Paywall

Capcom has announced that the 2025 Capcom Cup 12 Finals and the Street Fighter League 2025 World Championship will be streamed globally via pay-per-view, marking a significant shift from past years when the same fixtures were freely viewable.

Starting March 14, 2026, Street Fighter fans will need to purchase virtual tickets to watch the live finals. The developer confirmed the change in a September 28 X/Twitter post, specifying that free replays of matches are intended to drop one week later.

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Depending on the ticket tier, prices for the pay-per-view stream range from ¥4,000 and ¥6,000 (approximately $27–$40 USD).

Fans push back against paywall

Unsurprisingly, the shift from free to pay-per-view triggered backlash from fans. The announcement on social media was met with an overwhelmingly negative reception.

It’s worth noting that Capcom already adopted the same pay-per-view model in Japan in 2024, so introducing the same model overseas isn’t as spontaneous as it may initially seem.

The countdown begins. Tickets for #CAPCOMCUP12 drop soon on Oct. 10!

Starting this season, CAPCOM CUP 12 Finals (Mar.14) and SFL: World Championship (Mar. 15) will stream live via Pay-per-view. Free replays will drop Mar. 21 (CC12) & Mar. 22 (SFL:WC). *Pay-per-view tickets will… pic.twitter.com/CrPI1EzXSq

— Capcom Fighters (@CapcomFighters) September 28, 2025

However, several users suggested that Capcom, as a Japanese company, hasn’t taken into account cultural differences between the two markets. “Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not have Japan’s culture. This will be the biggest PR nightmare for your brand,” one user said.

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Fighting game content creators have been similarly outspoken. YouTuber Maximillian Dood released a video on September 30 titled “Capcom…what are you doing?!”

While backlash towards the company as a whole will be inevitable, Max said that the decision had “Nothing to do with the Street Fighter development team, although they’re probably going to be getting an earful over all of this stuff after the weekend is over.”

Assuming concerns don’t result in any changes to the pay-per-view model, it remains to be seen how they’ll affect viewership for future events.

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The controversy surrounding the DLC clans in the upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is finally over. The studio behind the upcoming game has confirmed that it is walking back its plans to lock two clans behind a paywall after receiving lots of “feedback,” aka people yelled at them online for a while.

Last month, Bloodlines 2 devs The Chinese Room and publisher Paradox announced at Gamescom ONL that the long-awaited vampire RPG sequel would finally arrive on PC and consoles in October. After a lengthy and messy development cycle that involved multiple studios and delays, a lot of fans were just happy that Bloodlines 2 was actually, for real, coming out. But then folks discovered that two of the game’s six vampire clans, which essentially act as your class, were locked behind a $30 paywall. People got mad, a lot of negative headlines were posted, and about a week later, on August 27, the devs announced they were going to make some tweaks to the DLC plans. And now we know what that means: All six clans are included in the base game.

On September 17, in the YouTube description of a new Bloodlines 2 gameplay overview trailer, the executive producer on the game thanked fans for the “frank feedback” about the game’s Premium Edition DLC before confirming that none of the clans would be locked behind a day-one DLC paywall. He also praised the devs for helping create two new story packs that will now be included in the Premium Edition.

“Thanks to our community for the frank feedback on Bloodlines 2 and the Premium Edition,” said Bloodlines 2 executive producer Marco Behrmann. “That feedback made it clear: Lasombra and Toreador belong in the base game, so that is what we are doing. We’d also like to thank The Chinese Room for their quick turnaround on the concepts for the post-launch Story Packs. We’re constantly impressed by their creativity and skill in weaving enticing narrative threads that expand on the main story in Bloodlines 2.”

The two new story packs are: “Loose Cannon“ (Brujah Sheriff Benny’s story) and “The Flower & The Flame” (Toreador Primogen Ysabella’s path). The plan is for this DLC, which replaces the missing paid access to clans, to launch in 2026. And so ends the Bloodlines 2 DLC saga. Hopefully, after all of this and all the years of waiting, the game is worth it all. We’ll find out when Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 launches on Xbox, PS5, and PC on October 21.

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Capcom sparks backlash after putting Street Fighter 6 finals behind paywall

Fans push back against paywall

Bloodlines 2 Won’t Lock Clans Behind Paywall After Fan Backlash