Street Fighter V Producer admits Capcom “underestimated” popularity of single player modes

Street Fighter V is slowly becoming the fighting game it was promised to be, but the launch didn’t exactly go smoothly. A range of issues regarding rage quitters, connectivity issues, and a lack of single player options led to much lower critical scores than the company had hoped for. Looking back, Producer Yoshinori Ono admits that he and his team might have overlooked a few key areas.

In an interview with Game Informer, Ono states that Capcom probably ‘underestimated” the desire for offline experiences. While he claims that they are going to only get better from here on out, especially with the full-blown “story mode” due in June, he understands where those with frustration towards the game are coming from.

“I think it’s safe to say that we underestimated the popularity of some of the single-player features. That said, we are excited about the two all-new single-player modes – character story and survival – and we have plans to continue to refine and expand onto those experiences.”

Many also assumed that Capcom launched the game early in February to be able to quickly get it onto the pro scene, not wanting to miss out on huge tournaments like Final Round and NorCal Regionals 2016. Ono says that the tournaments had something to with its early launch, but were not the entire reason why it was shuffled out with so few features.

“The Capcom Pro Tour wasn’t the only reason for why the game was released when it was. We understand that if we had more features ready at launch, it probably would’ve been better received by some of our more casual fans who tend to enjoy Street Fighter more via single-player content, as opposed to competitive play.”

In regards to the other issues, Ono proudly says that Capcom is learning ways to deal with rage-quitters and connectivity issues as it goes along, hoping for a smoother experience in the months to come.

My take? Capcom is trying something entirely new with Street Fighter V, and as it always goes with new things, there is a lot of learning as it goes along. Street Fighter V is built to be a platform that lasts for years, not just a one off release that will be replaced the following November. It might be in rough shape now, but five years down the line, after it has run its course, players will barely remember the first few months.

Give it time. Street Fighter V is improving, and will come around eventually. This is no Call of Duty. You invested $60 in this game, but you won’t have to replace it any time soon.