Support NeoGAF

[Edmund]

It has fallen out of the top 50 on XBox Live Most Played List and is currently the 101st most played game on Steam. It's monthly decline has yet to stabilize on Steam as its last 30 days have seen a 7% drop in players.

No one plays fighting games on xbox. Silly.

 

[Paltheos]

Thank you, nameless mod, for the title edit. You're the real hero for the counter troll.

 

[SportsFan581]

"Most people will hate Street Fighter VI but if you're in a very specific minority, you may love it. Final score: 4/10".

That would probably be one of the worst reviews out there. They should be reviewing the quality of the game as objectively as they can, not trying to create a review that they think will match the player counts. They also shouldn't be swayed by the release history of the developer/directory/studio etc. good or bad, this is the area where they falter the most (just like with film and music), it creates a situation where big names can get a free pass in a lot of ways.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

A mod may be against me but the poll results show I have tapped into a universal truth. Does this mod work for Capcom? Almost certainly he does.

 

[MasterCornholio]

A mod may be against me but the poll results show I have tapped into a universal truth. Does this mod work for Capcom? Almost certainly he does.

Didn't they take away your thread making ability once?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Didn't they take away your thread making ability once?

This was literally a perfect thread until you farted here.

I'm hammering games media. I mean, I'm really giving it to these turds.
The poll is going my way. The people get it.
I'm returning serves from misguided posters like a 24 year old Andre Agassi. Thwap! Shwop!
An all powerful mod attacks from his invisibility cloaked spaceship which forces me to self censor.
I find the absolutely perfect GIF to end it!

Then...you fart the loudest, wettest fart to end my God Only Knows magnum opus. If you want to know why we can't have nice things it's because of MasterCornholio

 

[vaibhavpisal]

While I agree with you in principle, media has a strange disconnect with biggest genre of games in the world, I feel SF6 is not a perfect example to demonstrate this. Less popular online games can also have a lot of great qualities.

With that said, I find media to not give proper coverage to online games. There are both good things and bad things that developers do in the genre. Media only covers stuff that catches eyeballs, like a toddler draining their parent's bank account.

I think deeply addictive, repeatable gameplay is highly underrated. A developer that cannot make this should not develop games, of any kind.

We should be asking for single player games that do not loose steam cause developer decided to put a walking section/boring part in there.

 

[Spyxos]

I never understood the hype around Street Fighter 6. The art style looked bad to me. I'll get it one day, but first it's Tekken's turn.

 

[KingHippo1967]

I know people like to bend over backwards to find any excuse to make game reviewers look bad, but "Nobody is playing this game which got high review scores" (and incidentally also has high-scoring user reviews on Steam) has to one of the weakest ones I've seen.

There are only 85 people playing Tetris Effect on Steam just now - does that mean all those positive reviews were wrong too?

And for what it's worth, referring to yourself in the third person went out with the Attitude Era.

 

[STARSBarry]

As someone who plays a fair bit of fighting games I just couldn't get rolling with street fighter VI.

I think the issue is the Star Wars prequel phenomenon, where the prequel trilogy of movies is looked at more favourably after the sequel trilogy. Its not because these shitty movies got better, it's because when directly compared to the newer entries they are better films.

I think street fighter V was just so bad for so long that just releasing an average product is seen as a 90+ masterpiece in comparison with VI.

The game is a generic live service shit hole though, and unfortunately this is seen with the limited interest and staying power, honestly I'm more looking forward to the new version of Granblue Fantasy Vs, but I'm well aware that it's likely to have even less staying power too... but you can never tell.

 

[mrmustard]

Names get great scores…it’s not about the actual game anymore, how have we not realized that at this point?

Right, MC ist just a big joke.

 

[Elysium44]

So based on this logic no Fighting game should get good score because they are not as popular as online shooters?

Well they could at least be honest with readers and point out that the vast majority of people won't get much or anything out of the game, so hyping it like it has broad appeal is dishonest and will cause regret and remorse from many buyers. Most games can be enjoyed by people of all skill levels but the fighting game genre is a stark exception.

 

[DenchDeckard]

so, because less people are playing it...it doesn't deserve the scores?

Its a hardcore fighting game, with a smaller audience and its great?

 

[Vblad88]

I think grading fighting games have the same amount of sense like grading CoDs or FIFAs. If you are a fan, you will jump to the sequel anyway in a false hope to see anything groundbraking in a next installment.

And usually reviewers end up reviewing "Story modes" as they are only thing that they can set a general consensus on, while rest is up to personal taste...
No fighting games developer actually screw his game up in like 25 years really (PC exclusive fighters from the 90s were considered bad).

 

[crackajack]

Kinda right and still weird take.
While I agree that reviewers and just one score (especially those very narrow 87/100 score some outlets give) often fails in providing to explain for who a game is and who better not touch it. But that is true not only particularly to fighting games. Imho eg every Souls game should have a similar warning. And every other genre; if you don't like Sim City these games won't be up your alley, same as seemingly the majority, even racing game fans, don't really like rally or bike racers as much. Most people will hate RBR, but it is still a great rally game, even today with its seriously outdated spartan visuals.
I guess scores should be more flexible to reflect that, but people also are simple minded so would hardly be able to handle that. And also Eurogamers rather vague approach did not really last long. People want those pretentious real scores.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Man, this year of great SP and classic genres releases as well as the slow decline of certain live service games have really been messing up with Men_in_Boxes head.

Give up man, leave Fortnite behind, forget blizzard and whatever dumb MMO they're coming up with. Become a man of DOOM

 

[Gandih42]

I think you have a fairly narrow and limited idea of what a review should be. I can agree that reviews are often used in misleading ways by marketing, this applies to pretty much any kind of product. And while I don't think the responsibility of using reviews correctly is solely on the customer/reader, a review is not a substitute for critical thinking.

Reviews should be written in the context of the genre, content, time, and audience for a game. I think a good review considers the experience of both a new-comer and veteran in the genre/franchise and factors that into the verdict. In the Live-Service/GaaS world, it also makes sense to cover future content and life of the game. I don't think the core of the review should be WILL THIS GAME BE POPULAR, not even for a multiplayer game. It should be, IS THIS A FUN <Genre> GAME. Some genres are niche and will never have mass appeal. That's fine. I don't see how the review score reflecting that is useful to anyone except people who are easily misled by marketing (and fair enough, that sucks too).

If it seems like the game will not be able sustain a playerbase big enough to be playable - fair enough. I don't really think that's the case for SFVI though. The reviews are reflective of the fact that a lot of people who are into fighting games love it, and the fact that it has a lot of systems to ease in newcomers. And I don't think you can solely blame it on the brand, SFV was rightfully bashed for a lot of its missteps.

Finally, and I know this is really smell-your-own-fartsy, I think reviews are not just about sales. They are also a way for people to engage intellectually with something they enjoy. I would personally not enjoy reviews that are reduced to judging whether or not a game will be popular.

 

[Danjin44]

Well they could at least be honest with readers and point out that the vast majority of people won't get much or anything out of the game, so hyping it like it has broad appeal is dishonest and will cause regret and remorse from many buyers. Most games can be enjoyed by people of all skill levels but the fighting game genre is a stark exception.

Again, its fighting game, you either in to it or you are not.…at that point it up to the player themselves to see if fighting games is for them or not.

 

[Roman Empire]

Man, this thread is so much fun.
Not even the nicest person in the forum Danjin44 can help this poor soul.

It has the same energy as this

 

[YOU PC BRO?!]

I picked up SF6 on the back of the stellar reviews. I was thoroughly disappointed. The last SF game I played was SF4 and thought it would be fun as I don't play fighting games all that much anymore. Critics hailed the game but I found it shallow and uninteresting. The modern roster was complete shit. I would like to see Capcom take a few more chances, like with SF4 when they shifted to 3D. There are so many interesting places they could take the franchise. Perhaps release a few spin-offs or even experiment with new in-game modes that dramatically change things up. That way they may find a new direction to pursue. That's something that NetherRealm has never shied away from and has kept their games fresh and exciting. My thoughts anyways.

 

[Big Baller]

It can't be worse than MK1

 

[F0rneus]

Street Fighter 6 is my favorite fighting ever, dethroning Soul Calibur VI. Perfect package of series best gameplay, tons of single player content, and yes great multiplayer.

 

[SpiceRacz]

What exactly did reviewers get wrong about Street Fighter 6? You're speaking to the popularity of the game, not the quality. You haven't actually explained or backed up your point with anything other than pointing out the amount of people currently playing the game.

 

[Danjin44]

Man, this thread is so much fun.
Not even the nicest person in the forum Danjin44 can help this poor soul.

I don’t know how to be “nice“ to someone who thinks just because the genre is niche it should get lower review score…..what the fuck you say to that? Im convinced it’s all an act as internet personality or something because I refuse to believe a normal person can think like this.

 

[F0rneus]

It can't be worse than MK1

I still can't believe how bad MK1 is. We went from MK11 to...this. It's stiff, the characters look bland except the Royal twins and Reptile, and it's single player is ass outside of story mode. No wait, the plot twist is so bad it ruins it.

 

[yurinka]

"Street Fighter 6 is without question the best fighting game package I have ever played, and will keep you going far longer than a one-on-one fighter has any right to be able to. A true classic." 10/10 - God is a Geek

I am endlessly fascinated how the ~1,000 or so people who comprise Metacritic scores get multiplayer wrong so often.

Street Fighter VI, which released 6 months ago to universal acclaim (92 Metascore) has been all but deserted by players.

It has fallen out of the top 50 on XBox Live Most Played List and is currently the 101st most played game on Steam. It's monthly decline has yet to stabilize on Steam as its last 30 days have seen a 7% drop in players.

Crosshair X, an aim training program, is currently being played by more people on Steam, and 2020s single player darling Assassins Creed Valhalla is more popular on console.

Does anyone else want to start a title wave of resentment towards game critics who have no f***ing idea how to review multiplayer games? What say you? Grab a pitchfork and march towards Frankensteins castle with me?!

Street Fighter 6 is a great game and the 92MC is totally deserved. It's one of the best fighting games in the genre history and does many things better than any other game in the genre's history.

Sure, like any vanilla version it needs a few tweaks regarding character balancing and gameplay mechanics (like any other game it has areas of improvement, nothing is perfect), but as vanilla version it's the best fighting game released in decades. Highly polished in gameplay and a ton of content, options and attention to detail, plus in this case a best in class online multiplayer in basically all areas.

That was what basically everyone thought at release and what most SF6 players still think (other than a few sub 0.1% of the userbase top players who really care, understand and need the balancing tweaks).

If you have no idea about fighting games or if you are a SF6 hater it's your issue, not a game or game reviewer issue.

 

[Ozriel]

I’m not sure why OP would use Xbox live charts as any real metric since most of the FGC has moved over to PlayStation.

An 18k 24 hour peak this far out of release is pretty fantastic for the genre.

 

[tomato shrub]

op be like

Vegetables 4/10
McDonalds 10/10

 

[Danjin44]

I still can't believe how bad MK1 is. We went from MK11 to...this. It's stiff, the characters look bland except the Royal twins and Reptile, and it's single player is ass outside of story mode. No wait, the plot twist is so bad it ruins it.

I still can’t believe MK even with all budget can’t make proper in-game animation. SFVI‘s in-game animation is crazy good and that’s fucking challenging because still had to cut frames in order make the game responsive, Capcom managed to do that while still making animation look amazing.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

IDK about you guys, but I love SF6, and it is the first fighting game I play online daily. The game is fun, it needs some balance, but overall I think the game is amazing. Also, I think Xbox is not the best platform to judge the game popularity, the bulk of the fighting game community isn't there really.

 

[64bitmodels]

10k people are still playing the game after the decline. It's just the fat cutting out after all the newbies who aren't all that good at fighting games left to go somewhere else. It's a common thing, in this genre.

Since you're the expert on multiplayer though how about you tell us how you'd reverse this decline? Turn SF6 into a battle royale GaaS perhaps?

 

[64bitmodels]

Since you're the expert on multiplayer though how about you tell us how you'd reverse this decline? Turn SF6 into a battle royale GaaS perhaps?

I am legitimately not joking, I'm going to pester you for the entire day for your response on this. Men_in_Boxes Because your thread just exposes that you don't seem to get niche multiplayer games in general. I would love to see your solution to make what's already a quite casualised, mainstream friendly SF6 even more casualized to retain the ginormous player counts it had at launch.

 

[yurinka]

10k people are still playing the game after the decline. It's just the fat cutting out after all the newbies who aren't all that good at fighting games left to go somewhere else. It's a common thing, in this genre.

Since you're the expert on multiplayer though how about you tell us how you'd reverse this decline? Turn SF6 into a battle royale GaaS perhaps?

I am legitimately not joking, I'm going to pester you for the entire day for your response on this. Men_in_Boxes Because your thread just exposes that you don't seem to get niche multiplayer games in general. I would love to see your solution to make what's already a quite casualised, mainstream friendly SF6 even more casualized to retain the ginormous player counts it had at launch.

Not true, in Steam SF6 has 20-25K daily active users, which basically is more than the rest of the relatively recent fighting games combined. Unless I miss something, SF6 is the most popular/played fighting game in Steam's history.

And in Street Fighter IV and V series PC was between 1/5 and 1/6 of the sales. This means that if in SF6 PC also is 1/5 and 1/6 of the total, we're talking about 100K-150K daily active users (mostly on them on PS looking at the tradition of the genre, Capcom and most top multiplayer publishers/games).

Street Fighter 6 daily users on Steam:

All games have a lifetime DAU (daily active users) peak in the few launch days and then heavily tank, with some minor peaks for important marketing pushes like the release of big updates, free weekends, big tournaments or price drops, etc.

In this case we saw SF6 had a big player retention -way better than in the other games of the genre- because the drop after the launch wasn't that big as in the rest of the games of the genre: the percentage of the launch peak players who continued in the game is bigger than in the other games of the genre. It means that on average players like SF6 more and continue more engaged than in other games of the genre.

The userbase -as in any other game- slowly declined after the lunch peak until got steady in 20-25K DAU with a couple minor peaks for the two new character releases. And declined more slowly than in other games of the genre.

This is Street Fighter 5 in Steam instead:

Its largest peak, the launch one was 15K, and half a year later was at around 1.5K and remained during a few years in around 1.5K-2K with small peaks, and later improved to 2.5K-3.5K until SF6 got released and SFV userbase basically died shortly after, as soon as in a few months its players moved to SF6.

Mortal Kombat 1

After its first month its DAU went down from the 40K launch peak to 7.3K, remained around 7-8K and later went down to around 4-5K

Mortal Kombat 11 got 2-3K DAU with peaks during years until it got a bump in 2023 going up to 4-5K.

Tekken 7 got basically 4-7K DAU with peaks:

Dragon Ball Fighterz (best selling ARC System Works game ever), got 1.5-2.5K DAU with peaks on Steam:

Guilty Gear Strive had around 2-3K with peaks.

 

[Punished Miku]

so, because less people are playing it...it doesn't deserve the scores?

Its a hardcore fighting game, with a smaller audience and its great?

As someone who was alive during the 90s it has been a hell of a trip to watch the world turn upside down. Back then they were on the other extreme. If you got popular, people would call you a sellout and actively drop support and turn on a band / movie / whatever. Extremely high level of gatekeeping designed to actively keep people from finding out about the best stuff. Now people don't even talk about what is good on its own merits, or what they personally like, they talk about sales numbers and revenue and compare what is the most popular thing like that automatically makes it good. Both extremes are pretty ridiculous, but I probably have to give a small edge to the 90s approach. At least it minimized the influence of mass appeal and profit chasing.

People should just like what they like, and really strive to think independently. You can be the only person that likes something, and you may be the correct one. People just follow the herd a lot in gaming, and then wonder why they don't like stuff.

 

[Alan Silvestro]

Characters have no appeal this time.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Havent played SF6 myself because Akuma, Sagat or Balrog are absent from the game, but what is there seems good?

Agreed with the point of critics not getting multiplayer games at all. Battlefield 2042 managed to get 68 on metacritic, saying its a 2/10 game would be generous even after all the updates.
The user scores tend to be more in line with reality when it comes to multiplayer, but rating a game based on popularity is absurd (wouldnt Fortnite and League of legends be the best 2 games in history by this logic?)

 

[64bitmodels]

Not true, in Steam SF6 has 20-25K daily active users, which basically is more than the rest of the relatively recent fighting games combined. Unless I miss something, SF6 is the most popular/played fighting game in Steam's history.

Yep. previous games were even lower. Mortal Kombat is dead in the fucking water. Tekken 7 is a bit harder to judge, but not the most alive right now. SF6 retaining this much players after launch when other fighters don't even last a month should be heralded as a milestone, because Capcom did really reinvent this genre to work for the casuals better. Instead this guy thinks it's cause for concern

 

[nowhat]

If I ever have a poll go my way on NeoGAF, call 911 immediately. It will mean my multiplayer cognition has fallen off a cliff.

A mod may be against me but the poll results show I have tapped into a universal truth.

I'm not sure the poll results still quite go your way, but should I be calling 911 just in case?

 

[Arsic]

The game is really good. The problem is that fighting games are niche in long term retainment. Always have been.

The critics aren’t wrong.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Fighting games are dead. Unless you're smash bros, then you sell 30m+ copies and end up being an esport that the game maker wants to eliminate.

Imagine saying fighting games are dead in the middle of the fighting game renaissance.

Fighting games WERE dead, but have made a huge comeback. Smash Bros, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken... I don't think we've ever had heavy hitters like this all on the scene at the same time. When Tekken was big on the scene Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were all but dead. Smash was in its infancy due to lack of hardware sales. It wasn't until the Wii that Smash hit the big time.

 

[yurinka]

Yep. previous games were even lower. Mortal Kombat is dead in the fucking water. Tekken 7 is a bit harder to judge, but not the most alive right now. SF6 retaining this much players after launch when other fighters don't even last a month should be heralded as a milestone, because Capcom did really reinvent this genre to work for the casuals better. Instead this guy thinks it's cause for concern

I shown the numbers, it isn't hard to judge: Tekken 7 is one of the most played/most popular fighting games in Steam history and it's super healthy for being that old, but it's way behind SF6.

Let's compare the recent 3 months to have a more precise idea of their current state:

Tekken 7 had around 4-5K Steam daily active users

Street Fighter 6 had around 20K Steam daily active users (4x-5x times the Tekken 7 numbers)

Note: the Sept. 27 SF6 minor peak is due to the A.K.I. (SF6 second post launch character) release.

 

[Three]

"Street Fighter 6 is without question the best fighting game package I have ever played, and will keep you going far longer than a one-on-one fighter has any right to be able to. A true classic." 10/10 - God is a Geek

I am endlessly fascinated how the ~1,000 or so people who comprise Metacritic scores get multiplayer wrong so often.

Street Fighter VI, which released 6 months ago to universal acclaim (92 Metascore) has been all but deserted by players.

It has fallen out of the top 50 on XBox Live Most Played List and is currently the 101st most played game on Steam. It's monthly decline has yet to stabilize on Steam as its last 30 days have seen a 7% drop in players.

Crosshair X, an aim training program, is currently being played by more people on Steam, and 2020s single player darling Assassins Creed Valhalla is more popular on console.

Does anyone else want to start a title wave of resentment towards game critics who have no f***ing idea how to review multiplayer games? What say you? Grab a pitchfork and march towards Frankensteins castle with me?!

Man what exactly are you saying? Metacritic scores aren't tied to popularity. Some of the most niche games have high metacritic scores because they're good games not because they're popular genres or games. Crosshair X is also a crosshair overlay program used for popular FPS games like Fortnite, Counter Strike etc. Of course it has a lot of users. Why are you relating concurrent users to metacritic scores?

 

[Fake]

Cringe.

 

[NT80]

Me: "These critics should warn readers that the vast majority of them won't enjoy SFVI.

Danjin44: "You think too much like a corporation."

Imagine recommending a restaurant to 10 friends and you know only 1 of the 10 would enjoy it enough to return. You just recommended a bad restaurant to 90% of your friends. You're a bad friend Danjin44, a bad friend!

Btw, Street Fighter VI is a trendy modern game. The trend is a cliff.

How do you know only 1/10 people enjoyed this game who were convinced by reviews? You can't just go by online numbers. People may have got there money's worth and moved on or are mostly playing for the single player and offline. Is there a wave of resentment about this game not being what it was hyped up to be by people who bought the game?

 

[splattered]

It's a good game I just have too many damn games to play. I think that's also part of the problem. I will say the story mode is shit though. Just like cod campaign is lackluster .. haha

 

[Danknugz]

don't really care but it would be nice to bring sf6 to gamepass cause no way i'm actually paying for that game

 

[MiguelItUp]

Fighting games are niche, and that's really all there is to it. But that by no means should mean SF6 isn't deserving of its praise, especially compared to the previous game and other competitors. It's a fighting game with a plentiful campaign, and in-depth mechanics that make it simplistic yet complicated, it's great. It's been praised by many in a year of plentiful solid releases, so the fact that it's still doing well as it is says a lot. Even if it's not doing AS well as games from other genres. I feel attempting to do such a thing is unjust.

 

[Chukhopops]

The truth is that fighting games tend to die quickly in MP generally speaking, because they have a steep learning curve and MP can be both intimidating and frustrating for players due to its zero-sum aspect: half of all games played are losses and there’s no consolation prize. I played a lot of SF4 back in the days and after a few months all casuals had quit so you only had good players left. It creates a vicious circle situation where it becomes impenetrable for the majority of new players.

It’s an issue with the genre itself and I don’t know what individual games can do about it. It’s the same situation with other genres like RTS or even sim racing.

I also think SF6 got better reviews because it launched in a better state than SF5 so there was at least a bit of single player content to play.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

I apologise for the ad hominem but, OP you dumb

 

[Belthazar]

I guess you're the one who needs to understand fighting games. SF VI is a great game and the active players trajectory is what's expected from a fighting game.