. "For example, some aspects of 'Street Fighter V' needed more polish, such as the lack of content and server issues at launch. Accordingly, we feel it's better to give a little more time to development than before, and have made slight adjustments to our portfolio. Profits may take one or two years longer to stack up than initially expected, however we will be firmly strengthening our brands."

Capcom expects to generate 13.6 billion yen (about $127 million) in operating income for this fiscal year.

As of March 31, Street Fighter 5 sold 1.4 million copies across PlayStation 4 and Windows PC — a "soft initial start," Capcom said. Capcom originally hoped to sell 2 million copies of the game during its fiscal year.

We criticized Street Fighter 5 for its lack of content at launch, calling it a "skeleton of a great fighting game" in Polygon's review. Since then, Capcom has rolled out a series of updates, adding new characters and gameplay modes to Street Fighter 5. A cinematic story mode for the game is expected to arrive this June.