Street Fighter 6 costs more than a month’s rent for some players
CapcomStreet Fighter 6 has fighting game fans around the world excited to hop back into the iconic series, but in some parts of the world, Street Fighter 6 will cost players more than a month’s rent.
The FGC is one of the most internationally prominent and active communities regarding both esports and casual play. The fighting game genre started in arcades making games like Street Fighter and Tekken accessible to everyone, popularizing them worldwide.
People around the world having access to new fighting games is an essential part of keeping these communities alive. For example, prominent Pakistani pro player Arslan Ash wouldn’t have been able to get into fighting games without arcades, and he went on to win EVO 2019’s Tekken tournament.
With the hype from Street Fighter 6‘s recent reveals has come the news that, in some countries, Street Fighter 6 will cost fans of the series more than their rent for the month.
Street Fighter 6 costs more than rent in Argentina
While Argentina is a fringe case for the game costing more than rent in some places, there are many contributing factors to what one Chilean fighting game fan has called “prohibitively expensive” prices for not only Street Fighter 6 but video games in general.
It’s also important to remember that games like Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V launched with arcade cabinets, to the point where many players would go to the arcade to play rather than buy the game for a home console.
For Latin American fighting game fans, arcades would provide a way to play these games without making a massive financial investment to buy the base game on launch. But arcades around the world are being phased out, and Street Fighter V didn’t even hit arcades at launch as detailed by an article from Red Bull.
Even in a country like Japan, which has historically had a thriving arcade culture, the scene has been gradually dying out as players either choose to or are forced to play these games at home. Something many gamers can’t afford.
While this discussion has included people from many countries across South America, Argentina’s pricing is so high for one major reason: taxes.
The screenshots from the original tweet were taken from an Argentinian Steam user with a browser extension called Steamico that applies Argentina’s tax on foreign goods to the item before checkout to give users an idea of what they’ll be paying for a game.
Before taxes, Street Fighter 6’s price would be $60 USD in the Argentine Peso (which works out to be around 10,000 Pesos), a massive financial undertaking for the average person living there. Tax on foreign goods takes that price even higher to around $100 USD for just the base edition of the game, not including DLC. The Ultimate Edition gets taken close to $180 USD, a hefty price even for someone living in the US.
Given the choice between being able to have a roof over your head or getting your hands on the new Street Fighter, it’s no surprise that Latin American fighting game fans are feeling frustrated about the high price placed on the game.
