Capcom’s plan to charge $40 to watch Capcom Cup and SFL shocked even the Street Fighter 6 game director

03.10.2025 Comment Views: 21

Players are accusing the company of greed and question how it makes sense to charge to watch an event that effectively serves as advertising for Street Fighter.

The Street Fighter 6 community has been thrown into uproar following Capcom’s decision to make paid streams mandatory for two major fighting tournaments — the Capcom Cup and the SFL World Championship.

In response to an X (formerly Twitter) user asking how “the esports division and the development team could be so disconnected” by making that pricing choice, Street Fighter 6 game director Takeyuki Nakayama explained that the departments have different targets.

This may sound odd, but yes — the teams are indeed fragmented. Revenue targets and assigned objectives differ substantially between departments, which creates these kinds of gaps.

Takeyuki Nakayama, Game Director of Street Fighter 6.

Nakayama stressed that the Street Fighter 6 development team was genuinely surprised by the announcement and offered apologies to the players.

We in the development team were taken aback by this decision (at least Matsumoto and I were shocked). We apologize for any worry this may have caused.

Takeyuki Nakayama, Game Director of Street Fighter 6.

Capcom recently revealed the dates for the prestigious events: Capcom Cup 12 is scheduled for March 14, 2026, with the SFL: World Championship the following day on March 15. Fans and players were angered by the announcement that access to the live streams would be behind a paywall. A single-event stream is priced at ¥4,000 (about $27), while a package covering both events is ¥6,000 (around $40).

Source: iXBT.games

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