I think 740 is pretty bad. Usually entry numbers are highest when a game is new and then slowly drop as the game gets older. There are only a few big games that have bucked this trend (Tekken, for example).
The fact that SC's numbers as so low this early in its life suggests that it will have a short competitive lifespan.
This is actually the highest number entrance for any SC in Evo, so that's alone is actually great news.
You made a point tho, usually numbers drop but as we see T7 got better each year, so if T7 did it, i don't know why SC6 can't do it, especially since SC6 is still a non very mature game with the vanilla effect, the game is very good but still so many things can be add and/or improve, but i'll say that if Cassandra will be the last thing SC6 will have i won't put high bet on SC6 getting stronger in the long run, i mean obviously. There is just no way SC6 can grow without support, and that's not just for SC6 but for any fighting game. But if it will get a huge season 2 update like SF4>SSF4 or T7>>T7FR the game can only get better by this point and will have more potential for growth later down the line. Of course PS need to make changes to make the game more appealing to more people? what kind of changes? since i don't own the absolute truth, but i gave (like many others) my wishilist opinion and feedback on this in my wishlist/feedback wesbsite.
I think you're both correct, but as to SSfox's point, unfortunately I don't see Namco giving the level of support the game needs to get over that hurdle. Maybe they have big plans in the form of cards they are playing close to the vest, but the game would need so much to rescue it from the slump it seems to be falling towards as we get closer to the one-year mark--indeed, we're only just now passing the nine-month mark, and things are already looking a little grim. Namco attempted to thread the needle on reboot and doing things on the budget, and it shows. If their aim was to make the game marginally successful and keep the franchise on life-support for the time being, I'd say they were successful. If the hope was that the game would bring the franchise genuinely closer to its former glory, I'd say they miscalculated and under-invested.
The game just needs more work than can be supplied by season passes at this point, I think--it's a kind of catch-22 feedback loop here: the game's popularity is hurt by it feeling under-complete, and this situation could be addressed by multiple season passes, but the season passes themselves are only viable if they are at least marginally profitable,* and their profitability is hurt by the fact the lack of popularity of the game as it stands. Short of a huge influx of further development commitments, which Namco aggressively advertises (which, I just don't see happening, in either respect), I think SCVI is on a downward spiral. At least the game is marginally more popular with SCV, though--so hopefully the next mainline entry gets proper support and a real budget. Gonna be a bit of wait thought.
* Normally it would need to be much more than marginally profitable in order to compete with other project priorities within Namco, but I think that they are so keen to get the continuing support/season pass model established for their fighters, they will do at least a season two, even if the projected profit margin looks thin. Unfortunately, this game needs more than just one extra season pass to flesh out everything that was absent or lackluster at launch.
A world where we get a new Darkstalkers game (a franchise with far more unique, engaging characters than Street Fighter and a fantastic horror motif) is nothing but a distant dream.
While I agree with a number of your other points in that post, I'm not sure this is a fair criticism. Darkstalkers has essentially been merged into Marvel vs. Capcom, with most of its handful of characters appearing in the last couple of entries in that franchise. And I just don't think it had the legs to compete as its own IP: the last console version of the series was released over twenty years ago, and its style was always pretty cartoonish, even by Marvel fighter standards: reviving it as a profitable independent property for current markets would be a longshot even if Capcom were willing to role the dice.
Honestly, I do think there's more than enough room for more than the four properties you mentioned (indeed, I have some tentative hopes that we're about to enter a renaisance for the fighter genre, on account of the viability of continuing support models). And I think Soulcalibur still has the name brand recognition to return as one of the giants. Thing is, Namco needs to decide that it's going to genuinely make that push. The last two games have not lived up the franchise standards for both the amount of content and the level of quality of said content. Significant portions of SCVI were outsourced to third parties and the entire thing was clearly made with one eye firmly fixed on a budget and short development lifecycle for the base game. And I need not repeat to anyone here why SCV was ill-received for similar reasons. Until Namco treats the series as one with the potential to be a blockbuster, it won't stand a chance of getting there. I do not believe the primary reason that this particular series is not doing well has much to do with undiscerning consumers. Rather, I think the wounds upon SC's popularity and sales are a self-inflicted consequence of Namco's approach to the games.
While that may be the case recently, I have high hopes the game will get continued support and more content drops because it sold well during the Steam Summer Sale. It sold as the second highest purchased figting game, so that should translate to many new players that should improve the online with fresh players right up until Evo.
Well, let's look at what that means from all context: the game 1) came in second, 2) in just one genre, 3) in one sale, on 4) just one platform, which 5) is by far its least profitable platform. I'm not saying it's nothing--we have to take every sign of good news that we can at this juncture--but I wouldn't take that as particularly good evidence that SCVI is maintaining a huge market share: the factors for its performance in that one sale make it too niche to make any concrete predictions on broader trends. I personally think that Namco would be smart to put the game on sale on consoles for a while just after the first season pass finishes, and again just before the second season first drops. But we'll see!
