Street Fighter 6 is releasing next year. The game is looking to be a big departure from previous entries like SF4 and 5 in terms of style and themes, with the game having a more grounded and urban feel, emphasizing the "street" portion of Street Fighter. This is evident in Street Fighter 6's hip-hop culture and themes, which harken back to Street Fighter 3's usage of in its soundtrack.
Street Fighter 6 is also looking to be one of the most ambitious entries in the series, giving fans plenty of things to do. Implementation of highly requested mechanics and functions, such as crossplay and rollback netcode, are highly anticipated as well. The hype for this upcoming game might not have been possible without learning from the mistakes from the previous entry, Street Fighter 5, which was reflected on by the developers.
In an interview with The Guardian, the developers spoke on what they learned from the mistakes of Street Fighter 5, with director Takayuki Nakayama stating that Street Fighter 6 needs to have a satisfying amount of content at launch. Many fans know that SF5 was completely barebones on release, with no single-player content and only multiplayer modes. Nakayama hopes to alleviate these concerns through the game's World Tour Mode, where players get to learn the world and controls of the game before jumping into multiplayer.
According to producer Shuhei Matsumoto, one other lesson learned from Street Fighter 5 was the communication with its fans. He states that the messaging between developers and its fans should be clear and concise, so that players know what to expect and what they are looking to achieve. Fans felt that the communication during Street Fighter 5's early release was quite poor, and had only improved when Nakayama and Matsumoto took over during the game's final years.
As such, the duo hopes Street Fighter 6 can appeal to both sides of the fanbase with the content provided inside. Matsumoto reiterates that the World Tour mode of Street Fighter 6 is a story-driven experience for casual and first-timers, with plenty of depth and nuance available in the multiplayer for the competitive members of the FGC. This is best emphasized with Matsumoto's desire to "make Street Fighter a game that everyone can play, like it used to be."
Street Fighter 6 is currently scheduled to release in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: The Guardian
