Street Fighter 6 director says Capcom will continue to announce DLC characters early to avoid player frustration
In a Famitsu interview celebrating Street Fighter 6’s first anniversary, director Takayuki Nakayama explained Capcom’s approach to the game’s DLC characters and why the company reveals them as early as possible. The direction was born from lessons Nakayama learned from working on Street Fighter 5 as well as his commitment to reducing player frustration.
Unlike other fighting games that leave the mystery of who will join the playable roster to the last possible moment (this includes Street Fighter 5), Street Fighter 6 has announced and will be announcing the contents of its yearly character passes as soon as possible for the foreseeable future. This is so that players can be better informed before purchasing yearly passes and their content, as was the case with Year 1. Rashid, A.K.I., Ed, and Akuma were all given estimated release dates on top of their associated outfits, colors, and maps.
“Since Street Fighter 5, I’ve felt really bad about players purchasing Character Passes without knowing what they include. There are surely players who’d get disappointed if they bought a Character Pass only to realize it was full of obscure characters. With Street Fighter 6, I set out to eliminate anything that could cause frustration to players. The decision to announce new characters at once was a direct result of this effort.”
While announcing characters in advance takes away some of the surprise and anticipation, Nakayama states that this drives the developers to create unique and informative promotional material as each character nears their release. Showing how character models and movesets fit into Street Fighter 6 are some of the best ways Capcom has generated hype for an upcoming character that has already been announced months prior.
To give a more concrete example, Nakayama draws attention to Akuma’s unveiling at EVO Japan 2024. “…we premiered a trailer for Akuma before the finals. As the crowd went wild, I even heard women cheering and I remember thinking how we’ve finally reached an era where even Akuma receives cheers from women.”
Looking back at his decision, Nakayama is satisfied with Capcom’s current approach. “While things aren’t set in stone yet, I believe we will continue doing things this way in the future,” he comments.
Now that all the Year 1 characters have been released, Street Fighter 6 is now focused on celebrating its first birthday and the developers are most likely hard at work on the next year of content. Players can expect a Year 2 character pass to be announced soon along with more news regarding the future of the game.
