Capcom is doing it again? After promising that they will not go the route of adding prefixes and suffixes to Street Fighter V, here comes Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition!

Okay, technically, Capcom isn’t going back on their word as Arcade Edition will be a totally free update for the current Street Fighter V base game. But it’s not just going to be the Season 3 update with just a few balance updates and the prerequisite additional characters. No, this is going to be something really huge. This time, they’re re-releasing the game with a slew of new content, such as making the Season 1 and 2 characters available from the outset, new V-Triggers for all of the characters, something called Extra Battle Mode and, finally, Arcade Mode. Because what would Arcade Edition without Arcade mode!

Arcade Edition will be sold at the discounted price of $39.99, which is a great bargain for players who decided to skip the original Street Fighter V package which was, to be honest, incomplete as it didn’t even have a traditional Arcade mode in the first place. Capcom also sweetened the pot by making all of the Season 1 and 2 characters available for newcomers to try out. And, as someone who purchased the original Street Fighter V at full price when it dropped in February of last year, I’m pretty miffed.

Since I’m a huge Street Fighter fan, I just had to get my hands on the latest version of the series. The mere fact that Street Fighter V was going to be a PlayStation 4 exclusive was one of the reasons why I went with Sony’s new console over Microsoft’s. But, even a longtime fan as myself, I just have to admit that the game was lacking in features. The base gameplay was solid but it was simply lacking a significant single player experience. When the game was released, the only way to fight against the computer was by going to Survival mode and the individual character Story mode. Capcom promised a better single player experience with A Shadow Falls Story mode campaign and they did add the ability to play against the computer in Versus mode but those things came out way later.

The only real way to enjoy Street Fighter V was to go online and be an Online Warrior. But even that was a mess at launch! It was virtually impossible to connect with anyone and you’d have to wait for minutes at a time to play just to get into a choppy and lag filled match. Even when the game said you found a match, you’d get booted out of it almost immediately since you would lose the connection! I’m not even mentioning the hundreds and hundreds of rage quitters that trolled Street Fighter V’s Ranked matches who were so allergic to losing their Rank that they would quit just when they lost to avoid being deducted League Points. It took Capcom ages to figure out that this was happening before implementing a fix for this!

I’m not even mentioning all the DLC that Capcom had lined up for the game. I’m not just talking about costumes and stages. I’m talking about the DLC characters. These days, the 16 character roster Street Fighter V had at launch is considered small. Capcom did bolster the cast by adding new characters incrementally throughout the months and years. By the year’s end, the game’s list of characters will have ballooned to a healthy 28 person roster. However, that wasn’t without some major growing pains as you would either have to grind it out in the game to earn enough Fight Money to purchase them or just outright pay for them with real money.

To be fair, Capcom did make it possible to buy all of the extra DLC characters via the Fight Money system. However, they’re priced at 100,00 Fight money each! I don’t really know what hardcore player would actually spend the time and effort to go through all of the available modes to farm the necessary 1,200,000 Fight Money to actually unlock all of the Season 1 and 2 DLC characters for free! It’s doable, I guess, but it would be incredibly tedious. This is why I purchased the Season Passes for the characters since I do want instant gratification. Besides, as someone who wants to try out all of the characters the instant they become available, I felt it was worth the extra cash to be able to play them immediately.

Both the Season 1 and 2 Passes in total would be more expensive than Arcade Edition!

But here’s the rub: that means I had to pay much, much more than what Arcade Edition will cost in January. Not only did I pay full price for Street Fighter V when it came out, I also shelled out extra real cash and not Fight Money to essentially get what newcomers are going to get. I get that Capcom would like to attract new gamers to get Street Fighter V, but should they leave out their loyal customers and fanbase out in the cold? The very people that have been supporting the game since it came out on Day 1? The very people who stuck with the game throughout all of its lackluster content and poor matchmaking service when the game came out?

Look, I get it that Capcom doesn’t technically owe us Day 1 purchasers anything as this is the way the gaming industry works these days. When a game becomes old, I do know most publishers will release the game at a discounted price and with all of the DLC bundled with that new low price tag. It’s happened with other games before and Street Fighter V is just one of them and they’re just adding the Arcade Edition monicker to kind of relabel it and drill it into potential customers’ brains that this is the one with a dedicated Arcade Mode; this is the version to get. That doesn’t make it any less painful for me to know that newer players will essentially be “rewarded” with all of the stuff that I had to grind and pay for just because they waited.

Capcom can easily alleviate my pain as well as the heartache of loyal customers everywhere very easily, however. In fact, I would say it would work out just swell for both newcomers and Day 1 customers: just give everyone a whole bunch of Fight Money. It would be fantastic if they would give everyone 1,200,000 Fight Money so that newcomers can unlock all of the characters immediately and, for those who already have the Season 1 and 2 characters, can use that Fight Money for the incoming Season 3 characters, new DLC characters and whatnot. That’s a pipe dream, of course. But I do wish Capcom would be decent enough to throw their loyal customers a bone or something. Give us loyal customers something special for supporting Street Fighter V through the trying times. It only seems fair since it took you guys so long to give us a traditional Arcade Mode.

What are your feeling towards Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition? Let me know in the comments section below!