Capcom comment on “failure” of Street Fighter 5 and what they learned from it

To commemorate the 8-year-anniversary of Street Fighter 5’s launch, Capcom made a statement via the official Japanese Street Fighter account on X. The company gives a frank retrospective on the game’s bumpy release, expressing both their regret for past mistakes and gratitude towards players for sticking around.

Capcom released Street Fighter 5 back in February 2016. Despite being heavily anticipated, the game was met with rather mixed reviews, as its polished gameplay and graphics were not enough to compensate for frequent technical issues and what many deemed a lack of content. Street Fighter 5 failed to meet its initial sales targets, and the title’s producer Yoshinori Ono even admitted that it was not a finished product at launch.

However, the developers responded to users’ needs by gradually improving the quality of Steet Fighter 5 through subsequent fixes and new content updates, successfully dealing with most of the issues that caused the initial disappointment. Now, 8 years later, Capcom gives a refreshingly honest take on the whole ordeal, expressing regret for the initial problematic state of the game.

ストVが発売から8周年を迎えました🙌

リリース序盤〜中盤にかけてネットワークの問題やコンテンツ不足など…多くのみなさまの期待を裏切る内容で本当に申し訳ありませんでした。

多くの反省をし、問題を出来るだけ解決すべく中盤〜終盤、ストV開発チームは全力で取り組みました。… https://t.co/iqDHB7sGL4
— ストリートファイター / STREET FIGHTER (@StreetFighterJA) February 18, 2024

Post translation: Street Fighter celebrates its 8^th anniversary. The initial phases of release betrayed players’ expectations in many ways, including network issues and a lack of content. This is something we are truly sorry for. After much reflection, the Street Fighter 5 development team worked hard to tackle all issues, and the final game had 45 playable characters, as well as the addition of the Battle System, V-Skill, V-Trigger II and V-Shift. Thanks to that, the number of Street Fighter 5 players grew greatly from Season 4 onwards. We still remember the happiness we felt at the time, and even now, hundreds of thousands of players continue to play Street Fighter 5, which makes us very happy! And above all, we were able to utilize everything we learned from the experience and apply it to Street Fighter 6. We can feel the progress we made together with all of you over these past 8 years. Thank you so much!

The company considers Street Fighter 5’s rocky release an important learning experience, mentioning how it shaped Street Fighter 6’s success. Upon its release in 2023, Street Fighter 6 became a record-breaking title for both the series and Capcom.