Capcom has confirmed that its Championship Mode update for Street Fighter IV will be released next Friday for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

The best thing about it is that it's completely free. Because the best things in life are... well... you don't pay for them, do you?

So, what's it all about? Capcom tells us, "Championship Mode offers you the chance to compete in five different grades of tournaments, creating the right challenge for players of every skill level. You’ll score Grade Points (GP) for tournament wins, and as your GP total grows, you’ll become eligible to enter into more exclusive tournaments.

"Winning tournaments will also net you Championship Points (CP). CPs are like 'prize money' up for grabs in the tournament. The higher the GP skill of the players in a particular tournament, the bigger the CP prize!"

In addition to all that, it comes with a Replay Mode that enables you to select and watch the best matches.

There are a couple of console-exclusive features to Replay Mode. PS3 players will be able to rate matches they watch in accordance with characteristics like “awesome” or “funny.”

360 users, meanwhile, will be able to download and save their top replays in order to paw over them and study technique. Enhancing that will be the ability to view input commands from both players so you can study their button presses and analogue stick motions in fine detail.

You can probably extrapolate from that some information about how Capcom sees the users of each system. Whatever lights your ring...

You can find out more about SFIV on SPOnG's dedicated game page.