i dunno, as a fighting fan im gonna disagree with you jinsaotomex.
I'm a fighting game fan, hell fighting games are basically the only thing I play, with the occasional RPG/Action-adventure game. JJBA and 3rd Strike being my favorite Capcom fighters. Though I don't really like SSF4 a whole lot (play it anyway) and usually stick to offline play/playing in Chinatown Fair. Being a fan doesn't have anything to do with this issue, because let's be honest. This game wasn't really created for the fans (more on this later) IMO.
you can't just work on other characters after all other characters have been completed. part of the balance comes from tweaking players and everyone at the same time. if you can't tweak everyone at the same time to get balance then to me that can cause balance issues. pretty much all other fighters, when new characters are introduced, there are minor tweaks to most other characters as well for balance reasons.
Except Capcom hasn't been doing it this way at all. They didn't even do this for SSF4 and they aren't doing it like that for SSF4 AE (Yun and Yang being the only characters that made it to any location tests, even though there's going to be more characters in the final version being released in December). You can't simultaneously work on all characters at once. There is a limited number of people, and not all of those people can be put to make characters so chances are that a few characters are worked on at a time with a small team working on each character. The Arcade Edition content will also be DLC for consoles. Capcom isn't fooling anyone by saying they don't have any plans to release this on consoles, as the Arcade scene outside Japan is pretty much dead so DLC would be the way to go (and this won't be free).
so i find it hard to believe that they need an extra month simply to work on 2 extra characters. to me, it is simply a cash-in, and not that there is anything wrong with that, but it bothers some people.
Why would this be hard to believe? The game hasn't gone gold yet, so we can assume that they are still making the final changes (Seth somewhat confirms this in the latest fan interview). The game is released on February 15, 2011 so they have almost 3 months time until release. Then the other issues arise, the game isn't rated (which takes time), the game probably isn't going through the final testing period (but pretty close I bet), the game isn't being manufactured, the game isn't being shipped. All of these things take time so while the game might come out in 3 months, they might only have 2 weeks left (just a random number) to make all the final touches. Once that is finished, they will continue working on DLC characters which leaves a few months to finish 2 DLC characters (Jill and Shuma), as well as begin production on the next DLC characters, other DLC content, and any other issues that might arise within the first month of release.
i know for sf4 and ssf4, they had pictures and had completed the alt costumes before the game was even out. some people even believe they were on the disc but you couldn't use em until you paid for them which unlocked em. stuff like that irks me as a consumer, but i speak with my wallet.
The first batch of DLC costumes was already in the disk I believe, the rest weren't.
i put in probably over 10,000 matches, online alone, of sf4/ssf4, and that doesn't include offline play, but i did not pay for 1 alt costume package simply because i think it adds no value and is bs.
Value of outfits is relative, just like everything else. Some people might enjoy the game more if they get to play their favorite character with their favorite outfit, I share the same opinion as you regarding the outfits though.
Now, let's not forget that the developers themselves aren't the ones responsible for this but the higher-ups at Capcom AND Marvel (who probably has just as much say if not more say than Capcom in most decisions).
There's a few things we have to take into consideration with this whole DLC situation (I'm getting the Special Edition so I get the first 2 characters for "free" anyway).
Capcom is trying to beat MK9 to the release, which is also (fairly) popular in the west. This is also the main target audience for MvC2 as the versus series aren't very popular in Japan.
This game was stated to be released a bit later but guess what? The Thor movie is coming out in May, and guess who's in MvC3? Thor!
There's also a few other movie tie-ins that will lead up to The Avengers movie. Most of these characters who have had their movies in the last couple of years, and in the future, also happen to be part of the Avengers. The Marvel heroes are mainly Avengers. Coincidence? Not at all.
Back to the DLC, as I will probably be spending hundreds (if not thousands) of hours on this game, I don't really mind the DLC.
TL;DR version : MvC3 is just advertisement for The Avengers movie but I will still play the living hell out of this game.
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