Capcom changes Street Fighter eSports licensing rules after community backlash

Capcom has made changes to its Street Fighter V Community Licence Agreement, following backlash from the game’s fans.

The publisher first posted its eSports licensing rules in late February, as an attempt to speed up the process involved when tournament organisers want to set up new events.

The licence agreement is designed to provide a set of criteria which, if met, would allow tournaments to use Street Fighter V imagery and stream the event on Twitch without having to specifically ask Capcom for permission.

However, members of the game’s eSports community complained that the criteria were too strict, causing Capcom to make adjustments.

In a new update on the official Capcom website, the publisher concedes: “We acknowledge that we could have handled the situation better.”

As a result, a number of changes have been made, including:

• an increased prize pool limit (from $2000 to $10,000 per event)
• removing a yearly $10,000 prize pool limit
• an increased sponsorship limit (from $5,000 to $6,000 per event)
• an increased sponsorship limit (from $20,000 to $30,000 per year)
• a change in spectator fee restrictions
• a change in venue restrictions for bars

One of the more contentious issues was Capcom’s insistence that anyone running a Street Fighter V event would automatically give Capcom a royalty-free license to use and stream footage from its matches. This is no longer the case.

The original licence in February read: “You grant Capcom a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use, distribute, and stream Match Footage and any creative derivative works of Match Footage for Capcom’s promotional purposes.”

This has now changed to: “Capcom may contact you to obtain your permission to include short excerpts from the event on Capcom’s official website and social media channels to promote the game and Capcom.”

Explaining the decision to publish the licence agreement, Capcom stated: “Our aim was to make the requirements clear and to make approvals for a no-cost licence much more expedient.

“When [tournament organisers] have contacted the Capcom USA and Capcom Europe teams about running community events with Street Fighter V: Champion Edition in the past, the approval process has been prohibitively longwinded.

Further reading

2

Capcom has officially revealed Street Fighter 6

More details on the next instalment will be revealed this summer

“This is something we are keen to change so [tournament organisers] have more time to focus on putting on a great event and less time spent on seeking approvals.

“We want to thank our passionate fans for the feedback we received after the first version went live. We hear you. Honouring the grassroots tradition of the Street Fighter community is incredibly important to us.

“To this end, we have updated the Street Fighter V Community License Agreement, taking into account the feedback we received from the community while maintaining our original goal to provide a no-cost license.”