Famitsu is reporting the bizzare Street Fighter PC MMO on the other side of the globe is looking to end its service with steps beginning this month, culminating to the complete end of online service on August 31. These steps include eliminating storage expansions, closing out all cash shop operations, making items free, ending accounts, holding one final service end event and then finally pulling the lever down to end service on the game ... well, that's probably not true, but I always like to imagine game companies have giant levers with red handles that turn their online service on and off. It seems Famitsu explains the shut down comes about as a result of a dispute stemming from the game using items from other licensed properties such as Cyborg 009.
As fanatical as I am about Street Fighter, I never gave Street Fighter Online Mouse Generation a chance. I suppose it was the whole concept of using only a mouse to control a fighting game that turned me off, really. Not only that, but the screenshots of the game don't seem to do Street Fighter any justice - some of the characters involved look like they jumped straight off the pages of the Street Fighter The Storytelling Game (more on that in a later post). I'm not so sure why the company (the game is not operated or developed by Capcom by the way) thought it could interject outside material into the game without licensing it (at least sites such as Gaia Online are smart enough to parody popular items to avoid issues) and, again, it's sad to see the legendary Street Fighter name dragged through this mud. The game launched in July 2008 and beyond an initial fighting cast began to add in characters from Cyborg 009, Space Detective Gabin as well as what Famitsu reports as items licensed by a Chinese novelist - obviously launching the licesning dispute.
Maybe I'm too hasty in my initial view of the game but if I can manage it, perhaps I will try to go a few rounds in Street Fighter Online and anyone else who would like to do the same can go to the game's official site. If the display of rainbows and zoo animals you'll see when you visit the site doesn't immediately make you go to another site and/or vommit, you can explore the site and see what it has to offer - the mentioned character list is found on the site's character library. It looks like August 6 is the date every single feature becomes free, so maybe you should save your energy for that event.
Rest in peace Street Fighter Online Mouse Generation ... we hardly knew ye. Now can Capcom please step up and offer us a Street Fighter Online MMO?
Subscribe