People are saying this is a good thing, so players only buy the characters they want. Who wants a fighter with only 2 or 4 fighters? I remember when Skullgirls came out how a lot of people in the FGC complained that this budget title only had 8 characters, but now we shouldn't complain about having to buy all other characters? So, when you buy a character, will you be able to fight other characters, or do you need to buy said characters first before you can fight against them?
It'll probably just be an easy way of entry, and not a came-neutering measure. Microsoft apparently had to jump through hoops to get to use the name "Killer Instinct" again, so I bout they'd make such obvious oversights as making it impossible for people to try out other characters, or making online play ONLY VS the characters you purchased.
DOA5U and Tekken Whateveritscalled already have taken measures against this. Why wouldn't this.
Anybody thinking this is a measure for the consumer to save money is a it naive to say the least, as MS has every intention to make this more profitable than the current situation. Get ready to pay $ 5.00 per character, and $2.50 for a stage or so. Buy all available characters and stages and then tell me you saved money compared to buying a complete game now.
Or just get ready for it to be a new delivery method to... the same amount of content you get with anything.
People keep assuming the worse, but who'se to say this game couldn't be XBO's version of Steam's Team Fortress 2? Every game that comes out could have useless trinkets that tie back to this, and it could be a dumping ground for promoting XBO exclusives by tossing them into this game. You could have people paying full price for games they won't even play, just to get items for the F2P monster in the corner.
Besides, would you really want to have the situation that everyones copy is different? Some might buy all characters, others might only buy half the cast, where some people might only buy two. Great to play with friends: " You want to play some KI? I only have 3 characters, though..."
You can bet the base game file will be the same for everyone, just like the Compatibility updates do currently for Mortal Kombat, or SFIV series.
Even if they did restrict characters to accounts, you'd most likely be able to sign into your own account to play the characters you own. I doubt they'd do this though.
Serious Question: Why does everyone act like a "buy it all" or "season pass" option won't exist for a F2P console game?
For me, one of the things I loved about original Xbox, was that there were a plethora of playable demos available when I got the system; some of them were even meaty! That Lost Planet MP demo lasted me as long as some actual games.
This being positioned as a "Free To Play" has the same feel to me; It'll be something to play, especially if you only could purchase 1 game after the multi-hundred dollar purchase of the console + controllers + subscription time itself.
it's hard to tell if KI could do the same. Being an old fighter, fans are used to the characters having only 1 outfit. But it was the same for SF4 and Capcom still sold the DLC costumes.
