Capcom teases Street Fighter series anniversary ‘surprises’ for this summer

By Brad Jones January 23, 2017

Street Fighter V

Inside or outside of the fighting genre, there aren’t many video game franchises that are quite as universally recognized as Street Fighter. This year, the series celebrates its 30th anniversary, and apparently its developer Capcom has big plans to mark the occasion.

We already know that a new iteration of the series’ most iconic installment is being prepared for the Nintendo Switch, as Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers was officially unveiled earlier this month. However, according to long-serving series producer Yoshinori Ono, this is only the “kick off.”

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While the re-release is a good start, it seems that Capcom has more in the works, to be revealed over the next few months. “Around E3 timing, maybe even San Diego Comic-Con, we have one or two surprises we hope our fans will look forward to,” said Ono in a recent interview with IGN.

Street Fighter V is already scheduled to receive a slate of new content over the course of 2017. The game’s second season got underway when Akuma was added to the game alongside a major patch in December 2016, and is set to continue over the coming months with the release of five additional characters.

Furthermore, the Street Fighter franchise seems poised to be well represented in the year’s most anticipated fighting game: Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. The reveal trailer that aired at PlayStation Experience 2016 saw Ryu team up with Mega Man, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see at least one more Street Fighter character fill a spot on the game’s roster.

Beyond the Ultra Street Fighter II re-release, new content for Street Fighter V, and series stalwarts representing Capcom elsewhere, it’s difficult to predict what else the company could have planned for the series’ anniversary. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long to find out what’s in store — E3 2017 runs from June 13 to 15, while this year’s San Diego Comic-Con gets underway on July 20.

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EVO Lounge live show to include reveals from Capcom and more

evo lounge live show announced capcom multiversus snk

The EVO Lounge live show on August 5-6 will feature new reveals from top fighting game developers and publishers such as Arc System Works, WB Games, and Capcom.

EVO is the largest fighting game tournament of the year, hosting thousands of participants fighting it out against one another for the top prize. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the event and the first live event since Sony purchased the company in 2021. This year will feature top players competing in games such as Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, and more.

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Street Fighter 6 director reveals World Tour mode’s true purpose

A player stands in Metro City's Times Square equivalent in Street Fighter 6 World Tour.

While Street Fighter 6’s traditional Fighting Ground experience made a solid first impression at Summer Game Fest, its significantly more ambitious World Tour mode is still shrouded in mystery. We briefly got a look at this ambitious mode during the game's State of Play trailer. We see what appears to be a player-created character explore Metro City and other locations from a third-person perspective, breaking boxes and getting into fights with the people he meets.
In the press release for Street Fighter 6, Capcom describes World Tour mode as a "single-player immersive story mode that pushes the boundaries of what a fighting game is and allows players to leave their own legacy with their player avatar." While Capcom isn't revealing more about the mode's moment-to-moment gameplay just yet, I spoke with Game Director Takayuki Nakayama at Summer Game Fest Play Days and learned how World Tour is emblematic of Capcom's goal to make Street Fighter 6 the premier entry point to the fighting game genre.
Street Fighter 6 - Announce Trailer
Finding World Tour's Purpose
In World Tour, players will explore Metro City and other iconic Street Fighter locales with a player-created avatar. Nakayama hopes this experience will strengthen Street Fighter 6's appeal to those who aren't already diehard fans of the series or genre.
"World Tour is a completely different mode that delivers a completely different experience than the traditional fighting," he said. "Even if someone's not a hardcore fan of fighting games, we wanted to incorporate things to make people become fans of Street Fighter outside of the traditional fights."
World Tour certainly looks unlike anything the Street Fighter series has done before. Still, Nakayama hopes that World Tour players will learn more about the world and characters of Street Fighter along the way and fall in love with fighting games as a whole."We want players to dive into this mode and be able to learn how to love fighting games through the things that you do during the journey of World Tour," Nakayama proclaimed. "There will also be opportunities to meet some of the fans' favorite characters, like Ryu and Chun-Li, through World Tour. We want to provide an experience where players can learn more about those characters' backstories and discover what kind of people they are within Street Fighter 6."

World Tour is one of Street Fighter 6's three main pillars, the others being the standard Fighting Ground mode and the multiplayer-focused Battle Hub. He commented how it's always hard to tell how much is enough to put in a game for fans, especially following Street Fighter V's rocky reception at launch due to a lack of content. However, he hopes World Tour provides enough to negate that criticism.
"We were definitely aware of some of the criticism that we faced with Street Fighter 5, and we want to continue to learn from those criticisms and make Street Fighter 6 a better product," he explained. "It's challenging to decide how much is enough for the users, but we continue to work very hard on it and strive to create something that will get appreciation from players."
Still, World Tour seems like it could occupy players for a long time while introducing them to the concept of fighting games and the world of Street Fighter. That's not too shabby of an addition when Street Fighter 6's core fighting game mechanics are already fantastic. And Capcom's goal to make Street Fighter 6 one of the most approachable fighting games ever can be seen outside of World Tour mode.
Everyone is here to fight
During our discussion, Nakayama constantly reiterated that he wants Street Fighter to be something that can entertain and entice those who've never played a fighting game before. Part of the developer's method for making Street Fighter 6 more approachable and accessible is the addition of the Modern Control Type, which allows players to execute flash combos with simple button presses.

Gaming

Resident Evil Village DLC, Exoprimal, and more headline Capcom Showcase

Ethan Winter's daughter Rosemary sits sadly on a bus in Resident Evil Village Shadow of Rose.

Following livestreams from Sony, Microsoft, and Geoff Keighley, Capcom decided to get in on the video game showcase fun. During its June 13 showcase, Capcom revealed the Shadows of Rose DLC for Resident Evil Village and provided some new looks at its other upcoming games like Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak and Exoprimal.
Capcom Showcase | 6.13.2022
The biggest announcement of the show by far was Resident Evil Village's long-awaited DLC. It stars Ethan Winter's daughter Rosemary, plays out from a third-person perspective, and is fittingly titled Shadows of Rose. It will be released on October 28 alongside the multiplayer Resident Evil Re:Verse and an update for Resident Evil Village that adds new content to Mercenaries mode and a third-person mode to Village's main campaign.
While that was the biggest reveal from the show, we also got a look at plenty of other Capcom games. The showcase started by giving us another look at Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak and revealing a demo for the expansion that launches on June 14. Capcom then reminded players of the release windows for Street Fighter 6, Capcom Fighting Collection, and Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium but didn't reveal much in the way of new info for them. After that, Exoprimal got a brand-new trailer featuring its evil AI, Leviathan. Capcom showed how Exoprimal's PvPvDinosaur matches play out and the Exosuit classes players can choose from, then teased that a Closed Network Test will be held prior to the game's launch.
We also learned that a 10th anniversary Dragon's Dogma stream will be held on June 16 before getting another look at Resident Evil 4's remake. Capcom showed an extended version of the State of Play trailer before showing some new gameplay featuring improved visuals. It looks much more in line with Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3's graphics. The show concluded by revealing that PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of those remakes and Resident Evil VII launch today, June 13.
It was an underwhelming showcase overall, but painted an extremely clear picture of what we can expect from this lauded Japanese publisher over the next year.