Seth Killian recently visited the Unity Boards to discuss a few issues the fans had brought up about the SF4 Championship Mode update. Here are his comments.
How come the Championship Mode on XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 have different features? Why are PS3 users getting screwed over?
Seth: My life was certainly easier when both systems had totally identical features, just because people love to have reasons to fight, and I'm happiest when we aren't giving them any material whatsoever. Zero differences keeps people talking about the game itself (which is why we care about features in the first place), rather than focusing on relatively insignificant differences.
I know the team was very excited by both systems, so I think they were just trying them both out -- certainly the intent was not to "screw" any platforms, and I think they'll take the reaction (which, interestingly, goes both ways -- X360 and PS3 fans both seem to want whatever thing the other kid got) to heart going forward. [...]
Why doesn't Capcom listen to their fans?
Seth: 1) We do listen to our fans. Being in a lot of development meetings, I can say this without hesitation, because I see the impact your voices make on the products daily. I also think we listen as well or better than anyone else in the console space, and we're getting better all the time.
2) The Championship Mode DLC is not a great gauge of "how well we are listening" as the development was begun before people had a chance to give their feedback (it started before the game was released).
3) Championship Mode isn't the silver bullet and the answer to everyone's various demands, but it IS actually a really fun addition. I suggest you try the tournaments -- I find them really addictive, and the replay mode, even given the limitations, is just great. You constantly have a list of quality match videos right there at your fingertips, so even if you hope for EVEN MORE, I hope we can remain level-headed and agree this is still pretty sweet.
4) It is also FREE, right? We are not expecting this free update to sell a million more units -- we are delivering it because it was part of the vision we had for SFIV, and think it's a great offering to the fans that have supported SF by buying the game. That's what we call "fan-service," and as a fan, I have to say it's pretty good.
Overall, you can always find reasons to be disappointed by comparing whatever you get to some imagined piece of complete personal perfection in your head, but that's missing the point in a lot of ways, so hopefully we can step back for a second and go "gee, this is good." Interestingly enough, this feeds back into helping me (and others) represent the voice of fans in future development. If there's a feeling that you just can't please some people, even if what you're offering is free, another company would tune you out pretty quickly. Just trying to maintain some balance here.
