How to Fail at Making a Major Announcement

Did you know it’s Capcom Gamers Week…Day…something or other. I bet you didn’t, but this in fact the case.

Across the pond in London, Capcom’s planned the whole week—or maybe particularly only today—for making some big announcements concerning their immediate future. Yeah, no one except possibly the British game press and a smattering of dirty arcade refuges from the 80s were aware, so don’t feel bad.

But no, the failure isn’t Capcom’s decision to hold their (big?) event in a country that’s regularly screwed over by Japanese and American developers or their inability to hype products besides a new Devil May Cry or some ridiculous card-based rendition of Megaman. No, their failure, beyond the apparent decision to not even advertise the event to the general gaming public, stems from their worthless blog, www.capcom-unity.com.

Again, don’t feel bad if you didn’t know about the blog, barely anyone does. Regardless, Capcom’s been hosting the countdown clock of doom on that page for the last week or so, slowly ticking towards a “megaton” announcement set for today at 12:00 PM EST.

Here’s something to keep in mind: the media’s apparently been embargoed on releasing info from this event until later this week.

Roughly an hour before the countdown clock would hit zero, a report from the already underway shindig broke the big news—Street Fighter 4, coming sometime in 2008. Pretty much immediately afterwards, Capcom’s little blog bit the dust, and as of this post, still remains broken.

So there you have it, Street Fighter 4 gets announced to the public, but not really, because the media currently isn’t able to release specifics thanks to the embargo, and the only official venue for news isn’t working. At this point, the only reason information is even available comes thanks to gaming blogs cross-referencing each other.

Seriously Capcom, get your shit together. If you want to make a splash with some big announcements, try hyping your event, don’t castrate the media, and have enough forethought to prepare your tech for handling the Internet’s onslaught.

I’d honestly like to be excited about your Megaton news, Capcom, but between your now questionable fighting game credentials and the paltry handling of this announcement, all I’ve got to say is, “Street Fighter 4…meh.”

Update: Hit the "Read More..." link to see the Street Fighter 4 teaser trailer.

Update 2: Capcom's blog is still fucked, but the new SF4 site is live and now works: http://www.streetfighterworld.com/

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