After months of rumors and potential leak sources were combating SSF4 Producer Yoshinori Ono aka "Master Troll" and his continual denials that Arcade Edition would make it to consoles, it was announced today that AE would indeed be released to consoles as both a DLC update for current owners of SSF4 priced at $14.99 and a full retail disc for those who still haven't joined the SF4 legion priced at $40 according to Amazon.
The update brings balance changes and four new playable characters, Yun, Yang, Oni, and Evil Ryu. Also, the online replay system has been enhanced allowing players to easily share their replays with others as well as search for specific players or view only "elite" players (with more than 3000 PP). Additionally, those who don't decide to upgrade can still play along with the AE players. It's unclear how exactly this will work. To coincide this news, Evo announced it will use the AE version of the game for the world championships in July.
Overall, I'm excited for this. Sakura is buffed and has already proven to be a force in tournaments. However, regarding the other "balance" changes-- specifically the new additions to the cast are troubling. Ono has already gone on record saying that AE is purposely unbalanced. Furthermore, dubious nerfs to characters like Blanka and El Fuerte are head scratchers.
Regardless of the consequences of these changes to the gameplay, no one can argue the value Capcom is offering here. I was surprised to see the changes to the online experience. I was certain that it couldn't become much better, but it looks to improve. It's also interesting to compare this release to the other big update coming soon in Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2. While it's a free update, the three DLC characters total come out to be pricier than AE and with no added features besides balance changes.
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