Mark Julio has commented on the price tag and limited availability of the upcoming Street Fighter V Chun-Li Arcade FightStick TE2, which is available for preorder right now with this link.
In regards to the pricing of the arcade stick, the Community and Sponsorship Manager at Mad Catz revealed that his company is making the future Tournament Edition 2s to be more consistent and of better quality. As a result, they have to pass the costs to their customers. You can check out a series of Twitter messages talking about that subject matter below:
I’m happy working on new fighting game related products here at MCZ. It’s hard to balance the cost to market. We hope ppl like the change.
— Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) October 5, 2015
It pains me to have to increase some of the MSRP on the products, but it’s the nature of the beast. We can’t lose money on products.
— Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) October 5, 2015
We (@MadCatz) are also doing our best to make sure the feature set/quality is back to high standard & supportive of the community. — Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) October 5, 2015
We’re making a universal change to make sure that all future TE2s are consistent and have higher grade quality, yes. https://t.co/qCgrefXs0A — Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) October 5, 2015
With that said, Mad Catz does have other Street Fighter V (such as the FightStick Alpha and FightPad Pro):
Yes, they’ll be higher priced. We will also have a range of products (not just TE2) for SFV. Please stay tuned. https://t.co/TkiDpwqjQg — Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) October 5, 2015
Mark Julio also mentioned that the Mad Catz Street Fighter V Chun-Li Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2 is going to be a limited release and will most likely be sold out by the time Street Fighter V will be released:
The SFV Chun-Li TE2 is limited in quantity and will most likely sold out prior to SFV’s release next year. https://t.co/Pv6pTDCZL6
— Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) October 5, 2015
These are going to be extremely limited and we expect to pre-sell out. It’ll be on Amazon too! https://t.co/zQEe73r9HK— Mark Julio (マークマン) (@MarkMan23) October 8, 2015
Street Fighter V will be released early next year for two platforms: the PlayStation 4 console and PC. The initial roster will feature a mix of mainstays (Cammy, Chun Li, Ken, M. Bison, Ryu, Vega and Zangief) along with newcomers (like Laura, Necalli and Rashid) plus individuals who haven’t appeared in the series for a long time (such as Birdie, Karin, Nash and R. Mika).