Two-and-a-half years later, Street Fighter 5 gets loot boxes

On 25th June Street Fighter 5 gets a big new update - and part of that is the addition of loot boxes.

The loot boxes have to do with Survival Mode and a new system called Fighting Chance. Menat, one of the playable characters, has opened up a shop to tell you your fortune. Spend 500 Fight Money, the in-game currency, and you get a Fantasy Fortune Reading, which Menat helps you decipher. These readings are the loot box: they contain multiple items, including some exclusive to Fighting Chance.

Items include Battle Goods, which increase your chance of completing Survival Mode, new colours only available from Fantasy Fortune Readings, classic pieces of Street Fighter art from across the series, and, to the consternation of the Street Fighter community, rare costumes only available via Fantasy Fortune Readings.

These rare costumes include Cammy's Cannon Spike costume, below. Capcom said it'll add more rare costumes as time goes on.

The items you get in Street Fighter 5's new loot boxes are either cosmetic or limited to Survival Mode, which is single-player only. This means there are no competitive multiplayer gameplay-affecting items to be found in the loot boxes, which is very much a good thing. It's also worth noting you can't buy Fight Money with real world cash, either, so to purchase loot boxes you have to actually play the game. But that hasn't stopped Street Fighter 5 players from hitting out at their addition at a time when loot boxes are under increased scrutiny from government authorities and it appears some publishers are stepping away from loot boxes entirely following last year's Star Wars Battlefront 2 debacle.

Adding loot boxes to Street Fighter 5 now, some two-and-a-half years after the game launched, seems like a curious decision for another reason: the game struggled at launch and has faced an uphill battle ever since to attract new players. Street Fighter 5 needs all the help it can get, and I can't imagine word it now has loot boxes will do much to boost the game's already tarnished reputation - despite the excellent and free Arcade Edition update.