The EVO Street Fighter V tournament was hype, to say the least, and the introduction of a new stage made to be played at the Top 8 finals, and all the finals for Capcom Pro Tour events afterwards was interesting. The stage, Ring Of Destiny, is part of the Capcom Pro Tour Premium Package. The pack contains the stage, three premium costumes, some colours and titles.
But the steep price- 25 USD (though it’s currently not for sale in Asia’s Playstation Store and it’s PS4 exclusive)- when the game is still light on content feels a bit iffy despite the intention for having part of the price being directed to the Capcom Pro Tour, including its prize pool.
Capcom finally came out with a blog post over at Playstaion Blog explaining in detail how the sales from the DLC will directly impact the Capcom Pro Tour, the e-sports league supported by the publisher. It is explained that 30% of the sales proceedings of the DLC (minimum) will be added to the current base prize pool of $250,000 USD. 50% will be used for production of the Capcom Pro Tour. So 80% will be all be invested into the e-sports scene, or rather the fighting game community for Street Fighter V. But the percentage that goes to the prize pool can increase should Capcom wished to do so.
Capcom is really trying to reach out to the fighting game community, and to prove that, they will honour the champions of the Capcom Cup, the final event that invites only the best players who competed well throughout the Capcom Pro Tour, with a costume of a character they choose, available for purchase. That includes last year’s Capcom Cup winner Kazunoko, who decided to have Necalli in a Japanese warlord gear. The costume, seen in the top image, is the “mystery premium costume” in the current Capcom Pro Tour Premium Package, that also includes Chun-Li and Cammy, previously shown.
But how’s the sales so far? Looks like it’s doing well. So far almost $90,000 has been added to the current prize pool, with a total of $342,182. With the Capcom Cup coming up in November, Capcom is expecting the total prize pool be worth $400,000 with all the sales from either the bundle or any piece of the DLC that can also be bought separately.
This info helps clear out many speculations that this is just a money grabbing tactic. Street Fighter V’s rough launch is not winning Capcom any new fans or even goodwill. So trying to take a page with how Dota’s The International using its playerbase support raise the prizepool via sales is a good move, but questionable when the game is still didn’t have much meat to its bones. Rest assured, Capcom is saying that “The Capcom Pro Tour DLC and all other DLC is part of the content roadmap that we have for the game and has no effect on the team that is working on addressing various improvements for Street Fighter V”. With the upcoming update adding in a lot of features that should be in there in launch just announced, this clarification arrived just in time to ride in the good vibes, and hopefully Capcom will continue to do so.