How is cinematic story mode an "integral part of the game" when they've never done it before in the entirety of Street Fighter's 30 year, multi-million selling history?
Come on, now.
So now, something can't be an integral part of the game if it hasn't been in the entire series since the beginning? I guess online play isn't an integral part of the game then? Ultras, not integral? 3D polygonal art, not an integral part of the game, eh?
In this case, single player with storyline has been in the game since the first Street Fighter, just not at this level - it has slowly gotten better with each new game. But Capcom *has* been promising that SFV's story sequences would rival the competition's (MKX).
Street Fighter was BUILT on multiplayer.
Street Fighter 1 (Fighting Street on Turbografx) was obviously designed as a single player game first of all, when playing multiplayer there was no character select: one person was only Ryu, the other player only Ken, they both had the same moves (because in the game's main mode, it was just Ryu against all the enemies; thus for two player they just palette-shifted him and gave him a new name). Final Fight was supposed to be the sequel to the game, another game based around single player (but with co-op added). Street Fighter 2 continued the limited multiplayer, not allowing the two players to choose the same character nor being balanced for multiplayer play at all (two things that were changed in Championship Edition).
Don't get me wrong, multiplayer is an important part of the game and series of course, but it's not the only important part of the game, and there are many of us out there who mainly play Street Fighter games for their single player mode. And SFV's big new thing for single player was supposed to be these cool story sequences.