I agree to an extent. Fighting games are about competing with living people, and that's naturally in the game. The VS mode is there, the online is there. (And for SC5 the online is pretty good.) So it's fulfilled that criteria; but it's missing so much more to draw in more people to participate in that.
Like it or not, there are those of us who care about story, about characters, and about variety in games. You gotta give people like us reasons to keep coming back and playing, and lemme tell ya; the single-player content in this game, doesn't cut it.
If you want to draw people in to get them into the competitive scene, you gotta get them interested in the game as a whole, to do that you have to offer more than a weak story-mode with wooden dialogue where only 5% of the characters on the roster matter.
Take SC3 for example: Casual fans loved SC3 because it was bursting with content: CAC for the first-time, the best in the entire series mind you, with dozens of unique styles for your own character. A mode centered all around the character you create. Story-mode held unique challenges such as the colossus match that kept the game fresh.
Or even SC2 with it's Weapon Master Mode which drew people in with the very unique matches it offered.
If you're expecting to lure new blood into fighting games you have to give them an inciting single-player experience before expecting them to dive into the meta-game for the multiplayer experience. You need great gameplay mixed with lot's of extra things to do. And frankly, Soulcalibur 5 fails on both aspects.
