Street Fighter 6 has been a hotly discussed game ever since its reveal earlier this year. After what has technically been six years since the release of the last mainline Street Fighter game, this sequel aims to be something different from its predecessor. This can be seen with the recent trailer for Street Fighter 6, showing off a new art style, gameplay, and four characters that will be a part of the game. These include veterans Ryu and Chun-Li, as well as new bloods to the franchise Luke and Jamie.
These characters each have their own ways to play, with a variety of fighting styles and martial arts. Chun-Li and Ryu have modified move sets from their original depictions, with Ryu using the "Power of Nothingness" as part of his mechanics. Jamie's fighting style is brand-new to Street Fighter 6, where he utilizes a modified version of Drunken Boxing, complete with bottle, and break dancing is also implemented into his move set. While these characters were officially revealed in the recent trailer, concept art of the game was leaked shortly afterwards that showed the rest of the cast.
This Street Fighter 6's concept art revealed a total of twenty-two different characters, a mix of new and old faces that fans could recognize. This includes redesigns for the original eight from Street Fighter 2 and characters from more recent games like Street Fighter 5. This leaked roster spread across the Internet like wildfire, with some images on Twitter having been removed due to a copyright report, likely at Capcom's behest. The leaks were further acknowledged by a tweet on the Street Fighter 6 account in a rather tongue-in-cheek fashion.
The tweet notes that many fans have seen the images of Street Fighter 6's potential roster, acknowledging this news was shown way earlier than intended. Despite this, the community's positive reactions to the leaked designs were appreciated by the team, and they hope that despite the secret being out at this point, the fans will still look forward to the official reveals later on.
While the tweet didn't directly address the leak, it did touch on its contents and the praise for them. Some fans are theorizing that the leaker was from Capcom itself, and this was a move to drum up more hype and suspense for Street Fighter 6. Others found the statement rather refreshing, as the company acknowledged something was shown earlier than intended and instead of trying to pretend it didn't happen, it spun into something positive.
Street Fighter 6 will launch in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
