- A History of Doubt
- When Does Street Fighter 6 Come Out?
Much has been made of the Street Fighter franchise. With SF4 and moving to a 2.5D platform, Capcom had established that the fighter could continue to hang just as well with North American audiences as it did with Japanese ones.
And that was despite the revolutionary reboot of Mortal Kombat and Tekken announcing another entry into their series both on the horizon.
Now, we are seeing another point of contact with Capcom wherein they promise yet another return to the roots of this franchise; putting the street back in Street Fighter.
But after the 5th game, has fatigue set in? Is Capcom trying to be too adventurous with one of their best-performing franchises? Is it going to come back to bite them?
Most of all, when does Street Fighter 6 come out? Read on!
SF6: A History of Doubt
With the aftermath of the 5th title in the franchise and almost no esports presence in over a decade, Capcom must have realized that they needed to bring something fresh to the table to satisfy both the gaming media and the fans that have kept the series alive.
But when the first teaser dropped over 9 months ago, we saw a definitive departure from the usual formula of “Ryu saves the world from total destruction with several characters helping him along the way”.
This was followed by a bevy of questions; despite Ryu being shown off very clearly older in the teaser, fans wanted to know exactly what role he was playing. Was there going to be a new protagonist as shown in the teaser?
Among these burning questions, Capcom dropped their answer with a bang. The announcement trailer for Street Fighter 6 was relief, joy, excitement and anticipation all at the same time for every fighting game fan.
This was the vindication that Capcom was looking for. If the teaser was filled with questions, the announcement had that much more optimism tied to it. This was how to refresh a franchise threatening to grow mold.
Disputes over the game continued, with several fragments of the fanbase not gelling with the promise of hub-world and the arcade-ification of their beloved franchise.
In retrospect, since the franchise was born out of the arcade, it feels like a nice homage to go back to that in an era where homages are fan service and experimentation is frowned upon.
So far, as I write this, we have seen the Beta Test and several character reveal trailers for the game.
And if the direction that Capcom is taking is actually faithful to the beta test and the trailers, I’m sold. As is a majority of the fanbase, I suppose.
Regardless, we will be here covering the rest of it as it happens. We wait with as much bated breath as the next fan of the series.
When Does Street Fighter 6 Release?
As per the Street Fighter 6 WIkipedia page, and several SF6 leaks before, Street Fighter 6 release date is pinned to June 2, 2023.
And if the hype trailers have anything to do with anything, it will probably be one of the best fighting games, this side of the 9th generation of consoles.
Several new characters are returning, new ones are being introduced. A new plot thread, written with a completely fresh character is being spun. There has been no greater time other than the 2D era to be a Street Fighter fan.
For more gaming news and reveals on Street Fighter 6, check out our character overviews of Ryu and Chun Li here!