'Street Fighter V' will give you free extras if you earn them

For most of the Street Fighter series' history, you've had to pay for significant new content. Want to get those sweet new characters? Buy the Super Ultra EX Plus Alpha Turbo Championship edition. You won't have to go through that rigamarole with Street Fighter V, though. Capcom is promising that any post-launch SFV material will be earnable for free, in-game -- accrue enough "Fight Money" and that brawler will be yours. You can still use real cash if you want more content without putting in additional play time, but you're no longer forced to splurge.

This economic aspect won't show up until later in SFV's beta testing, and it's not clear just how much effort you'll have to put in to unlock content at no charge. Here's hoping that it isn't a grind, like you often see in free-to-play games. Either way, this could be a refreshing change from the fighting game world's recent tendency to charge for extras. You won't have to purchase whole 'new' titles just to compete at tournaments, and you only have to get the content that interests you. Ideally, this will keep the SFV community intact for as long as the core game remains current -- and that's good for both Capcom (which doesn't split its fan base) as well as casual and cost-conscious players.