“This will only lead to more distrust and confusion” – Fighting Game TO on Capcom’s new licensing deal

Last week, Capcom released a New Community License Agreement directly against the tournament Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition This drew the ire of enthusiastic players and tournament organizers in the competitive Street Fighter community. We’ve covered the situation in full at iGamesNews, with Alex’s feature on Capcom’s attempt to bring the grassroots scene into a more controlled, formalized esports scene.

While it’s easy to find the sentiment of the competitively minded average fighting game player on Twitter, we wanted to reach out to event organizers whose businesses and livelihoods will be directly impacted by the implementation of this new licensing agreement for their initial reaction, which What parts of the new agreement are particularly important to them, whether it affects their ability to host Street Fighter events, and their hopes for the future.

We first reached out to Brandon “SHIN-A” Hurley, organizer of weekly and monthly fighting game events in Cork, Ireland. On a weekly basis, the meetup brings in 10 regulars, while the monthly event roughly doubles—friends and competitors flock to the event from all over the country. This is the classic, community-focused gathering you can find in the hearts of communities around the world. While Brandon isn’t too concerned about the impact on the small and mid-sized events, he’s still a little concerned.

“My initial reaction was actually not to read it too much. When I saw tweets about it, it seemed to only apply to CPT events and majors (Evo, CEO, Combo Breaker, etc.). When I saw the reaction I read more, but what really struck me was some of the wording, and I think some of those issues came from that.”

“I see concerns about the Prohibited Behaviour section, which includes ‘deliberately delaying, slowing or manipulating gameplay’ being interpreted as ‘no-timer fraud’ (when a player deliberately delays a game to win a game), which I don’t believe is . When they say delay, I believe they mean it literally, in terms of online events and manipulating your contact with an adversary. I’m also concerned about banning the use of Capcom assets on sold items without permission, however, I Pretty sure this only applies to TO events, so any fan artist and trade hall regular should be fine, at least as I read it.”

This is probably the biggest point of friction for tournament organizers: the lack of clear examples, forcing a certain level of assumption and guesswork from those organizing and hosting events in North America and EMEA. Brandon would have opted into the license if Street Fighter had drawn a crowd at Cork Weekly, but there was general confusion as to why it was implemented in the first place.

“If SF5s are required at my event, I feel like I’ll be able to run them as before. I don’t think we’re fully on Capcom’s radar yet. If that’s the case, then we’ll just have to apply for a license. I think , while the overall impact on most events is likely to be small, it’s better for everyone — at every level — if the process isn’t in place. For Capcom’s fighting games division, in terms of public perception , it always feels like one step forward and two steps back.

“My main concern is if this will start to affect smaller scenarios when it carries over to SF6, I think it will. FGC, both in Ireland and the rest of the world, seems to have gone through its major changes and chapters As well as the Street Fighter games at the time, I expected 6 to do the same, so if those verdicts were there, it would be a serious blow and damage us scenario. Not the end of the world, but definitely felt, I hope not from Capcom sees this”.

As we spoke with Brandon, the Capcom Fighters released their follow-up statement (below) following a backlash from the community. This claims the purpose of the new guidelines is to make Street Fighter 5 events easier to run, reduce approval times for community events, build relationships with tournament organizers, and encourage safe spaces at events.

“It’s impressive to see so many words put in one paragraph without actually saying anything. It just leads to more distrust and confusion, especially when one of the people involved is sent out claiming they will answer Any questions about the license form and then answer zero of them. This leaves them feeling isolated and unfamiliar, while [Capcom’s] A competition like SNK is the exact opposite”.

While Brandon provided insight into the thinking of those holding small tournaments, what about the big ones? Having gone far beyond the limits set out in the new agreement, staff-run major tournaments, will the future have to play with Capcom and bypass those rules? It’s worth noting that many of the big tournaments already have licensing and partnerships with developers and publishers to host these big tournaments, but it remains to be seen how these new guidelines affect Capcom’s relationship with tournaments. We reached out to a number of professional event organizers in North America and the EMEA region to find out their thoughts on this latest development.

Many of these tournament organizers have not commented on the matter, saying they would rather delay public comment and hurt their interests due to internal conversations (or just a desire to wait for Capcom’s future developments). Relationship with Publisher.

Alex Jebailey, chief executive of North American fighting games, declined to comment on their specific thoughts on the new licensing deal. However, they did say publicly that “the community will always support you and speak for you when it matters most. I will always be behind the scenes to build the best tournaments and events for FGC.”

Another tournament organizer, who chose to remain anonymous, shared their thoughts on the overall impact of this new licensing deal.

“The biggest problem with this approach is actually the number of TOs of all sizes in fighting games. Executing this release will require a large community team, and probably a continuously active legal team from Capcom (which is a lot of money) investment.) That leaves photographers and videographers, not to mention streamers and commentators, with dire expectations that their work should not be directly owned by Capcom, which also doesn’t work.

“Capcom’s available returns, they don’t regularly charge organizers for the licenses affected by this release, especially the size of those that provide them with ad inventory, which is also small enough considering the profits of most FGC events, which is usually a Confusing method.

“The installed base is still too small. If it goes to extremes, I just hope the Salt Mine Alliance and future CEOs don’t have SFV, it’s not the future I want to be a fan of.”

We reached out to Capcom to ask if they see these concerns from tournament organizers of all sizes, and if they take into account those who would be negatively impacted by these rules. In response, a Capcom spokesperson pointed to a follow-up statement via official social media, emphasizing that “we appreciate the feedback from the community, we are reviewing it with the wider Capcom team and will follow up with more updates as soon as possible”.

So, with that in mind, it’s clear that this issue isn’t going to be a once-and-for-all topic of the global fighting game scene. There will definitely be revisions to this protocol in the future, and combined with the organizer community keeping an eye out for any new rules coming out, this is sure to be an evolving topic in the coming months.

What the long-term consequences of a new and improved set of rules will be – and the scale of any changes actually made – remains to be seen.