‘Street Fighter 6’ Devs “Shocked” By Capcom Cup’s Absurd Ticket Prices, Currently “Discussing Ways To Improve Things”
According to Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama, while the exorbitant ticket prices for the game’s upcoming Capcom Cup and Street Fighter League world championships were decided upon without any input from its dev team, they have since taken it upon themselves to get to the bottom of this upcharging and prevent it from happening in the future.
Both tournaments set to take place from March 11-15th, 2026, at the Ryogoku Kokugikan stadium in Sumida, Tokyo, the 12th annual Capcom Cup will see 48 individual players from around the world face off for the title of world champ, each competitor having earned their spot through the Capcom Pro Tour circuit, while the Street Fighter League championships serves as the battleground for the eponymous circuit’s “top teams from Japan, the United States, and Europe to compete to be the best team in the world.”
With total cash prizes of $1 Million and $200,000 USD awaiting the winners of each respective tournament, the weeks events are sure to showcase some of the highest level Street Fighter gameplay imaginable – And though its open for the public to attend live or stream online, they’ll have to pay a likewise high price for the privilege to do so.
As confirmed on September 28th, in-person tickets for the Capcom Cup group stage elimination rounds and the Street Fighter League qualifiers will run from ¥2,000 JPY (~$13 USD) for the bleachers and up to ¥10,000 (~$60) for the venue’s upper tier box seats, with prices doubling up on every tier but the lowest for the weekend finals, the best bleacher spots jumping to ¥6,000 (~$40) and the aforementioned box seats to ¥20,000 (~$132).
Meanwhile, though the Capcom Cup group stage and Street Fighter League qualifiers “will be streamed for free on YouTube and Twitch”, their finals would be offered as pay-per-view events, either individually for ¥4,000 (~$26) or bundled together for ¥6,000 (~$40).
These prices met with a wave of backlash from fans, Nakayama was eventually pressed for his thoughts on the matter by prominent Street Fighter player and commentator Brian ‘Brian_F’ Foster, who asked the director via Twitter, “Doesn’t it seem strange that the esports division and dev team seem so entirely disconnected? Perhaps different monetization strategies could have resulted with collaboration, rather than just charging such a high price for streaming Capcom Cup”.
In turn, Nakayama admitted, “It may sound strange, but it’s true.”
“Revenue targets and assigned tasks differ fundamentally by department. Even the development team was surprised by this announcement (at least (Street Fighter 6 producer Shuhei Matsumoto and I were shocked at the venue). That said, since this matter occurred within the same company, we are currently discussing it. We apologize for any concern this may have caused.”
Adding a brief post-script, the director playfully added, “If I get scolded at work, I will delete the above comment.”
Met with thanks from Foster regarding his “transparency”, Nakayama further assured, “For example, the initiatives we implemented in the previous title. That was a proposal from the development team—it was tough but fun.”
“Since then, the organization has grown significantly, and various departments have been established. My main responsibilities now are improving the game content, enhancing the quality of merchandise and collaborations, and working on movies and video projects. I’ll keep discussing ways to improve things, even just a little, with other departments.”
“And we developers truly cherish every single person who plays our games. Thank you always.”
Drawing his thoughts to the topic to a close, Nakayama ultimately admitted (as machine translated by DeepL), “I know it’s not a good move for a company employee, but I feel so bad about it…”
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