Street Fighter esports may see a brighter future starting from 2023. Capcom steps up significantly with its esports initiative this year. A day ago, the official Street Fighter Twitter account announced that Capcom Cup X will have a $2 million prize pool. Plus, Capcom will also feature Street Fighter 6 in this championship and the winner will receive $1 million. This announcement was made at Capcom Cup IX.
Capcom Cup X will be played on Street Fighter 6 with the winner receiving a whopping $1,000,000!
Who wants to be a millionaire? đ pic.twitter.com/uVguQvX4Xc
— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) February 20, 2023
Just in case you donât follow esports closely, Japanese game publishers usually donât invest too much into their esports initiative â compared to the Chinese or US game publishers. Nintendo, the biggest game publisher from Japan after Sony, has a weird relationship with esports. Some of its games have a solid esports ecosystem and community but it seems Nintendo doesnât want to embrace it. Meanwhile Sony, the king of the gaming industry from Japan, is also a bit late and hesitant to get into esports. Sure, Sony acquired Repeat.gg (an esports tournament platform) in 2022 and Evolution Championship Series (Evo) in 2021. Yet, most of its games have nothing to do with esports.
This is also the case with other Japanese game publishers such as Capcom, Konami, or Namco. Yes, Namco has the Tekken World Tour, Capcom has the Capcom Pro Tour (Capcom Cup), and Konami has the eFootball Championship. However, if we take a look at their scale, they are nothing compared to The International (Dota 2), World Championship (LoL), International Championship (Honor of Kings), Six Invitational (Rainbow Six: Siege) or the other esports scenes from games published by the Chinese or the US game companies.
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If we compare the next Capcom Cup X with the latest Capcom Cup IX, the prize pool jumps almost ten times, from $298,000 to $2 million. Before that, Capcom Cup 2019 also âonlyâ has a $379,500 prize pool. This is certainly great news for the fighting game community. However, this begs a question. Will it give a great impact to Street Fighter esports in the future? I mean, if we are talking about fighting games, I know they have tight-knit communities. Fighting games have fanatic players who will train to their death, no matter the prize pool.
On the other hand, I also know that fighting games are not that friendly to beginners. I mean the gameplay is very demanding for newbies and you could just be beaten up without landing a single punch to your opponent if the gap is too big. Also, you play the game individually, not team-based like LoL or other popular esports titles. So, you can only depend on yourself. There is no one to blame but yourself in fighting games.
Thatâs why, itâs interesting to see if a significantly bigger prize pool will attract so many players to its scene â considering it already has a fanatic player base and its high entry barrier.
However, talking about Street Fighter 6, Capcom will add a Modern Control Type or a simplified control scheme to the game which could be promising for so many new players â lowering the entry barrier. Maybe that is the reason Capcom pours so much more money for Street Fighter esports in 2023.
Feat Image: Courtesy of Capcom
