I agree with what Max said: this only makes sense for Japan, which’s bizarre because they made a ton of effort to broaden the audience of SF6 outside of Japan and it’s a shame to have that jeopardized out of greed.
Some old, evil executive saw all the goodwill they’ve been building up and got upset, probably.
They’ve been making a lot of effort to expand the “old” FGC (so basically Street Fighter) outside of Japan for a few years now. It hasn’t really taken hold (and I am going to pretend it is because everyone is like me and gets off on watching Guilty Gear!) and we see more and more Saudi money being pumped into “Western” FGC events.
So I can see an argument for doubling down on their core audience to lock that in.
And… PPVs ARE kind of making a comeback in The West. People are increasingly annoyed by “needing so many streaming services”. And, at least in pro wrestling, AEW have kind of been cleaning up with their 4-6 PPVs a year. The HBO Max deal helps a lot for people to watch the weekly show but… it is fricking HBO Max and a lot of folk are still taking the route of “I skip Dynamite and just watch the PPVs”. And the human trafficking front known as WWE are starting to shift back that way as a result of, among other things, their ESPN deal. Companies have been desperate for more and more “event television” as streaming takes over (hence why AEW and WWE can get such lucrative tv contracts) and nothing is more “event” than paying 30-70 bucks to sit around the TV on a Saturday night.
So I think it is less “a few greedy execs want to burn away the goodwill” and more… the overall industry trends.
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