Capcom Committed to DLC and Digital Distribution as Part of Ongoing Strategy

Capcom's strategy for downloadable content (DLC) may have gotten mixed reception by fans but the company is committed to a plan using digital distribution of titles and DLC to maximize market opportunities.

Capcom offered the following as one of its strategies for the second half of its fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2010.

Use digital distribution to maximize opportunities to sell software

• Sell game software by using network downloads in order to give users more options.
• "Marvel vs. Capcom 2", "Fate / unlimited codes" (overseas), and others
• Constantly offer upgrades and earn profits by using PSN and XLA [sic] to distribute additional content.
• Constantly sell "Resident Evil 5", "Street Fighter IV" and other additional content

Capcom used DLC in Street Fighter 4 in several ways. If offered DLC for purchase in the form of alternate costume packs, selling for around $4 per pack which included alternate costumes for five characters. Later Capcom offered an all-in-one DLC bundle where you could buy all alternate costumes for all characters for a price that would save you money over buying them separately.

Capcom also gave us the Championship Edition DLC pack free of charge. This pack added the Championship Mode and a few other enhancements to the game. This free DLC added value to the retail game.

You can see part of this strategy already being implemented. You can download Street Fighter 4 for PC and for Xbox 360 over Xbox Live. Many of Capcom's PSP releases on UMD are being re-released for the convenience of current PSP users and for users of the new PSP Go. Offering digital download options for games makes sense. Unlike retail, it costs nothing (outside of bandwidth) to sell digital copies of games (no distribution, production) and the don't have to worry about shelf-space or mark-down losses selling at retail.

Capcom did not provide any sales figures for DLC. However, it has been said that proceeds from sales of DLC from Street Fighter 4 helped make Super Street Fighter 4.

Source: Kotaku via iplaywinner