Future of the SSFIV AE DLC

Someone earlier asked me today when I thought we would be getting the Arcade Edition updates for Super Street Fighter IV on console. My answer for him was not for a long time. He seemed really disappointed, but I explained my reasoning to him, as I will now for you. It's my prediction that we won't see any "Arcade Edition DLC" until at least a month after 3D edition comes out for the Nintendo 3DS.

Why such a delay? Well the most obvious reason for me to suggest this is due to Capcom's two new fighting game releases, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and SSFIV 3D Edition. You don't want to distract players from buying 2 new games with a DLC.

I think everyone that bought SSFIV will probably pick up MvC3. The real game that would suffer from a DLC Arcade Edition release sooner than later would be the 3D edition. Ono has stated that the Arcade Edition updates to SSFIV will not be included in 3D edition, which makes it seem a lot less exciting. I mean, the new 3D effects and modes are cool and everything, but I'd much rather have an updated console port so I can use my arcade stick at home.

I don't think they have anything to worry about with the hardcore Street Fighter fan base. Guys like me will pick up 3D edition regardless, but the casual players may feel that it's inferior if the new AE characters aren't included and pass it up.

I think releasing the updates now would hurt the sales of the DLC a bit too. Let's face it, everyone is pretty excited about MvC3. If MvC3 and the DLC came out around the same time, the DLC sales would suffer. It's the something new, vs. something old but updated thing.

Then there's the theory that all those new characters that were rumored to be added to AE are still in production. Such as Alex, Rolento, etc. It's plausible, I mean Evil Ryu and Oni Akuma were added (or maybe time unlocked, I'm not sure) to AE recently. I'd like to think that Capcom is still working on Alex for me, heh heh.

So there you have it. These are the factors I suggested that may be affecting the DLC of the Arcade Edition updates. Note that these were just my theories, I don't have a secret Capcom source to back this up or anything. I just think we should plan for the DLC to arrive much later in the year.