Dear Capcom, please release Street Fighter 6 in full

With Street Fighter 6 confirmed, I hope more than anything that the game will have the entire roster of characters available on the disc on day one. The multitudinous iterations of Street Fighter installments is a practice that I want Capcom to end with Street Fighter 6.

Dear Capcom, please release Street Fighter 6 in full

It’s a pretty dead meme at this point. Street Fighter 2. Super Street Fighter 2. Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Revival. That’s not even all of the Street Fighter 2s! There are so many Street Fighter updates and revisions I’ve developed semantic satiation by typing the word “Street” so many times.

This is an unfortunate tradition that Capcom has never truly let go off. Street Fighter V was notoriously bare at its release. The game was the finest Street Fighter had ever been, but with only 16 characters at launch it was hard to justify a purchase.

Given Capcom’s propensity for updated versions, I and many others waited for the updated version of the game. It just didn’t feel complete at launch. In the end, I didn’t play much Street Fighter V at all.

The shift to the “games-as-a-service” model is controversial to be sure, but I think there are situations where it can be beneficial. It just can’t be the base of a game, and it’s especially egregious in a fighting game.

Let’s take a look at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It had all 63 characters from the entire series hitherto and then 11 new ones on the game card, right on launch. DLC packs came later, offering 12 additional characters. You could play your long-time main right away, and were welcome to buy any of the new characters.

Street Fighter V’s case is especially a sore one for me. I couldn’t play Guile when the game launched. Sure, Nash was there but his moves were markedly different than the Guile-like playstyle he had in Alpha 3. My other main, Fei Long, never even made it to V.

Characters aside, Street Fighter V didn’t even have its story mode ready at launch and was plagued with input latency issues. These are all things that you’d expect to be ironed out, and it was clear that Street Fighter V was rushed with the expectation that content would be doled out in DLC installments.

In an interview with Red Bull’s Anne Ellis, Street Fighter head Yoshinori Ono said:

"“In terms of game modes, in the beginning we all know that we didn’t put out a complete product, in a way that is a learning experience,”"

So many times it’s not even the developer’s fault, but the publisher rushing them to get their products out before they’re ready. I hope this won’t be the case for Street Fighter 6, and we have a more robust roster from launch.