Capcom is changing its esports licensing rules for Street Fighter after receiving serious backlash from the esports community. The game company first shared its licensing agreement in February, which allowed esports events that follow the company’s rules to stream Street Fighter V tournaments on twitch without needing to ask for Capcom’s permission.
Unfortunately, the Street Fighter V esports community felt the rules were too strict, leading to Capcom changing the licensing rules. Among the rules community members took issue with was the clause stating that Capcom would automatically receive a royalty-free license to utilize footage from any Street Fighter V event. However, this rule was altered in the updated license agreement 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.”
“We want to thank our passionate fans for the feedback we received after the first version went live,” Capcom said in a blog post. “We hear you. Honoring the grassroots tradition of the Street Fighter community is incredibly important to us. To this end, we have updated the Street Fighter V Community Licenses Agreement to reflect new prize pool limits, sponsorship limits, photo/video content ownership and more, taking into account the feedback we received from the community while maintaining our original goal to provide a no-cost license.”
Changes to the licensing rules include removing the $10,000 yearly prize pool limit and upgrading the prize pool limit per event to $10,000. Sponsorship limits per event and year were also increased.
Esports Is On The Rise
Esports continue to thrive in the post-pandemic world. The Italian government recently created an official esports federation to regulate tournaments. Additionally, Lamborghini now has its own Esports team. Esports is even entering the realm of television with Players, an upcoming mockumentary about a League of Legends esports team’s journey to the world championship.
Jack Brassell is a freelance journalist and aspiring novelist. Jack is a self-proclaimed nerd with a lifelong passion for storytelling. As an author, Jack writes mostly horror and young adult fantasy. Also an avid gamer, she works as the lead news editor at Hardcore Droid. When she isn't writing or playing games, she can often be found binge-watching Parks & Rec or The Office, proudly considering herself to be a cross between Leslie Knope and Pam Beasley.
