So, we just heard that CR7 is not ready on launch. Huh? How can this be? Or is there something more of a legal nature that needs to be changed? What’s interesting for this article is the issue of real life guest characters.

Why is there a delay for CR7’s story mode? The game was printed onto discs and sent to reviewers and influencers a few weeks ago, so it’s very strange that the game isn’t complete.

It’s not the same as the situation where the game asks for an update to fix some bugs or update the balance before starting. Now what I’d like to see is what is in the game before the patch comes in. Considering that CR7 is the biggest and most influential character in the game, it’s just very very strange. It may be that someone wanted a last minute change over costumes, or there’s a sensitive plotline, or something cosmetic like a losing animation… CR7 is ready in versus mode so the story mode not being ready has just piqued my interest to no end.

Tongues are wagging because of course, while putting a celebrity in a fighting game is a great idea, real people bring along real baggage. And CR7 certainly has some controversy. The long and short of it is that there was an event with a model in a hotel in Las Vegas. The controversy is whether it was consensual. Reports are pretty widespread over the Internet if you wish to dig deeper but the two civil cases are closed and technically he’s innocent until he visits the USA and the police decide to bring him in. Of course, even though this all happened in 2009, the stain of the accusation remains and may never wash out.

It is interesting to compare the situation to Mike Tyson, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Spacey and others.  Some people will be forgiven, some will do time in jail and be sorry, become better people. Some will not.

Players will have to decide whether to do the SIUUUU pose or boycott, but frankly, boycotting the whole game because of one character is nonsense. If that was logical then people should boycott sports and Hollywood entirely because of the people involved.

And frankly, there’s a lot of hating going on, from a bunch of trolls who don’t play fighting games.  Players who want to boycott Saudi Arabia should go ahead, but they should also then boycott gas, petrol, and all the associated brands.  It’s becoming a meme at this point and losing any political credibility.

Back to Ronaldo, in the future, SNK may find themselves in a similar situation as Sega, when the actor Pierre Taki was arrested for using cocaine. They stopped sales of Judgement and deleted all related tweets. It was even worse in Yakuza 4, when another cocaine violation caused Sega to recast a character, literally replacing the model in the game, as it used the actor’s likeness.

Meanwhile, SNK was well advertised at Wrestlemania, with the other real life person in City of the Wolves, Salvatore, on the decks. While the inclusion of CR7 is dividing the community, Ganacci is building popularity.

There will always be fans who don’t want collabs or guests and we are seeing this in other games and communities, now the point is that CR7 was included in launch to bring in more players. That’s simply good business sense.  However, SNK couldn’t foresee the skeletons in the closet that such celebrities often hide. While there is no such thing as bad press, so they say, the sales, in the end, will be telling.

Update: City of the Wolves, has hit 1st place in Japan, 8th France, 10th in USA, 7th in Italy, 11th in Finland, 18th in UK, 24th Korea, 37th Germany. It has achieved the global best sellers at position 12! All things considered, I think congratulations are in order! Now where are those boycotters and haters?