After a few days of playing, I finally racked up 1000 Battle Points in Street Fighter IV! A pretty small achievement, sure, but it's easier to get things like this early on in a game's life, when a lot of people are playing. When other games come along later, it will be harder to find players with decent connections because a lot of people will have moved on to other games that come out.
Will Street Fighter IV have lasting power on Xbox Live? I really hope so. With Virtua Fighter 5 the player base thinned out after about three months, and the player base already wasn't that great to begin with. I hope players don't give up on it so easily. The game really is more accessible, compared to most other fighting games on current generation systems. Capcom has to step up their community features (like introducing things like clans or other web-based player stat tracking systems) if they want the game to continue enjoying a large player base. They also have to teach players how to play the game effectively, maybe create videos online of how to execute combos properly or what tactics are effective when playing against other players. A lot of players are probably just discovering the game and they're likely intimidated by players who have a much higher skill level. The important thing is to keep them interested and to not get them discouraged to keep on playing the game.