The failure of Street Fighter V's launch and the mediation Capcom is using for Street Fighter 6.

The bizarre launch of Street Fighter V and how Capcom is trying to correct their mistakes with Street Fighter 6.

Street Fighter V's cover art.

Street Fighter V at launch:

For those who even somewhat follow video games, or who regularly play video games and are invested in the culture, it is no secret that Street Fighter V had a disastrous launch for a new game release in 2016. After Street Fighter IV's success in 2008 with it's console release, and the multitude of paid updates like Super Street Fighter IV (2010) and Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014), Street Fighter IV by the end of it's life span was considered a great game for both casual players and fighting game enthusiasts (like myself) which is still regarded as a very skill oriented game which is expected from the lineage of Street Fighter games. Unfortunately, Street Fighter V became the premier example of how not to release a fighting game, as having 16 characters at launch is considered below the minimum of characters expected from a base roster (outside paid DLC season and extra characters in a game's future). I argue that 16 characters is enough for a new fighting game because of how fighting games work in terms of match-up workload (the strategy of how one specific character fights another specific character) and typically fighting game players have "a main" or a singular character they focus on to learn the experience of the new game whether it may be the fighting game mechanics that are introduced with this new title or to unlock stuff like extra colors or player titles for the online mode. But it was apparent that Street Fighter V at launch was an extremely bare-bones experience, having no arcade mode (which was a more casual player's deterrent), and no overall single-player content which left casual player, punished for spending $60 for the newest entry of the most famous fighting game franchise in video game history. Casual players are the majority of people buying the game, who usually just to play for a week or two with their friends and move on and drop it, moving on to another game to play either solo or with friends, which is a pretty typical cycle for most people who regularly buy and play video games in general. They didn't have anything substantial or any reason to keep playing as there only was the main fighting mode to play either locally or online and all the content can be exhausted in just under 6 hours of play time, which is considerably low for any video game. A perfect example of why I didn't recommend this game to my friends and family at the time was due to the lack of content, even though I have a very welcoming mindset when it comes to fighting games. More and more people should get into the genre, but it isn't enticing when the game releases and there are absolutely no supplementary modes and content.

Immediate post-launch response & content for Street Fighter V

So even with Capcom catering this new game for the more competitive players, those who are invested in fighting games specifically and who grind out and learn the game to have skills to use on in-person tournaments, the game still had many detractors as the majority of fighting game players thought that the fighting systems were "dumbed-down" for new players because the one frame links were gone from Street Fighter IV and the intricate combos were easier to pull off execution-wise. Nevertheless, the real downfall of the game was with Capcom not doing anything to "fix" the launch. The post-launch plan stayed the same, even with the idiotic decision of having the cinematic story mode (a mode that has become expected for fighting games, mainly for casual players, due to the success of Mortal Kombat (2011)'s mode offerings) release months later. Capcom couldn't catch a break with Street Fighter V, with Capcom only adding characters without any new modes or single-player offerings was like putting a bandage on an open wound, and the many odd occurrences with the game. Perhaps the pinnacle of odd occurrences was when Capcom released an update for the PC version, to try to combat online cheating, which installed a rootkit on the user's computer, making the game unplayable for people with efficient antivirus programs (with some programs outright deleting the entire game because of it being 'the source of the virus'), making the user perform workarounds and Capcom having to release a new update, an apology, and instructions on how to uninstall the dreaded "capcom.sys" program.

As the years passed on, they did update the game similar to Street Fighter IV with a new "arcade edition" revision, which did add everything people were asking for like an arcade mode and such, but for a lot of people, it was still "too little, too late." Capcom still damaged the reputation of their brand by releasing the game in a sub-par state which had a lot of people, including me, weary of anything Capcom did with the Street Fighter IP.

The outlook on Street Fighter 6

The leads of the new Street Fighter 6, Luke and Jaime.

Now with the release of the closed-invite-only player test (colloquially known as a "closed beta"), Street Fighter 6 seems to be promising more than what Street Fighter V could've hoped for. Capcom was tested before in repairing their identity in the fighting game scene with Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite (2017) which was a whole other disaster (arguably worse than Street Fighter V), but with the announcement of Street Fighter 6 earlier this year, many were extremely skeptical with how the game will turn out. However, with the summer, we got more information beyond a teaser trailer and found out more about the fighting mechanics and what people can expect with this new iteration of Street Fighter. The amount of polish and detail far surpasses Street Fighter V and with the coming days giving us new information on the game, most of the worries people had with Capcom and their fighting game division are slowly going away for the better. However, I can't help but still be skeptical, or I assume it's just me having a more critical mindset. Like how every new game gets announced, then months pass by, and we are met with the release date, I usually judge if I'll buy a game day one or not if it fits my interests or not. But because I consider fighting games my main interest, I am more critical of an experience I can get hours of entertainment and practice of learning how to play a new game, but also whether or not I can recommend the game to friends or family who play fighting games in a more casual sense.

With Street Fighter 6 being on a completely new engine, with no previous assets being used, this gives us many benefits for fighting game enthusiasts like myself, like a revamped online netcode, enhanced practice tools, and quality-of-life improvements to the general versus system outside of fighting. The most important aspect of changes, Capcom is doing to introduce their new single-player mode, titled "World Tour". The title seems to be a throwback to the console versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 where we got a mode of the same name that consisted of battles with various parameters like shortened player health, combo trails, etc. Instead, Street Fighter 6 introduces an avatar creator, a first in the series where players can create their own Street Fighter to roam Metro City (a fictitious city introduced in 1989's Final Fight, considered a sister-series to Street Fighter) and seek challenges from rivals and learn movesets from legendary Street Fighter characters like Ryu and Chun-Li.

Overall, Capcom is trying to rectify their past mistakes by recreating their image from the ground up, similar to how Street Fighter 6's development is turning out. Hopefully this momentum with online coverage doesn't slow down. Perhaps the beta will give us a better idea of how the game will feel to play.